I sat for quite a while in the pit in front of the infinity hide. The Nuthatches and Coal Tits were quite a treat, particularly Nuthatches. I had a previous conversation here on the Blog with Jeff about sexing Nuthatches so when several started to arrive it was interesting to try and see if I could see any obvious differences. Armed with some prior knowledge
it was relatively easy to see the difference between males and females.  Look at him closely and you can see that he has quite prominant dark "brick-red" flanks, in a female this colour would not be so intense.  Also the under-tail coverts are edged with the same colour, (you can just about see them here), in the female this is less intense.  This is obvious if you have two birds to compare but one thing that was quite a surprise was the size of the male, noticeably larger and more bulky with much thicker and bulkier, larger beak. In silouette this difference in size was quite noticeable.  To help me, his bird also called in the musical way that male Nuthatches  do.

This appears to be a female based on the above with much less intense markings on the flanks, lighter on the face and a horn coloured lower mandible. Even the face stripe is dark grey in this bird as opposed to black in the male.  However, on reflection, if you have an adult female in good condition without a male to compare it too it is not always easy to say with certainty.

This is a Coal Tit, quite how they were named is not certain to me but probably due to their darker coal like colouring.  They are an attractive, very small tit species, very quick, they always come down to the food and fly off immediately, unlike the other tits who take more time selecting their food. Not sure how to seperate the sexes in Coal Tits but sure that could form part of another post in the coming days.  

The building of the pit and the infinity pool was quite a physical job but it has already started to prove worth it.  The main reason for it's construction was to try and photograph the Buzzards and as you can see from the picture at the top, yesterday I  was nearly successful with one of the residents, oblivious to me, perched on the nearby fence line.  From the "pit" I had a clear view and it's quite a nice photo with the yellow ragwort and brambles in the picture.