One Year On

I was checking back and found that I first blipped Tommy the Coal Tit on 13th October last year, so he's now well over a year old.

Over the last year his behaviour has changed with the seasons. Last Autumn he was frantically gathering sunflower seeds, many from our hands, and stashing then away in the ground or the bark of trees for the winter. During the Winter he still came looking for food, but there was much less stashing. Once spring and the breeding season came we saw much less of him and weeks would go by without a sighting. The summer was similar although he was probably about a bit more, but with no evidence of young coal Tits to suggest he had bred . Then in the last few weeks, as the days have started to draw in, he has been at the kitchen window every morning waiting to be fed. Still eating some of the seeds but lots more are getting stashed away.

I was checking to see how long small garden birds live and learned the average is just over a year. Does this mean Tommy is of pensionable age in relative bird years?

Anyway, here he is on top of a pumpkin getting into the mood for Halloween!