BS: My tits have multiplied!

Subject: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 18 May 09 - 05:58 AM

I am pleased to announce the arrival of at least 3 more great tits.

This morning, whilst gazing out of the kitchen window, waiting for the kettle to boil, I spotted ma and pa Great Tit showing 3 of their offspring the great outdoors. They were happily hopping about the garden picking up insects and seeds - if only they had the courage to come closer to the house where the roses are laden down with greenfly already.

I had wondered why there hadn't been so much activity in the garden recently, now I know. They seem to like the fat pecker but were happiest with insects. They're so fresh and clean, like a newly minted penny, but green and feathery.

A sure sign that summer is with us... that and the rain is getting warmer.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: maeve
Date: 18 May 09 - 06:57 AM

Congratulations on your new arrivals, Liz.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 18 May 09 - 07:07 AM

Nice to know that your tits have increased and are hopping Liz.

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 18 May 09 - 09:19 AM

I know Robins can be tamed to feed from a hand - how about Great Tits, I wonder..?

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 18 May 09 - 10:01 AM

I doubt it, they're fighting with the blue tits for custody of the fat pecker... and they fight dirty!

Whilst gazing out into the garden again whilst waiting for the kettle (I have suddenly started drinking an awful lot more herbal tea... wonder why? And no... not for that reason!), I realised that for a small urban garden I have a large variety of bird species - at that point there were 6 different birds all feeding or breeding in my garden of 21' by 30'.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: Bert
Date: 18 May 09 - 10:11 AM

...at that point there were 6 different birds all feeding or breeding in my garden of 21' by 30'...

That's great. Do you still live in Forest Gate? If so, how far away are you from Wanstead Flats?

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: Will Fly
Date: 18 May 09 - 02:01 PM

Liz - what part of the country are you in (broadly)? Sounds great.

Green and feathery tits are OK with me, by the way... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: My guru always said
Date: 18 May 09 - 05:25 PM

Well done for your new arrivals Liz! Our newest Great Tits are still in the box. I know coz we've got a camera in there and we've been watching avidly from egg to nearly fledged. Won't be long before they're out and about. We've several other boxes with Blue Tits nearly fledged too. There's a cacophany (spelling?).... a lot of skwawking (spelling?) going on out there, isn't life fun!

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 18 May 09 - 05:30 PM

I'm in east London, down a bit from the aforementioned Forest Gate, not quite so close to Wanstead Flats as that.. in fact, I'm a lot closer to the Great Northern Outfall Sewer (or 'Greenway' as they call it now) than I am to Wanstead Flats.

That's what makes it all the more remarkable - although logically, if the birds only have gardens to breed in, it is more likely that the human inhabitants will see them more often, than if they lived in the corner of a field in rural Dorset.

But I do miss the house martins we used to get every year when I was a child...

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 18 May 09 - 05:44 PM

Thanks, Liz. I always enjoy hearing about your tits!

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: Gurney
Date: 19 May 09 - 02:16 AM

Great tits, fat peckers..... Liz, there are places you could get arrested for this kind of talk.....

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 19 May 09 - 02:29 AM

Thank goodness this aint one of em, Gurn

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 19 May 09 - 03:53 AM

Tits are banned in Sidmouth. Peckers too.

We have *very* strict rules down here.

:0)

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: GUEST,Rob the Roadie
Date: 19 May 09 - 06:07 AM

I can never decide if i like them best as small cute ones or big fully formed ones.????
But hey the more the merrier.

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: David C. Carter
Date: 19 May 09 - 07:44 AM

Wanstead Flats: Is that a place, or a description of the ladies who live there?

I think we must be told!

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: GUEST,LTS pretending to work
Date: 19 May 09 - 08:40 AM

It's definately a place - if you saw the inhabitants they are anything but flat!

It's a corner of what was originally Epping Forest, when it still stretched as far west as the River Leigh, when West Ham was a little hamlet with a Norman church and Hornchurch the epicentre of the cattle market. These last remnants has playing fields, rough scrubby pastures, copses and a couple of ponds. There may still be a herd of cows on it, but I haven't seen them for a while.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 19 May 09 - 08:56 AM

Gurney... Lizs' tits are famous... known the world over and occasionally we get a bulletin of how they are progressing. That they are multiplying is stupendous... that they are hopping now is even more incredible....... I for one enjoy keeping abreast of them. Her tits have my full support. Also the fat peckers... or fat balls as they are often called are welcomed by many a tit.

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 19 May 09 - 01:43 PM

This is definately a pecker - it's not a ball and it's kept in a cage. The tits sit on the cage and peck through. It's fun to watch them.

