Suddenly its eyes opened but the sight of them made me cry out. I can remember the red circles and in my fright I assumed this to be blood that had run from a head injury. The man said it was fine and did I not know that was the colour of its eyes. Then a few seconds later, to my great relief, it flew off.

I cannot remember why I started talking to Annie, a friend from my tai chi class, about long-tailed tits but she was enthused when I told her the above story about those strange little red-rimmed eyes. I said I would endeavour to write about them.

In the last few days I've been walking with a colleague who works for the Scottish Rights of Way Society. We were blessed with the most beautiful sunlight up on the moorland track but sitting in the wind for a bite to eat you could tell winter was still upon us. We did not stop for long as I was starting to shiver as my body temperature dropped quickly.

Walking through the woodland the fresh green branches brushed my arms as the wind slowed against the shelter of the trees. As we approached the Yarrow Water my companion was excited to reach the little stone bridge that I had told him about. However, when we reached this old stone structure Neil's attention was distracted by some little birds on a riverside tree.

'Are they long-tailed tits?' he asked. In the relatively dim light of the wood I nonchalantly replied that they must be as no other little bird has such a long tail – in fact, more than half the length of its body. Therefore this tiny bird has the longest tail, relative to its size, in the British Isles. I should not have been so dispassionate with my reply because my friend had never seen this bird before.

As we watched them we observed that one bird was hanging upside down underneath a branch gently pulling off a piece of moss. This is classic behaviour because they are extremely acrobatic, using their long tails as a counterweight. Obviously the moss was being gathered for their nest-building. Their nest is made of moss woven together with hair and spiders' webs and lovingly lined with up to 2,000 feathers, taking three weeks to build.

The time spent on creating the nest is a devotional act; incubation lasts only two weeks and the chicks fledge within less than three weeks. Male birds who failed to mate that year assist other pairs with parenting.

I regaled him with the tale of my most intimate sighting of this wee treasure. One day while walking my parents' dog I stopped at an old hawthorn hedge, delighted with the twittering chatter of little birds. Then I realised my eyes were only a foot from these miniature beings, the pinks and blacks of their plumage clearly shown. I was even close enough to see now those dark eyes with the red rims. In dusk's fading light they moved about within the hedge's thorny defence. I smiled at them.