Soon the Coal Tit of Stithians Reservoir will have reached legendary status.. emulating the fanciful Beast Of Bodmin. People have claimed to have seen this mysterious bird ..but, so far no pictorial evidence has been produced.
Wagers have been made that would make a Bookmakers Odds Compiler weep in his sleep.
Can we now expect a carnival atmosphere at Stithians as the new Coal Tit Cup takes place?
Dress code is thrown to the wind and the only rule is.....There are no rules.
Highlights will be carefully veiled in tactful obscurity as our band of hopefuls pound the roads and footpaths searching hedgerows, treetops, rubbish dumps and the undersides of spectators cars (thanks Ashley) for the elusive Coal Tit.
Who Wins?
17 minutes ago
If you want pictorial evidence check out the cbwps website for Len Hadley's shot of a juvenile outside the Main Hide shortly before mother came down too feed it. This picture used to be on the board in the cut off hide. This indicates that not only are they present but also that they breed on the reserve.
ReplyDeleteI feel one would have shown itself recently on the feeder. Maybe they are victims of the Sparrowhawk!! They are most likely to breed in conifer woods so Stiths is not ideal. I would like to see a recent photograph to confirm they are still active at the reservoir.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you feel one would have shown itself on the feeders? The main diet as everybody knows are insects in bark of trees. Yes, whilst i agree that you get them on your feeders, you also get Goldcrest and Firecrest on your feeders. It is a known fact that Firecrest have visited stiths through my own sightings but as we all know Goldcrest took up residence in very close proximaty to both hides and have NEVER been seen on the feeders so i dont quite see the feeder comment.
ReplyDeleteWith many more people feeding birds with a whole new range of seeds,suets and peanuts the woodland birds are now becoming adapted to garden feeders. Feeding habits are changing and the Coal Tit is in the top bracket of garden visitor more so than its cousin the Marsh Tit and certainly more likely to be seen on a feeder than a MALLARD. Stithians has a host of top lensmen (women) who spend a lot of man hours at the hides yet still fail to photograph the resident Coal Tits...why is this so?
ReplyDeleteI would assume it's because they dont visit this particular area of the reserve. I have seen firecrest at the Northern End but never at the Southern End which amazes me considering the food on offer at the Southern End taking your comment into account. They're are very few Gardens around the reserve, perhaps if the council were to build houses all around the res we may get hundreds of them coming in to everybodies feeders. Incidently - A survey carried out by the BTO placed Coal Tit as the 9th most common visitor to garden feeders but also placed Collared Dove at number 8 and i dont get them either indicating to me that just because a species visits garden feeders it may not visit mine preffering instead to stay in the scrub feeding on insects (not Collared Dove).
ReplyDeleteWell!! what conclusions can we draw from all this.
ReplyDeleteIf..-and I think this is a big if- Coal Tits do visit the Southern End of the Reservoir then they have not yet *urbanized* and adapted to feeders like the town birds.
The stock may have been decimated by predators.
The Coal Tit although a popular bird around conifer woods and town and country gardens is a rarish species at Stithians.
It is a challenge for all photographers to photograph this bird at Stithians.
Maybe a job for the one I call The Bounty Hunter.
Who is the Bounty Hunter, could it be Stiths.
ReplyDeleteJohn
Keep it quite .....Steve R ..he always gets the bird.
ReplyDeleteHe will never get the elusive Coal Tit.
ReplyDeleteJohn.
That depends if he wants to... I think the challenge is now open for all photographers to be the first to confirm the Coal Tits existence.
ReplyDelete