Today we were in the company of Chris, Sue, Brian and Pam in the area of Vala, North of Porches. This area has been visited a couple of times already this Winter and I wanted our friends to witness the huge number of small passerines, wintering in the fields. We soon became aware of the huge number of Chaffinches, moving between the roadside trees and the fields where they feed. It wasn't long before we found at least one Brambling which was a good start. An even closer look at the Chaffinch flock revealed sparrows mixing among them. House Sparrows numbered around twenty and the odd Tree Sparrow was seen briefly or heard flying back over the road.
I hoped to re-find a few of the Rock Sparrows I had seen previously but so far, none were being seen or heard. It wasn't until we returned to the cars that another substantial flock of small birds were found, out in the field. There were no apparent white wing bars as on Chaffinches and I thought they were possibly Corn Buntings. Looking closer at these birds, grubbing about on some bare ground, they had a long pale stripe over the eye and very substantial bills. These were certainly Rock Sparrows. The flock was quite mobile, lifting off and settling again further on. I wasn't aware of so many Rock Sparrows at this site, my estimate when they lifted off was around 60-80 birds. Having looked at many images, there are additional Chaffinches, a couple of Corn Buntings and even a Reed Bunting, nevertheless this flock numbers between 200 and 300 Rock Sparrows. Comments are closed.
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