Wet woodland wait

I am standing on soft ground, a few metres back from a shallow drain that feeds into the main river just beyond this piece of wet woodland. Somewhere in the tangle of dead stems that surround the root plate of a fallen Alder ahead of me is a Water Rail. The bird had been feeding in the open but ran for cover at my approach, underlining its secretive nature. Although I am hidden somewhat by an old Alder it also limits my view and the bird could already have moved away without me noticing.

I play this waiting game often, watching patiently in the hope that some bird or animal will re-emerge. At other times I select a likely spot with a good view and just wait to see what comes along. Not everyone has the patience to sit or stand still, often for the best part of an hour, but it is something that I have always done. I find that I am not so much waiting but gradually tuning myself into what is going on around me. I am getting a sense of the place and, in some way, becoming part of it. Take today, for example; my ears gradually start to pick up gentle rustlings around me, the sounds of small mammals and birds working through the vegetation in search of food. I pick out the soft calls of a tit flock as it moves through the wood towards me, the shrill notes of a Treecreeper and the distant ‘chack’ of Jackdaws over the town.

There is a sudden ‘pichou’, the call of a Marsh Tit, and soon I have a pair of these delightful little birds working their way down through the canopy to my left. Lower and lower they descend until they reach the gurgling shallows of the drain, where they drink in turn perched on an old reed stem. Wet woodland is a good place to find these birds which, because of their hole-nesting habits, require secondary cavities in standing dead wood.

A larger creature is moving through the reeds and dead grass, most likely a Muntjac since these woods are full of them. The river is no obstacle for them and on occasion one may be seen swimming from one bank to the other. My attention returns to the spot where the Water Rail disappeared but there is no sign of the bird. I am a little pushed for time this morning and am forced to return to the path. My departure prompts a flurry of brown wings as the Water Rail appears, rushing away before taking flight and disappearing deeper into the wood. Today, it seems, my waiting was not long enough.

Pleasant addition to the garden

As a licensed bird ringer, I operate a net in my garden fairly regularly to catch and ring birds that happen to be visiting the feeding stations. For the most part these are familiar species, like Blue Tit, Blackbird and Greenfinch, and the information that I collect not only helps to determine where these birds go but it also helps researchers at the British Trust for Ornithology to follow changes in annual survival rates over time. Every now and then my routine ringing receives a welcome boost, either from a report that one of the birds ringed in my garden has turned up somewhere else (I have had a Greenfinch go to Guernsey and a Collared Dove go to the Wirral) or because something unusual has ended up in my net. Over the years I have been fortunate in my town-centre garden to have caught Blackcap, Redwing and even a juvenile Reed Warbler. Since it has been a fairly quiet winter bird-wise in the garden, the sight of a Marsh Tit in the net was something of a red-letter day, adding to the list of unexpected visitors.

The Marsh Tit is one of a pair of species that look very similar, so much so that the other partner in the pair, the Willow Tit, was the last British breeding bird to be identified and named. These two small tits share a buff, grey-brown plumage, off-white cheeks and a black cap and bib. There are some subtle differences in these features, notably in the glossiness and size of the cap, the shape of the bib and the colour of the feather edging on the main wing feathers. However, recent work has shown that such features may be unreliable in some cases, leaving the only clear means of separating the two species as their vocalisations and, usefully, the colour of the biting edge of the bill. In Marsh Tit the biting edge of the bill is pale along its length; something that is not seen in Willow Tit. Contrary to its name, the Marsh Tit is often associated with drier woodland habitats, where it nests in cavities excavated by other species (including those excavated by Willow Tit, which it can usurp).

Marsh Tit is the more commonly encountered of the two species within Norfolk (and indeed elsewhere these days) and it seems to be increasing its use of garden feeding stations. However, both species have undergone declines in their breeding populations, a pattern that has caused some concern among conservationists. Changes within woodland habitats are thought to be the underlying cause of the decline and efforts are being undertaken to help these birds recover something of their former status.