Out of Nowhere

We came across these long-tailed tits when we were walking along a footpath that passed through a dense thicket of small trees. Suddenly a party of six – probably all fledglings from the same nest – were all around us, acrobatically searching every leave and twig. And then they were gone, as suddenly as they’d arrived. I’m very taken by these charming little birds, that have begun to visit our garden in winter. Incidentally, in the bottom picture the bird is on an elm twig, identifiable by the leaves and the corky ridges on the bark. Dutch elm disease may have done for mature English elms that once graced hedgerows in the landscape but the young trees don't succumb the disease until they are a few years old – so scrub elm is still a good feeding habitat for many birds.