I didn’t venture far from home this Sunday as had to nip out somewhere with the good lady in the morning and friends from Surrey were calling into see us on the way back from the weekend visiting friends in Lincoln, so …. I decided to take a few minutes in the back garden and watch the House Sparrows visiting our garden and also the neighbours to feast on whatever they could find to then go and feed their young in their prospective nests.
It was an interesting hour or so just observing what they did, in particular watching the Sparrows feeding habits; habits that varied from visiting the various feeders that we have stocked up with Niger Seed, Sunflower Hearts and mixed bird seed, to scouring all our sheds, conservatories, guttering, roof tiles, lawns and shrubs to see what insects and other food they could find to bolster their young birds diet.
I tried, in vain, to get a photo or two of the birds also hawking flying insects in mid-air, only manged a photo or 2 with males after being successfully with this task and enjoying their reward. This might a little photographic project for the future maybe?
I think we had at least 3 possibly 4 pairs calling in, it is little easier to visually separate the cock birds but not so the hens.
I could not see any obvious gapes, typical of young fledgling birds, so don’t think any of the birds with female feather appearance are early bred young birds, tell me if you think there are young birds in these images, but I have not yet witnessed any adults feeding young locally.
The two images show 2 of the nest sites, 1 being 2 doors down from me and the second site 4 doors down both on the backs of the houses that face into the decent sized back gardens and various food options.
I will very soon, be expecting to see any young that are successfully reared to appear in and around our garden to start to learn how to feed independently from their parents.
I penned a blog about local House Sparrows early last June – if you are interested it can be read here >> www.lincsbirders.org/2016/06/05/house-sparrow-decline/
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