October 2011 - The Wren returns and a Treesparrow in the garden!

Sunday 16th: The Wren that has been visiting our garden each Autumn\Winter since 2008 has returned today. It surely must be the same bird as it comes to the bush at the back door and calls for mealworms. If it is not the same bird, then has it indicated to others about where to get an easy meal? This is an intriguing question. But if it is then it has clearly survived the harsh snows of December 2010\ January 2011! The bird seems to follow the same pattern in that it departs the garden in March and returns around October. This being the case for 2009, 2010 and now 2011.

It was at 2:20pm that I first saw the Wren picking through the undergrowth in the garden. Throwing some mealworms out,immediately caught its attention and it came to the backdoor to feast, closely followed by a dozen House Sparrows.

Scanning the House Sparrows, one caught my attention. It looked oddly out of place. Looking closer I could see that it was a Tree Sparrow. Now as can be seen (image below) Tree Sparrows have a white cheek with black spot and an all brown head. Whereas House Sparrows (image above) don't have white cheeks or an all brown head. Above, the male House Sparrow is on the left and the female is on the right. It's very unusual for Tree Sparrows to visit a garden, that is unless your garden is the countryside! This one may just have been passing through, on its way somewhere. Both Tree Sparrows and House Sparrows will freely associate as flocks and can live side-by-side. Only the one Tree Sparrow was seen in our garden but I now scan the large flock of resident House Sparrows...just in case!