Marsh and Willow Tit double

In a repeat of my post for 1st December, today I saw both Marsh and Willow Tits again on the same day. The Willow Tit was again on Flash Lane and is the first time I have seen it since the 10th December last year. There is still around 6cm of snow in the Flash Lane area and, with wind chill, it must have been around -5 °C so it was a surprise to see it.

The Marsh Tit was again in Alport and could be the same bird I last saw on 1st December. 

Both species are extremely scarce locally.

Marsh Tit 

Osprey and Willow Tit

An interesting day today as the weather finally started to improve and the temperature rose to 25°C this afternoon. I spent the morning around Stannage Edge looking out for the Bearded Vulture. Although there were reports from Chatsworth and Grindleford yesterday I'm not convinced that it's still in the area.

This afternoon a visit to Clough Wood produced the expected Marbled White butterflies and an unexpected Willow Tit, one of two which Simon had seen earlier in the day. I was heading for Rowsley to look for Hobby which have proved very elusive since the spate of records in May and early June. I was unsuccessful but was more than compensated by distant views of an adult Osprey over Haddon Hall. There have been several sightings of Osprey by fishermen in the Rowsley area recently so this could be the same bird.

Marbled White

Willow Tit

Osprey

Locally both Osprey and Willow Tit are very scarce but I see fewer Willow Tits than Osprey each year .

Willow Tit - Flash Lane

Over the past couple of weeks I've seen and heard what is presumably the same Willow Tit on two occasions and I managed a few photos today. The Willow Tit rare locally with occasional records from Clough Wood but can be seen fairly easily at Carsington Water.

Willow Tit - of note this bird has a pale spot on one side of the bill which is usually associated with Marsh Tit

With the on-set of autumn tits and other passerines are likely to be encountered in small mixed flocks and so it was today with a nice group of about 15 Long-tailed Tits with 7 or 8 Goldcrest, 2 Chiffchaff and a Treecreeper all in the same few bushes.

Long-tailed Tit

Goldcrest - female

Had my first Skylarks passing overhead and a group of 4 Common Crossbill which are the first I've seen for several weeks.
Meadow Pipits are migrating south now over the moors and I counted over 500 today in loose flocks.

Marsh Tit - Monsal Dale

The Marsh Tit is the least common member of the tit family in Derbyshire, it was reported from just 25 locations in the 2014 Derbyshire Bird Report compared to 62 locations for the Willow Tit. This is the reverse of the national situation where there are estimated to be six times as many Marsh Tit territories as there are for Willow Tit (52,800 and 8,500 respectively in 2000).
Sadly both species have suffered a more than 50% population decline since the 1970's and both are now red listed as species of most conservation concern in the UK. 
I photographed this bird this morning in a very gloomy and damp Monsal Dale.

Marsh Tit

The Peak District holds a significant proportion of the Derbyshire population and Monsal, Millers and Chee Dales are still amongst the best areas to listen for its distinctive 'pitchou' calls which are the best way of separating it from its very similar cousin.
Various features have been suggested for separating the two species; the Marsh Tit tends to have a smaller bib and a dull rather than glossy black cap but these features are often unreliable or difficult to determine on a lone bird. 
A pale mark above the cutting edge at the bill base in Marsh Tit has been relatively recently described (2008 and 2009) as a reliable way of separating the two. Where present this may be helpful as shown in photo above and the cropped image below.

Marsh Tit on left showing pale mark at base of bill generally absent on Willow on right

Marsh Tit (left) and Willow Tit showing the black bib

Pale edges to the secondaries and tertials form a pale panel in the wing of the Willow Tit which, when present, is a good indicator of Willow as can be seen in the photo below taken at Carsington on Friday. 

Willow Tit

Locally the best places to look for Willow Tit are the feeding stations at Carsington and Ogston Reservoirs or slightly further away at Carr Vale.
There are occasional Willow Tit records from Flash Lane, Darley Hillside and Clough Wood but I have never come across Marsh Tit in the immediate Darley Dale area.

Willow Tit - Ogston Reservoir

James visited Ogston today with apprentice wildlife photographer Eric (Pez) O'Connor, on this occasion the apprentice came away with the accolades for this fine portrait of a Willow Tit.

Willow Tit

There has been much debate about the separation of Willow and Marsh Tits in recent years with features such as the generally more extensive black bib and dull rather than glossy cap previously attributed to Willow Tit now thought to be unreliable features to separate the pair.The uniformly pale ear coverts and side of the face are a feature of Willow Tit whilst a significant proportion of Marsh Tits have a pale spot close to the nostril on the bill. The pale wing panel is also still considered indicative of Willow other than that it's down to call.
Both species have suffered a serious population decline and are on the UK's Red List of species of conservation concern.
Locally around Darley Dale there is usually the odd record each year around Flash Lane.
I'd be interested to hear of any local records of either species, I understand the Marsh Tit is still regularly seen in gardens by the river at Monsal Head.
The Red-necked Grebe was still present but distant.