Deeside Sparrow

My patient watch on the privet - which was emanating chirruping and often trembling in its extremeties because of birds moving within - was rewarded by a glimpse of a male house sparrow through the meagre winter leaf cover!

First bird of my day: blackbirds singing ! The most joyful sound of spring. Earliest ever in my memory so their liquid notes drenching the garden felt extra welcome. #firstbirdofmyday #WhatsYours

⭐️ That's a first bird 🥇 that is worth waiting for, in my opinion!

A wood pigeon looking long and slim with head & neck stretched out, perched at the end of roof ridges tiles, which soon flew away.

Garden blackbird ceased coming up the front path on the frontdoor opening and withdrew. He adroitly implemented an instant 180° turn, hopped up behind shrubs & onto & over the neighbour's fence. SILENTLY! I think he's comfortable he can co-exist near me.

A wood pigeon on watch on an aerial on the house opposite. Head turning appeared to confirm that my emergence from the house was scrutinised, being considered not a cause of immediate concern given the physical distance & my relative passivity.

Phew! I wasn't that confident there would be adequate resolution in the file as uploaded here ... didn't dare to use rubbish bird pic hashtag! I recall he landed on the 40mph permanent speed restriction sign. So must have flown up on the branch in the time it took to get my phone & put the PIN in! 😃

Embankment of the Bidston-Wrexham railway line between Hawarden Bridge and Shotton Stations from footpath beside the steelworks sports and social club photographed Sunday 11 May 2025 at 11:06hrs. The railway infrastructure sign is a permanent speed restriction on the Up Line prior to the bridge taking the tracks over the North Wales Main Line.

Double portion of Monday mental balm from dawn birdsong that I woke up to in my ears AND the idea of your's about the dear, inimitable Elton's progeny rooting about in leaf litter in your vicinity these days, as the leucistic blackbird was yesterday. Poss. you can seen him: a white blob over '40'!!

It's never too early during daylight for jackdaws to be jumping down into chimney pots! 🖤🩶😄

FBOMD a wood pigeon taking flight from the street lamp as I exited the frontdoor, with softly churning feather-air sound. Beyond - higher & farther - tiny herring gull wings, many flying in circles rather than purposely going on the morning inland commute.

2nd consecutive Sunday I saw, close-up, the leucistic male blackbird (1st seen in early 2024) with a territory of a sports club (out of use) bowling green & railway embankment . You know @dauphne.bsky.social I always immediately think of the late Elton, the American robin visitor to your backyard!

I remember other species of woodpeckers mentioned as FBsOYD. 🥁😁 But I'm sure I've just visited the Downy woodpecker Wikipedia page for the first time! ✋️

Yep, parallel 1st bird experiences this Sunday morning on opposite sides of the Atlantic! 😄

A rare FBOMD for me. Great spotted woodpecker in flight, changing course and heading back to the woods. I had been confident I would glimpse a sparrow first! In Sunday absence of motor vehicle noise, their chirrupings were so clearly audible. 😄

I entrusted you with my 1st Preference vote earlier today. This was after looking online to find out as much as possible about the candidates and very carefully considering each of the four pitches to be elected. I wish you well, whatever the result. Thank you for your efforts in campaigning! ⭐️👏

Yep, he's on great form! 🐦‍⬛ I hope he'll keep himself safe and be a wonderful companion during the blackbird song months. When I got back from the corner shop, blackbird was on the roof. He came down to the corner gutter and spied on my return approaching the frontdoor. 👀😄

Yes, I do as well. It's such a learning reading the overseas first birders' posts. 😄

That's a wonderful 1st bird report. Yay, House sparrows!! 🤎🩶🖤😄 Enjoy the rise in ambient temperatures!

Wood pigeon in profile on an aerial like a trim weather vane cock sans crest, ruff & exuberant tail. Beneath, li'l daddy sparrow flying up to his cherished cavity on the gable. Hey, not too early to fettle it for his spouse's pending reproductive exertions!

Oh, my word, what colours!!! 😄 Thanks for adding this illustration of a bird with which I am not familiar!

10 days after disturbing garden blackbird's voice exercises on our roof on opening the front door, his gloriously extended range of notes were coming from the street light in the dark at 6.25am. Heard FBOMD, not seen. I love him so! 🐦‍⬛❤️

1st glimpse of any birdlife was similar to yesterday: same window, same v. rapid movement gone too soon to comprehend in detail. However, today's blur was most likely a house sparrow & I then enjoyed watching 👀 a gang of them moving about shrubbery in the nextdoor garden. 😄

A blur of blackbird flying over the hedge, exiting the front making alarm noise, seen through the window. Darn it! I was just approaching the window to watch the hedge, hoping that the house sparrows I could hear would emerge ... 🤷‍♂️

Wonderful to see both Big Ginge and Pumpkin, together, looking well and content! But especially your feline 'elder statesman' Big Ginge, a paragon of dignity, and in his signature pose holding his right paw over his left and looking straight into the camera. 💕😄

FBOMD: a wood pigeon perched on an aerial against a post-dawn cloudless sky. Another WP was also aerial perched on next house but one, three jackdaws were on the roof in between. I smiled when two jackdaws then sidled from behind chimneys beneath the FBOMD! 😃

Looked up after a single honk but FBsOMD were high up herring gulls labouring into a moderate westerly wind rather than any geese. I think a few geese had passed hidden by houses whilst flying low. Some herring gulls were low too doing kitchen scrap sweeps!

It does indeed seem, from your close observation of the jackdaws, as though it is! 😁

FBsOMD were a loosely-formed, mixed flock of gulls making a morning inland commute. I think herring gulls and black-headed gulls mixing on diurnal flights from, or to, where they sleep on the coast is untypical.

Morning of St. Valentine's but alas no avian pairs in sight! Black corvid wings far off against pale blue sky - not seen in days - flying towards me. A diagonal flyover by a rook en route to the woods was FBOMD.

The house *opposite* was where the jackdaws were. 🙄 The sheer joy brought by that grey wagtail flyover was, I'm glad, the focus of my 'uplifted' mind whilst posting.