Willow titivation

Willow tit

The Willow tit – the member of the Tit family that thinks it’s a woodpecker.  They prefer to hollow out the stump of an old, well-rotted tree – rather that going down the more conventional route of nesting in existing cavities. The D.I.Y. tit in fact. They are famously difficult to separate from Marsh tits and, in fact, ornithologists didn't realise there were two species until 1897. One difference however is the 'bull-necked' appearnce of the Willow. You don't get to do all that excavating without being a bit beefy in the neck region This year Willow tits successfully nested on the patch.  As it is a Red List species, with just 3,400 UK pairs – this is probably the patch’s star bird. With a view to helping them and hopefully increasing the population, I’ve been carrying out some D.I.Y. of my own.  I’ve been stalking the patch, power-drill in hand, like some crazed, latter-day…person with a drill. The Willow tit nesting box is filled with sawdust – the idea being that this allows the female to ‘go through the motions’ of excavating the box. The success-rate with this kind of box is quite low, so I’m not expecting Big Box Things. Last year I had put up a conventional box, filled with wood chips, 1m from the ground. I was slightly surprised to find it being occupied by Blue tits. Willow tits chose a site  which is relatively low down in order to minimise competion with Blue tits. It’s possible that the Willows removed the wood chips then were ousted by the Blues. This is something that happens frequently, and is a factor in the scarcity of Willow tits. I intend to put up more regular nest boxes – hopefully this will reduce the chance of a Blue tit boot out. Willow tits frequently come into  the garden to use the feeders - something I try not be blase about - this is an uncommon bird after all. After I'd got back from a nestboxing caper, a bird called 'zee-zee-zee'. This is almost certainly Willow-eze for 'thanks, Phil for the time and effort, not to mention the expense, of errecting the boxes, I will certainly take a brief look, and then nest elsewhere.' Finally some nice blog news - this has been selected as BBC Wildlife Magazine's blog of the month and was 'Highly Commended' in the 2015 Blogger Awards.

Recent Patch Sightings 13/12 - Dunnock, Coal tit, Great tit, Song thrush in song 16/12 - Tree sparrow -1 in the garden 15/12 - Woodcock - 3 flushed 18/12 - Velvet shank - fungus 18/12 - several plants in unseasonal flower Willow tit nesting box... ..filled with sawdust This supposed 'Willow tit box' had been used by Blue tits

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