The blue tit is looking decidedly bedraggled, the bigger ones see it as competition for food and keep chasing it round the garden.

That's fun to watch too. If anyone wants to come over this weekend and watch my tits, they're more than welcome... Manitas is away so there will be spare beer.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: GUEST,Rob the Roadie
Date: 20 May 09 - 06:34 AM

With an invitation like that you may get a bigger response than expected!!!
We may have to queue to watch them.

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: Rowan
Date: 20 May 09 - 10:50 PM

I'm glad the pecker is caged, Liz, for your tits' sake.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 25 May 09 - 02:21 AM

Well, I'm disappointed... No-one has come to watch my tits. They're so beautiful and will soon be gone into the wild blue yonder (or grey younder - this is London). I found their nest yesterday, hidden in the bay tree. Bit raggedy this year, not the neat little cup it was when they nested in the butterflys bush... but then this one is less visible to the magpies so I suspect they were a bit more relaxed about it. At least it's up a tree the cats don't climb. They prefer the more open Bastard Service Tree.

Ah well, I've had fun watching the antics of my baby tits... Guess I can drink all this beer myself!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: Phot
Date: 25 May 09 - 03:02 AM

How is Raven doing liz? His brother Apollo, spent all of yesterday in the garden, alternatly sunning himself, and finding shade, because he was too hot. Then at six this morning woke us up, complaning that his breakfast was late!

Wassail!! Chris

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: My guru always said
Date: 25 May 09 - 04:05 AM

Our relatives of your tits fledged yesterday Liz, both Great and Blue. We have loads of footage of the Great Tits in the box, but we did lose one of the younger ones. It had fallen badly and it was barely alive with blood in it's beak when I checked it. Survival of the fittest *sniff*

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 25 May 09 - 04:12 AM

Raven is well and did more or less the same thing yesterday, but in the michelmas daisies of all places. He's become very affectionate since we lost Shadow in April, either that or he's worried I'll go away again...

He's been very good this year and not nibbled a single tit (leastways, I've not found any stray body parts in the house). He does have a disconcerting habit of sucking at the bow on my nightie... I don't mind the slight dampness but I do object when he gets his claws into my other tits.

It's a little overcast today so I doubt he'll be out in the daisies... he's taken to sitting in the front window and chittering at the pigeons, magpies and crows across the street. I dread the day he works out how to get to the front of the house and takes on one of those corvidae

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 25 May 09 - 07:51 AM

>>>>>>>>>found their nest yesterday, hidden in the bay tree. Bit raggedy this year, not the neat little cup it was<<<<<<<<<

Not all tits are found in neat little cups of course... there are many in raggedy cups I believe. Always good to find them in neat little cups though I have to say!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: Don Firth
Date: 25 May 09 - 04:59 PM

Ye gods, Liz, where is it all going to end!??

An embarrassment of riches!

Somehow this thread reminds me of the late stand-up comedienne Totie Fields, who once commented that she wouldn't let her kids watch football. The problem was linebacker and Heisman Trophy nominee Dick Butkus.

"I don't want my kids using that kind of language," she said.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 25 May 09 - 05:51 PM

I spent a couple of hours in the garden this afternoon (it cleared up and was amazing for the whole afternoon), burnt my nose and watched the tits just stocking up and, if the noise from the bushes was any indicator, preparing for another brood in a couple of weeks' time.

The war between the Blues and the Greats has been stepped up a notch. There are 2 males Greats, who regularly challenge each other but when the Blues arrive to feed, both Greats gang up on them!

An added bonus, the green linnet (greenfinch) brought his family out to play in the holly tree next door. There must have been a new hatch of lacewings or something because it was a positive feeding frenzy!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: Tig
Date: 25 May 09 - 05:59 PM

There seems to have been a great deal of population explosion around here.

In the last couple of days Mr & Mrs Magpie, Startling, Black Cap, Blue Tit and Robin have all had their families out and about. I do hope there were actually 2 magpie families - 9 maggies were in the tree at once! Mr & Mrs Blackbird are still being very busy transporting food but I haven't seen their young ones yet as are a lot of the Sparrows

Subject: RE: BS: My tits have multiplied!
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 25 May 09 - 06:34 PM

Remember the time when I lived in a flat which was the whole top floor of a tudor style house in Nottingham and the bushes at the front of the house housed a lady blackbird and eventually her family. Whilst she was sitting on the nest, my girlfriend and I lowered bread, soaked in milk, on a piece of string for her to eat, which she readily accepted. She was so proud as she shouted us when her young were ready to fly...... we watched them leave the nest at her very loud request.