Me Feeding A Family Of Great Tits (as some beady eyes look on!)

I had a lovely afternoon feeding a whole family of Great Tits in St James's Park on Friday, during a few days' stay in London. What a wonderful experience it was to have them constantly flying onto my hands to eat the bits of peanuts and hazelnuts I'd broken into tiny pieces for them. The fledglings were a bit nervous to follow their parents onto my hands at first but once one took the plunge all the others swiftly followed suit, lol! Whilst feeding them I was aware of constantly being watched by some jealous resident squirrels! Of course I wouldn't leave them out! :)

They all took in turns to fly onto my hand. Sometimes another would try and fly down too but would be chased away but the one already feeding!

All the while I could feel eyes burning into me from the tree above:

and soon enough he and his friends started to beg:

and if I didn't pay them attention straight away they'd start climbing my legs, lol:

I just love the little tinny squeaky "eee-eee" sounds the babies make. Unbelievably cute and adorable!

Brilliant photos Ella how great is that to have them trust you like that.

Love the Squirrel chilling out laying on the branch waiting to pounce on you for peanuts lol.

Aaaw, what a lovely set of photos and I just love the one of the squirrel looking down from the tree feeling all left out.  That must have been a great experience for you - glad someone was ready with the camera!

HI Ella,

What great photos you have there! You're so lucky to have tits feeding from the palm of your hand! I take it the birds there are very tame? Dont think my garden birds would do that, could give it a try though.

Thanks for sharing :)

Marvelous and wonderful Ella, must have been smashing to have experienced that, thanks for sharing.

Unbelievable pics Ella - I am so envious!

How wonderful Ella. Great set of photos, how lovely to have them eating from your hand and I love the one of the squirrel laying on the branch :))

Lovely shots Ella. I have seen those cheeky St James' park squirrels pop into boutique shopping bags before now. They will also clamber onto pushchairs as well.

It's unbelievable how tame they are!

I'd have love to have had Great Tits feeding out of my hand. It must be a wonderful experience. Love the picture of the the squirrel, which is very unusual for me, because I usually hate the things!

Great photos, Ella, I hope you had a nice time.

All the Best,

HK.

Brilliant shots, Ella. It is amazing how tame birds can be when they become accustomed to people. It's usually Sparrows and Pigeons so it's really nice to see Great Tits being so confident. What a great day you must have had.

Fantastic experience, Ella. It must have been amazing to have them on your hand, especially the babies. The squirrel is wonderful!

Nice pics. How chuffed were you? Thanks for posting.

superb set of pics. thank you for sharing them.

wonderfull photos... id kill for a moment like that x

Thanks everyone. It was a truly wonderful experience, having these beautiful little birds eating from my hand. To see them so close up like that, they're tiny sparkly little eyes, and to think that they trusted me enough to come and eat from my hands was amazing, especially with the little fledglings. The squirrels were very amusing, I always love watching their antics, and I gave them plenty of nuts so they didn't go hungry, lol.

The park is in total upheaval at the moment, with more than half of it being fenced off from the public because of the Olympics. There was lots of hammering and drilling and stuff going on within the no-go areas as they were setting up what looks like stands and marquees and goodness knows what. They already started doing this last month and it'll be closed off until September. It must be so disruptive for all the poor animals & birds that live in the park. Imagine all the noise and mayhem whilst the Olympics are actually on, I imagine the birds and squirrels will be pretty terrified! :(