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The frost of recent weeks has reduced the number of great tits clearly. Superficially it doesn’t seem as if the number of birds has changed much because the birds gather in the feeding places, but some feeding grounds are wholly abandoned. Bird researcher Enn Vilbaste says that he has found several corpses lately in the tits’ overnight spots and nest boxes. The number of great tits in the Nigula feeding grounds has decreased too.

Agu Leivits who has studied the life of tits for years confirms that the number of tits may have gone down by half or even three quarters. “But luckily the cold period this year has been very short. The long and snowy winters of previous years did more damage locally because the cold lasted many months and branches were covered with ice, they didn’t manage to get at the food."

The numbers of goldcrests and treecreepers have decreased too this winter according to Agu Leivits’ estimate. And last year in Kabli bird station no long-tailed tit was caught. Blue tits were fewer too.