This was a bird that I had down as ‘unidentified brown bird’. I have now identified it as a female House Sparrow. I mean, I call most ‘unidentified brown birds’ sparrows by default – though I’m still convinced about the dunnock that I saw earlier. This splashy-striped, brown bird is a female sparrow because she has a chubby beak, almost finch-like in its chubbiness. Also, the grey throat and pale eye-stripe sandwiched between two darker lines and the pale flash on her wings.
You can’t see her front, but it will be grey, as hinted at by her throat, with just a touch of texture.
The dunnock on the other hand had most definite speckles on its breast. I will try and get a better picture of it. There was a small brown bird with a slim dark beak in the top garden. It may have been the dunnock. It was grubbing around in the undergrowth, like a wren, but without a sticking-up tail. I will keep watching and waiting.
There isn’t much else I can do at the moment, as the watermeadow is still under water! Will we see dry land again before March??
