BIRDING THE LUNE ESTUARY THE FOREST OF BOWLAND AND BEYOND......................................................MEDITTERANEAN GULLS CONDER POOL PETE WOODRUFF

Monday 8 December 2008

Resurrection

Its a few years ago now that I found a Blue Tit at Clapham in N York's. The bird was on its back and for all intents and purposes was dead. However, on taking a closer look I noticed its legs and tail were twitching. Thinking a little human intervention might help I slid my hand underneath the bird and held it righted and cupped in my hands as an aid to recovery. As I did so it took to flight a short distance before colliding with a wall. At this point I realised it had been - and still was - stunned. As I approached, it again took to flight and collided yet again with the wall. During the time I spent with this bird I had heard no calls from any other bird but at this point another Blue Tit took me by surprise and flew straight at the bird in trouble and I couldn't help but notice it made contact with the one on the ground and in an instant they flew off together.

It could well be claimed that I had merely witnessed a bird which had stunned itself before making a complete recovery. But the question here must be asked, had the second Blue Tit been observing what was going on, in itself I thought this was interesting. But I was intrigued to think this bird had made a planned move to rescue the one on the ground and with speed flew to it at which point I actually saw the two make contact which I found quite remarkable. It must be said I had seen something a little more than a bird having stunned itself and concluded I had witnessed some pretty remarkable behaviour between two Blue Tits.

The only connection between the Blue Tits and the photograph is that they were both at the same place in N Yorkshire......I think the sign is positively brilliant. I'm a dunce when it comes to mathematics, but when it comes to spelling I'm as good as the next, if you're not then you'll wonder what on earth I'm talking about.
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2 comments:

  1. Hi Pete, I saw something similar when I was a kid.A blue tit had been hit by a car and was well in truly dead. A second blue tit flew down to the bird and tried to rouse the bird by making alot of noise and a bit of a display.My theory was that the 2 birds were mates. I have also revived a great tit which had flown in to the spokes on my bike. It took about ten minutes to come to but it flew off strongly. Guy

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  2. Seems to me there are lots of examples of bird behaviour never witnessed by us Guy, yours added to mine seem to bear this out.

    Thanks for taking the interest to contribute again Guy, much appreciated.

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