(Major Parus) Hilton

Great Tits - real ones at that and probably in possession of a greater vocabulary too! They were everywhere this afternoon and I wasn’t even reading Nuts magazine or scanning one of those dodgy websites I’ve heard so much about.

It all started when I bumped into a large winter flock of passerines when out walking my dog at the Gowy Meadows CWT reserve this afternoon. I decided to search through the group to see if it contained anything interesting, but I soon discovered bar the odd Blue Tit or Goldfinch it was Great Tits all the way – about fifty in total.

Quite interesting as Stephen Fry might say, but hardly earth-shattering. I continued my walk towards the river Gowy, but I had to turn back when I noticed the cows had been moved to graze the pasture I needed to cross. I decided to drive to the woodland park at Mickle Trafford instead.

When I entered the park I encountered another large winter flock in the birch and willow scrub, and after scanning this gathering I found that it too was dominated by Great Tits – probably seventy of a flock of eighty or so.

It was then that I remembered that the level in my peanut feeder had been dropping quicker than the pants of a certain vacuous hotel heiress recently – a food source favoured by Great Tits.

I wonder if there has been a large influx of Great Tits this autumn. I have had a look on the interweb and cannot find much on the irruptions of this species, just one article alluding to increased breeding success following a good crop of beech nuts.

Has anybody else noticed similar numbers of Great Tits? Drop a comment if you have.

Until later.