house sparrows

Did a full day hike yesterday hoping to see Whooper Swans and perhaps even a Stonechat that had been observed up near the falls. No luck on either count, just a good dose of exercise. And the best shots I got all day were of these House Sparrows bathing in a melt-water stream between icy tracks...

My own household is calm, but my stomach is in knots watching the US election results come in. Kind of like the tensions in this shot. :S

I doubt any of you will get that title, and it doesn't translate well to English. It's a line from a really sweet song by one of Norway's favourite song writers/singers of the 50's and 60's. It's about picking wild strawberries (and also flirting with fellas) and the line I've quoted is...

I gave up after 30. And there were other shrubs equally packed nearby. Delia disqualified my previous entry in the Most-sparrows-in-one-shot contest, since I couldn't be sure they were all one species. Here they're all House Sparrows. Sorry I haven't done any browsing today. Was out birding...

Next find was a flock of House Sparrows feeding their respective chicks. This chick was also getting a meal of greens, a slightly more adult green insect, it looks like. Can't tell what insect, precisely, but definitely green and seems to have long legs.

Two fellas putting on a big show of splashing. One gal standing in the background watching the show.

House Sparrow serenading his sweetheart on Valentine's Day. I don't think I'd seen (or at least not realized I was seeing) House Sparrow courtship display before. Very cute sight with those fluttering wings, fanned tail, and the frilly "shirttails" on show.

in "Goose Park". After my futile Siberian Jay excursion, I walked downtown for coffee and stopped in at Gsaparken. For some reason, I didn't take any duck photos that day. Can't remember why. But I did take some shots of sparrows and tits in the flower beds alongside the neighbouring garden. I...

Yeah, the feeder's been cleaned and filled. Yep, and I'm pretty full too now.

At least 4 of the House Sparrows are newly fledged. But as for the Starlings, some are from the original nests and are now getting some adult plumage, some are from the second batch and there's some newly fledged ones there too. Gawd.... my window does suffer at this time LOL TTTW

Because, what else would one come to Hawaii to do?

Actually not a trip tick first. I'd seen House Sparrows already my first day in Auckland, and probably most days since. But these are the only ones I'll post from the NZ trip.

Half way down the hill we went down some steps into a small park. There was a large flock of House Sparrows feeding. There was no way we could coun't them.... they were constantly flying up and to and fro across the path. Nice to see.

These guys were stowaways on a sailboat we hauled out about a week ago. The owner was concerned that the mom and dad would not be able to find them. He was very relived when they showed up. These two wound up on the ground

..... dining with friends. My SF image for this week. Taken in December on a very dark day.

Looked quite cosy the two of them don't they! I'm no good at post-processing really and in trying to lighten up the birds a bit, I lost any colour in the background!!! Oh well back to the drawing board LOL. TTTW

Delia, who was it you had a sort of competition with a couple of years back as to who could get the most sparrows into one shot? This Winter I've been having up to 50 sparrows at a time in the garden, but 30 in one shot is the most I've managed. Best chance is when a Magpie flies in under the...

... there are fresh seeds in the feeder.

... this time the shed roof. The smaller birds cope with it much better than the large ones, like the pigeons and crows, who can leave quite long skid marks LOL Sorry, this picture seems to be suffering from the very poor light we suffered for most of December (and this month too!!) Sunday...

.... looking out of my other lounge window I spotted this line of House Sparrows. There were actually more when I first looked, but..... well.... I guess you all know what happened LOL Thought they looked cute though. The one far left was actually about to leap up onto the post to join the...