Gloster Penduline Tits!

Having found a female Penduline Tit a couple of autumns previously I was in no real rush to travel across the country to see another. The bird our crew had found though, was a rather dowdy young bird, probably female, so if a male turned up it may tempt me out to see another in the UK.

Generally as a winter visitor to the UK most records relate to bird arriving in singles or small groups in the SE of the country, so it was a shock to find that not one, but 2 male had found themselves flicking about the bullrushes on a flood storage area just outside Gloster! What more can you ask for?

So early on a freezing January day (and I do really mean freezing!), I journeyed down with Rob to check out these stunning visitors. A large crowd had accumulated even before dawn, but due to the birds habit of flying off not too long after dawn, it was no surprise.

A while was spent staring into a seemingly empty patch of bullrushes which the birds frequented until the fingers were feeling numb and then a familiar call started to sound from within the rushes. 'Almost' Reed Bunting like, however not quite, and upon my attention being drawn, soon our targets were sighted and flicking about low down in the dense vegetation.

The sun had still yet to rise, but as it did, the birds became more visible, spending more time moving up the stems. With some patience, and the temperature rising slightly, excellent views were had of these two stunning birds. After 2 hours though, our fingers were about to drop off, and so we decided to head off.