A family moving through

A roving band of long-tailed tits came through the hedge along the towpath, a dozen or so, calling constantly in that thin, ticking way that gives them away long before you see anything move. This year's young mixed in with the adults, indistinguishable really except for being slightly less sure of themselves on the thinner twigs and occasionally losing the group for a few seconds of visible panic before catching up.

They never stay anywhere long. The whole flock passed through in under two minutes, working the hedge from one end to the other and vanishing into the next one down, and if I hadn't been standing still already I'd have missed the lot. That's more or less how they operate this time of year — family parties fused into bigger, loose flocks, roaming a big enough loop that you might see the same group two or three times a week without ever quite pinning down where they roost.

Nice to have something moving after a fortnight of not much. Always the sign that the post-breeding lull is starting to break up, even if the warblers haven't got the memo yet.