Much ado about Sparrows

Since being mislead by the pale starlings last week, I've experienced a good bit more uncertainty - this time about sparrows.

It struck me that there was something slightly odd about a bird I thought was a sparrow. It spent a good long time sitting in the plum tree before finally feeding for a long while at the bird table - not too sparrow-like in itself.

Dunnock

It's the head pattern that troubled me, the rather dark head and white neck band and bib. Anyway google lens thinks it's a dunnock, which surprises me as there's not much flecking on the breast.  I wouldn't normally have much trouble spotting a dunnock.

I'm please to say that a female nuthatch has visited my new caged bird feeder several times over the past few days.  However it makes sure it lands so it's mainly obscured and flies off as soon as I point the camera at it.

Also still at it is the grey squirrel, so there must be more nuts buried somewhere under the lawn.

Where are my nuts?

The sparrow fixation continued when I finally got to Holy Island yesterday, on a day when people generally agreed not much was going on.

The first bird I saw was again motionless in a tree, as if resting, and appeared at first sight to have a yellowish sheen, suggesting perhaps a female yellowhammer or even an exotic warbler...  So I took more photos and tried to get closer.

Sparrow?

Sparrow

Yes, it's actually the same bird.  The yellowish tinge on the first bird is a trick of the low sunlight, the erect posture somewhat untypical and the apparently large beak an illusion.

After a quiet spell, I got another shot of a bird in a tree, largely facing away from me, wasn't sure what it was but thought "Probably sparrow."

Linnet

So google lens thought linnet - entirely possible.

There was however no mistaking the sparrows that decided to assault the remains of my coffee break.  Not many species learn to be so cheeky.

Definitely Sparrows

After the lunch/coffee break - I wasn't sure which - I got what were some quite pleasing results with the camera.

Heading towards the harbour, a call of nature diverted me to the nearby cliffs where a kestrel was hovering.  I tried to video it but it kept moving and then started hovering at more or less head height no more than five yards or so to my left.

Kestrel

So, if you like, I got a bird's eye view of a bird.

In the harbour area I caught up with another ring-necked plover and was particularly satisfied to pick out one of a pair of rock pipits from a well-camouflaged background.

Ring-necked Plover

Rock Pipit

Google lens however thinks the rock pipit is a corn bunting - oh dear, I don't think so!

But probably the best was this pale-bellied brent goose, because of how far away it was:

Brent Goose

You can't see much of the neck stripe because of its head position.  Incidentally that isn't blood in the water but the reflection of the paintwork from a nearby boat moored at the water's edge.

There was just the one.  However the chap at the crab sandwich stall (I was still hungry) reckoned there had been as many as 6,000 but most had gone inland.  Sure enough, when I ventured further towards the causeway, there were 20 or 30 more, including I think some of the dark-bellied variety.

Brent Geese

Tuesday 8th January

Towards the end of last week, I did a bit of a wander round locally to investigate the red kite trail a bit more and possibly check for further merlin activity, of which there was none.

It was a bit depressing to see how much litter had been dumped on the roadside verge down Spen Lane, all

Tree

things that could have been placed in a recycling bin. You can't hold out much hope for people changing their habits to save the oceans when many still think it's ok to casually dump household waste.

Anyway, what I did see was a treecreeper creeping and a couple of goldfinches, proving that they are in the area even if they don't visit my niger seed.  Then by the bridleway, I caught sight of this tree.  Too white to be a normal silver birch, I'm sure that I've come across it before and noted it in this diary.  But without any leaves showing, I was unable to re-identify it so will probably have to wait until the summer.

Reports of a sociable snow bunting on St Mary's Island led me to attempt another twitch.  In spite of scouring all the grassy areas I could find I didn't see it.  The weather was a good deal less hospitable than had been forecast so it wasn't a day for hanging around for a long period.  I was however glad that I took the trouble to go over the causeway to the lighthouse, when I happened to come across this brent goose working its way through the rocks on the foreshore.

Brent Goose

Like the snow bunting, it doesn't appear much on the west coast so I'd never seen one before I moved.

Otherwise, it was quiet on the inland pond apart from a lot of teal and mallard.  I think there were a few greenshank too, though it was hard to hold the binoculars still enough to tell in the frisky wind.  As the tide started to move in, a few others started to appear, notably a healthy flight of lapwing flying around over the sea's edge.