It took me a while but I managed a shot of the Tree Sparrow that I first saw on Tuesday, today,
in my garden in Cemaes Bay. A garden tick!
I was stood tippy-toed, looking through the skylight and thought my Achilles was going to snap as I tried to get a shot! (Thankfully it didn't). What's all the fuss about a Tree Sparrow you may say?
Well, it's one of those birds. As a child in St Helens there were local sites you could see them and occasionally they turned up in the garden and occasionally bred there or in a neighbours garden (and still do)! But when I moved to Anglesey in 1996, they were a localised species, that required a specific site visit, especially when doing a bird-race! Pili-Palas in Menai Bridge, Llyn Alaw East Car Park, the stable near Wilpol Farm, Llangaffo and the Braint Estuary Car Park were all potentially good sites for this species. But as the years went by the sites dried up, with the last records coming from near Wilpol in May 2006. There were several years with no records, but in 2010 5 migrants flew over Penmon Point in the Autumn. That winter, there was a 2000 strong finch flock at Cemlyn and it also contained 5 Tree Sparrows on the 30th October, peaking at 9 on the 7th Nov with some birds recorded until the end of the year. Since then there have been just ones and twos, occasionally in the winter months, usually in the north at Cemlyn or Tregele or in this case Cemaes, with my bird being the only bird on Anglesey at the moment, as far as we know.
Just let me know if anyone wants to see it as it was present on and off throughout the day but mornings is best.
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