Country diary: Willow tits are here, but good luck with seeing one

Tittesworth Reservoir, Staffordshire: It's easy to see why these wonderful but maddeningly elusive birds have inspired great poetryThe numerous bird feeders here are permanently stocked and flocked around by garden birds. Long-tailed, blue, coal and great tits pop up every second or so; and sparrows come and go with goldfinches, while reed buntings and nuthatches slip in and out among the gaps. But the briefest, most maddening, if most wonderful of all, are the willow tits.I see them usually not as they arrive, but as they leave. They zip in, but intermittently and invariably when you've dropped your guard. Again! All they gift you is a mean, hard, visiting call - the driest avian sound in Britain - an invertebrate Zi zi taah taah, like the small complaint of an angry insect. Continue reading...