Williamson's Weekly Nature Notes
IT is marsh tit/willow tit time again. They are both in Sussex woods and have been singing here since Valentine's Day. Until they sing you can hardly tell t'other from which.
In my photograph taken through the kitchen window is a marsh tit; in the painting by Philip Rickman is the willow tit.
Way back in 1900, a Sussex naturalist by the name of W R Butterfield determined to discover whether there was any difference. Excited rumours, you see, had emanated from South Kensington's Natural History Museum that not all marsh tits were marsh tits.
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