I have a nemesis. It never stops moving, never sits still. It is always too high above me to see; a silhouette like a flying teaspoon. I always hear it – I have learnt to distinguish its sharp ‘tsurp’ from all other bird calls – and very rarely see it, but for these fleeting glimpses in the tree canopy. Always outsmarting me, spotting me before I spot it and always waiting until I point my lens at it before it darts away. My nemesis is the long-tailed tit…and I adore this bird.
I spotted my first long-tailed tit a couple of years ago at RSPB Lochwinnoch and since then I’ve only had the briefest of encounters with them when they’ve been moving through parks and gardens where I’ve been walking. Photographing them has proven to be a bit tricky, to say the least as they’re always too high, speeding away in their flocks and I can never guarantee when I’ll see them. So, you can imagine, I was pretty excited when the first birds to arrive when we started to set up in the Argaty woodland hide at the beginning of March were the long-tailed tits. They didn’t stick around long; it was minutes before they were flocking off somewhere else but I managed to capture this image before they did. I hadn’t realised how high I would need to set ISO (this was taken at ISO-1600) to compensate for the shadows and rain so, I’m not going to lie, there were some indistinguishable blurs before I managed to sort out my settings. However, I now have this image to show for it. I think Ross was quite bemused by my excitement as he prepared to leave us for our session in the hide. I could almost hear him thinking “It’s only a long-tailed tit”! He has no idea how long this image had eluded me.
It is typical to see long-tailed tits in flocks of 8-20 individuals. These extended family parties will give themselves away through the characteristic contact calls I mentioned. Due to it being a small bird, long-tailed tits can have high mortality levels during very cold winters so these birds reduce heat loss by roosting packed together.
At this time of year, it may be impossible to tell the young birds apart from the adults as the fledglings undergo a complete moult a few weeks after fledging, which changes them from being mostly dark brown and white to having the same plumage as the adult birds.
I heard a long-tailed tit on my walk across the golf course last night. Creeping quickly towards the tree it was in whilst trying to keep my camera focused on its tiny form wasn’t easy and, sure enough, it moved on before I could get close enough. That’s why it’ll remain my nemesis and that’s why I’ll always love the long-tailed tit.