Seymour Birdies Diary: Bearded Tits at Ouse Fen

25th January 2025

My first ever visit to Ouse Fen to try and find the Bearded Tits that have been showing well recently. Luckily I met a local birder in the car park who was able to explain the various trails and, even more important, where he had just seen some Bearded Tits. So armed with all the vital information I set off.

I had only gone about 400 yards along the anti-clockwise route when I spotted a couple of birds in the reeds which were indeed Bearded Tits. I manoeuvred down to the water's edge to get the sun in a better position and just waited for the birds to perform. I have photographed Bearded Tits on several occasions and am used to them shinning up reeds and grabbing two separate stems whilst doing the splits and all those classic poses, but these birds were acting totally different.

You would think they had only just arrived and were starving, because they were behaving in such a way that you could only describe as a feeding frenzy. This had the advantage of producing plenty of action, but also meant that for most of the time they were buried in Phragmites heads with just a tail showing, and to make things worse the adjacent Phrag heads was putting them in shade.

So the usual rule book went out of the window and it was a matter of grabbing what shots you could, many of which in unconventional poses which, in my opinion, turned out to be an advantage. Here is a selction of shots of the female birds.