Today was an unplanned but very welcome day off, the weather was stunning, sunny calm and -1. A perfect day for digiscoping.
Had a walk down to Whitemire Farm to check out the finch flock. Conservative numbers for the flock were 250/300 Linnet, 20 Goldfinch. 30 Chaffinch and 5 Brambling.
However even though all the elements for good pics were present, all I could muster was these two of a male and female House sparrow (still nice birds though!)
Had a walk down to Whitemire Farm to check out the finch flock. Conservative numbers for the flock were 250/300 Linnet, 20 Goldfinch. 30 Chaffinch and 5 Brambling.
However even though all the elements for good pics were present, all I could muster was these two of a male and female House sparrow (still nice birds though!)
Are house sparrows on the decline in Scotland? There still seems to be a lot of them in Burghead and Elgin.
ReplyDeleteIn South Africa, where I lived for a few decades, the house sparrows started to drop dead and eventually there were very few left. At the time I couldn't find anyone who had a clue what had happened as, being an introduced bird and therefore not worthy of interest to birders or wildlife enthusiasts, no-one cared or even bothered to look into it. That always annoyed me, since clearly any species of animal suddenly dying in large numbers should be a cause for concern, regardless of whether it is a protected species, rare or common as... sparrows.
And while I'm here - I'll add another thank you for your kind offer of joining you for a free "taster" of Ecosse birding, but at this time of the year my African skin says a very firm "No way!" to anything outdoors. :-o