Humble House Sparrows

Our humble House Sparrows have not always lived in such close proximity to us in our urban sprawls. They used to be countryside and farmyard seed eating birds, indeed if your lucky, and know where to look, you can still find their much scarcer cousins the Tree Sparrow predominantly in countryside hedgerows. And even today you can still find large flocks of House Sparrows inhabiting farmyards and stables where they survive by eating spilled grain and animal feeds.

It was during our own social-economic lifestyle change from agricultural to industrial that brought Sparrows into our towns and cities, as they followed the movement of the population from the countryside.

House Sparrows live a communal existence with a dominant male at the head. During the breeding season the male Sparrows pecking order can be defined by the size of his black bib, which can only be found on the male bird. The larger the bib the more dominant the male.

House Sparrows were once considered as pests and culled whenever possible, in the 1860’s the Sussex village of Rudgwick recorded a cull of 5,321 Sparrows killed during the year, the local press of the day making special note of an ever vigilant Mr W Wooberry bagging 1,363 alone.

How times have changed, there is now a well recorded decline in the numbers of urban House Sparrows of late, and many “experts” have put forward many differing theories on what they think is the cause. But the simple answer is, as yet, nobody knows.

Dominant male House Sparrow showing his large black bib.

Female House Sparrow.

Tree Sparrow

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Clever Kestrels.

The Common Kestrel, our most common bird of prey, are seen regularly by most people hovering alongside our motorways in search of their favourite foods, Bank Voles, Shrews and Mice but they will also take almost anything from beetles and worms to a Dragonfly. But a Kestrels hunting technique would seem a hit and miss affair to many people who think Kestrels just hang there in the air waiting for an unlucky Bank Vole to amble along right underneath for the Kestrel to pounce upon. The truth is much more interesting.

Most small mammals like to use familiar hidden trails and tracks through the undergrowth and long grass; they are also incontinent leaving constant urine trails along these paths. As everyone knows a hawks eyesight is very impressive, but Kestrels have an added bonus, their eyesight is more attuned to the ultra violet end of the colour spectrum, and urine shows up bright yellow under ultra violet light, so those hidden trails now stand out as bright yellow paths through the vegetation to our Kestrel. So in effect a Kestrel is not just prospecting for food when you see him hovering, he’s waiting directly over one of the mammal’s favourite hidden tracks just waiting for one to pass underneath.

In answer to a question over a viewers sighting of a bird of prey hovering on Springwatch a couple of years ago Bill Oddie replied that “If its hovering it’s a Kestrel” This answer could be misleading as I personally have seen Sparrowhawks and Buzzards hovering, although the Sparrowhawk doesn’t hover for as long and the Buzzard is a much larger bird, Bill’s answer was not quite as cut and dried as it may seem.

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Wheatear Family

For some time now I have been trying to get a good shot of a male Northern Wheatear a bird which I consider to be very striking when in full breeding plumage, which we a lucky enough to see at this time of year. And so this year I have made a concerted effort, I was lucky and in the process even managed to get some good shots of a female and a fledgling.

Europe can boast 13 different species of Wheatear some resident and others rare and not so rare visitors. But the only species we get as a regular summer visitor in this country is the Northern Wheatear when it comes to breed during the summer months.  It usually breeds in stony areas such as the uplands of the Pennines, Snowdonia Cumbria, Scotland, etc but can also be found along the coasts. During migration times, spring and autumn, we can also get Northern Wheatears passing through from Greenland and even Canada on their way to and from North Africa where they spend the winter months.

Male Wheatear

Female Wheatear

Fledgling Wheatear

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Changing face of Starlings.

I feel Starlings are a bird that is much overlooked. They're probably best know for their swirlling flocks swarming across our skies in winter, when we get large numbers arriving from the northern parts of the European continent. There are many different kinds of Starling around the world and they can be some of the most colourful birds you could wish to see. Europe hold just 3 species, the Common Starling (native to the UK and mainland Europe), the Spotless Starling (native to Iberia and the islands of the western Mediterranean) and the Rose-coloured Starling which can be seen in the far east of the continent in the summer months. The Common Starling is not as plain as most people think, with iridescent plumage and arrow head spots they can, in the right light, be very interesting. Starlings also subtlety change their  plumage over the year, in the winter they replace feathers worn out during the breeding season, in spring the beak colour changes from black to yellow then after breeding the beak turns back to black and the feathers are showing signs of needing replacement as the birds have not been able to keep up with cleaning and preening their feathers having been kept extremely busy feeding chicks at the nest.

Late winter bird with fresh plumage but still keeping its black beak.

Pre-breeding bird with fresh plumage and the beak starting to turn yellow.

Post breeding bird with worn plumage and beak turned back to black.

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Garden babies

I'm new to this Blogging thing, but here goes....

The weather hasn't been good for nature photography lateley but I did manage to get out the other day to take some pics of this years babies visiting the back garden feeders apart from a fledgling Blue Tit which I was unable to photograph I did get these 2, a young Starling and a House Sparrow you can still see the gape in the corners of the House Sparrows beak.


At the same time an adult Blue Tit arrived, its just starting to go into its post breeding moult as you can see by its tatty appearance.