Blue Tit Behaviour

I saw this Blue Tit on the front garden feeder on Sunday clearly holding a sunflower seed between both its feet to keep it steady for pecking. I don't know why this surprised me but it did. I wonder if they always do it like this.
I like to keep an eye open for regional and archaic bird names. There is a wonderful book called British Nesting Birds by W. Percival Westall, Dent & Sons, 1922 which gives a variety of 'local names' for each bird. Some names commonly in use then are now archaic themselves. Robin, for instance, is listed as a 'local name' for Redbreast.
Anyway my point is that in our household the favourite name for the Blue Tit is 'Billy Biter'.

Jackdaw in the Rain

This fellow and a few of his chums were hanging around in the road when we got back from our Fairhaven/Witchwood walk (see above, hopefully). They hopped on to the wall when I drew up and then flapped lazily off. We get loads of Jackdaws near us a lot of the time whereas round at no 25 half an hour or so away Mum hardly sees any! (Mum says there were two in the garden today and they see quite a lot.)We often see hordes of them wheeling around the local church roof in the evening, and they adorn the ariels and rooves all along our terrace on a regular basis.

Hoverfly

In the garden this afternoon we saw this rather nice hoverfly bothering the Catmint. It is smaller or at least more slender and more delicate than the usual run of hoverflies we see in the garden. I will try and identify it but if there are any hoverfly enthusiasts out there could you let me know what it is? Thanks.

It seemed to be doing something with its rear end. I wondered if it was ovipositing or something. This hunched position was characteristic, in contrast to its generally slender form.

Various bees were very very busy on the catmint and lavenders, but we didn't see a single butterfly in the garden all afternoon.