Long Tailed Tit

Well today was a total contrast to yesterday, being sunny, bright and generally gorgeous. At lunch I stepped out into the back garden and there were all sorts of different birds around - starlings, chaffinches, sparrows, magpies and more, but this long-tailed tit caught my eye in the large silver birch next to our house, and I managed to get a couple of snaps of him.

This is a crop of a hand-held snap take at 300mm zoom, stepped down as far as I dared. Not the clearest shot I've ever taken, but not bad given the circumstances. In any case he cheered me up - definitely gave me a preview of spring, so he deserves todays Blip spot!