27 Friday Sep 2024
Posted in birds
It’s just a sparrow, you might say, but no bird is ‘just’ a bird. And this little House sparrow was seriously sweet, pecking away at the seeds on a Viper’s-bugloss, looking like it was trying to hide from the pesky photographer.
09 Saturday Sep 2023
Posted in birds, plants, wildflowers
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, house sparrow, seed heads, sparrow eating seeds, wildflower seed heads
I was about to take some photos of the seed heads of this plant for tomorrow’s Wildflower Hour on social media (theme: #seedheads), when a gang of House sparrows flew in and started to eat the seeds from those seed heads, so they became the subjects of my photos instead.
28 Friday May 2021
Posted in birds
Tags
bird beaks full of food, birds collecting food for chicks, blackbird, British birds, Great spotted woodpecker, house sparrow, Mistle thrush
Who’d be a bird parent? The nonstop finding and gathering enough food to feed a multitude of gaping beaks, the constant flying out of the nest to dump chick poo and back in with the insects to generate more chick poo, the incessant and demanding cheep-cheep-cheeping….
I have nothing but admiration for these toilers!
20 Saturday Mar 2021
Posted in birds
For today’s celebration of the humble little House sparrow, I’m sharing a wonderful snippet of information tweeted this morning by the Welsh Ornithological Society:
‘We’re proud to say that Wales holds the longevity record for #HouseSparrow at 12 years and 12 days with a bird which was ringed in #Torfaen in 1966 and which was found dead in . . . Torfaen in 1978. A well-travelled individual!’
12 Saturday Dec 2020
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, house sparrow, Passer domesticus, sparrow, speug, vernacular names for sparrow
Craff, cuddy, grey spadger, roo-doo, sparr and sprug, spuggie and spurdie…. These are all regional names for the sparrow, both the House sparrow (Passer domesticus) and the Tree sparrow (Passer montanus). My ex, a Lanarkshire Scotsman, called it a speug, so that name is one I still sometimes use. And I’m sure many of you will have your own names for this little bird, one of our most common urban garden companions.
13 Monday Apr 2020
Tags
British birds, house sparrow, nest building, pampas grass, Penarth marina, sparrows nest building
I’ve written before about the House sparrow colony at Penarth Marina. During yesterday’s exercise walk, I noticed they’re now well in to their nest-building chores.
I’m sure the fluffy plumes of the pampas grass seed heads will make a wonderfully soft lining for their nests, and I have visions of tiny naked sparrow chicks snoozing snugly in their cosy warmth.
20 Friday Mar 2020
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff Bay birds, house sparrow, Linnet, Sand martin, Stonechat, Wheatear
Finally, we’ve had a rain-less day and, though there was a bitterly cold wind blasting across Cardiff Bay, I had to take advantage of the dry weather so walked an 8-mile circuit right round the Bay. The first highlight was my first two Wheatears of the year, a bit distant, and only popping up very briefly from amongst the huge Barrage boulders, but it was lovely to welcome them back for the summer.
The Bay was buzzing with Sand martins – I must’ve seen at least 20, perhaps more, at various times during my wander, and it was a joy to watch their aerial antics.
Though it’s now several weeks since the big floods pushed a ton of rubbish into the Bay, the huge accumulations have still not been cleared. In fact, most of the rubbish slicks have seen no clearance action taken at all. The ONLY positive thing about this is that the Goldfinches and Linnets seem to be finding plenty of food amongst the garbage.
I simply had to include this male House sparrow, as today is World Sparrow Day.
This lovely female Stonechat was dotting back and forth across the footpath through the wetlands reserve, and let me get quite close for photos. There was no sign of the male today though.
08 Saturday Dec 2018
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, house sparrow, pampas grass, Penarth marina, sparrow, toetoe
At one end of my regular walk along the embankment of the Ely River where it flows in to Cardiff Bay, near the entrance to Penarth Marina, is a huge stand of what I presume is a type of pampas grass. I always look at it, partly because it reminds me of my New Zealand home (where we would call this by the Maori name Toetoe) and partly because it is often covered in House sparrows.
The birds seem to adore this grass. The sturdy stems provide convenient perches on which to sit and cheep their continuous sparrow conversations, and they pluck away at the fluffy plumes, presumably extracting edible seeds to munch on. And, when threatened by the local ginger-and-white cat, which is frequently to be seen staring hungrily in their direction, the sparrows can easily flit into the dense vegetation of the grass clump to escape the cat’s clutches.
11 Monday Jun 2018
Tags
#30DaysWild, 30 Days Wild, birding, birdwatching, British birds, feral pigeon, house sparrow, Swift, wildlife at home
‘The best laid plans….’ Due to the unforeseen circumstance of untimely tradesmen I was forced to set aside my plan to go searching for butterflies today and instead spent day 11 of #30DaysWild at home. Still, there is always something wild to be found, just by looking out the window.
In the lovely tree outside my living room window, a young Feral pigeon has recently been spending much of its time, either perched or moving tentatively along the swaying branches, while it waits for its parents to return and feed it. Each time I heard it make its faint pleading peep, I popped up with my camera to try to get photos, though mostly the leaves got in the way. – a fact which, in fact, might please you when I tell you the pigeons regurgitate a type of ‘milk’ to feed their young!
House sparrows also popped in and out of the tree, heralded by their familiar cheep cheep, and I also caught them sitting on the back wall downstairs, looking around for anything edible.
The Swifts have been very active overhead much of the day, with four sweeping very low around the back of the house at times, even coming very close to the eaves. I’m not sure if they were checking the area for potential nesting sites or, more likely, swooping in to pick off insects to eat. They move so quickly I only managed one photo but watching their aerial agility was certainly the highlight of my wild day at home.
12 Tuesday Dec 2017
Tags
birding, birdwatching, blackbird, Brambling, British birds, Carrion crow, dunnock, Great spotted woodpecker, house sparrow, Nant Fawr, Nant Fawr Woodlands, Song thrush, walk in the woods
There was snow on the hills north of Cardiff on Saturday morning so I thought I’d try to get closer to take some photos but also combine that with a good walk. So, I jumped on a train and went a’stomping. Unfortunately, by the time I got closer, the snow had mostly melted away, which wasn’t helped by the fact that the footpath I had intended to follow, along the eastern side of the Llanishen and Lisvane reservoirs, was closed. So, I contented myself with a wander through the Nant Fawr woodlands and, afterwards, a circuit of Roath Park Lake.
I was rewarded with the sight, albeit distant, of my very first Brambling – my shots are heavily cropped so you’ll just have to take my word for it!
A small group of House sparrows was dotting about in bushes at the woodland edge.
I always thought Carrion crows were mostly solitary birds but this flock of about 20 proved me wrong.
The wood-tapping of this Great spotted woodpecker helped direct my lens in its direction, as did the singing of this little Dunnock.
And Song thrushes and Blackbirds were enjoying a hearty lunch of berries along the hedgerows.
earthstar 
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