A new visitor to our garden!

A new visitor to our garden! 

Today as I was checking emails at home when I heard an unfamiliar tweet out in the garden. I took a careful look over my shoulder to reveal a small grayish white bird with a black head. This is the first time we have observed such a bird in our garden! I knew it could be one of two birds, which are very close to being identical. Both the marsh tit and the willow tit match this description, but thankfully there is an easy way to tell them apart – the noise they make. I did manage to grab the camera and get a few shots, but these flighty little birds are difficult!

The visitor investigates one of our feeders

A little later on Rasmus was out in the garden tending to my bike and this time two of these little balls of black and white feathers returned. They are surprisingly tame and in a very short time, made their presence known among the resident blue tits and great tits. Thankfully they made lots of noise, so I thought it would be easy to differentiate them. The BTO have produced a nice video to assist in identifying the two species (once they make some noise!).  I quickly went to the BTO site and listened to the clips they have on-line. I identified them as marsh tits – which are common in Denmark in broad leaf woodlands (which we have nearby), but I will listen again over the next few days to make sure. Fingers crossed they come back, and bring their friends!

Blue Tit blåmejse– The acrobat!

Later on we were also visited by a beautiful robin, but it was too late in the evening to get a good shot. Instead I will add more photos of blue tits – they are stunning little birds!

Blue tit in the frost, eyeing up the feeders

Seed in mouth, ready to go!

 

 

Nature is on the side lines

Unfortunately at the moment my nature related thoughts have been pushed to the back of my mind and replaced with rugby ones! I’m putting all my energy (literally!) into promoting the newly formed women’s rugby club in Odense (the only one on Funen!). I’m hoping to round up enough interested women, teach them the basics and get playing! It’s no mean feat in a country where no one has really heard of this sport with an oval ball. I’ve spent the last week writing e-mails to newspapers, designing posters (in two languages!), biking to and from various schools, shops, university buildings trying to spread the word – WOMEN’S RUGBY IS HERE!

But despite this, it has been hard to ignore the wonderful bird song that fills my ear as I make these trips. Today was a beautiful sunny day with brilliant clear skies and it was the first day I have heard the newly arrived skylarks singing with all their heats. They sing in flight very high up on clear sunny days. They can usually be heard over open fields (ploughed especially) and high up on the heath/moor. What a wonderful sound to brighten your day! Listen here

Skylark or Sanglærke in Danish (songlark) from RSPB site.