Sunday, November 14, 2010

Lee Mount surprise!

Above - 3 Tree Sparrows in the feeders and a Chaffinch in the middle
Tree Sparrow
Jen spotted these 3 special birds which turned up on the garden feeders just before we started lunch. They were totally unexpected, and turned up again later in the afternoon, firsts for our garden since we came to live here in 1974 ! They were feeding on various seed, including some millet.
Tree Sparrows are a Calderdale rarity at the present time with only one known small colony that we are aware of. In past years they were locally common at a small number of sites and their scarcity is in line with a national decline which is hopefully showing small signs of a recovery. Lets hope we get some more reports - so keep a close eye on your garden feeders.
Anyone not familiar with Tree Sparrows especially need to look out for the distinguishing features of a rusty brown cap and the black cheek spot - to avoid confusion with the House Sparrow.

4 comments:

heavy birder said...

Great garden tick Dave. Lets hope these birds are part of the Jay House Lane project and that they will hopefully spread into other parts of Calderdale ?

martynbirder said...

nice one Dave

we've got a female House Sparrow with our Chaffinch's there aren't any down here, indeed I don't know if there are any towards Hebden Bridge (House Sparrows that is)

Nick Carter said...

Still got em up here in Midgley

AndyC said...

Great stuff,realy good record...