GardenGrrl's WunderBlog

Common Sparrows

Posted by: GardenGrrl, 4:35 PM GMT on January 19, 2013

Here's to the things we see everyday to the point that we no longer see them.

The common House Sparrow has the distinction of being the most widely spread bird across the world. You can find the House Sparrow in London, New York, Istanbul, Rio, Honolulu, Tokyo etc. The common sparrow is now as ubiquitous as the modern shopping mall or Star Bucks.

The one place you won't find these sparrows is forest, open field and desert. They prefer to be where people have settled and built. Sparrows are social. They live in flocks and will allow other birds to follow along with their flock. That's why you will see the occaisional odd ball bird with them including escaped pets like parakeets.

As a flock, they send scouts out to find food. When enough is found to feed most of the flock the scout will signal and the rest come in like a mob. With the exception of the alpha males (that would be a male sparrow with a very large black "bib" patch on his chest), the females always have first dibs on dinner and will peck away the males with smaller black bib patches.

Sparrows are everywhere like dandelions, fluffy clouds and night stars. Some people see them as pests and they can be. They are also beautiful and fun to watch. As the city encroaches, sometimes they are all the nature we can find.

Sparrows in my tree

Male with his black bib

Female in the yaupon holly

Bath time

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Thunder Snow #33

Posted by: GardenGrrl, 1:39 AM GMT on January 06, 2013

What a week. They were calling for snow and ice but it just rained a bit.

The Texans won.

Got my hair colored (highlights) and saw a hawk sitting on a post just off the road on my way home. It was gorgeous outside so enlisted the spouse as driver and I would jump out of the car and shoot hawks as we found them. Great sport. Want to do that again. Saw a kestral that would fly off when it saw me. A meadowlark? disappearing into the brush. Fun.

This is my temp blog until I come up with a more formal blog. So, what were some of your favorite photography moments/adventures?