Cock sparrow in spring plumage, rich browns and greys.
When I was growing up in the early seventies it was still not unusual to use sparrows as your first quarry with an air rifle; I was more fortunate than most because I also had access to a set of pig sties where rats abounded and the very occasional mouse survived. I still shot the occasional sparrow; they were very common then, and no, I don’t think that me shooting half a dozen or so made any difference to the population drop that occurred and from which they are only just starting to make a recovery from.
A male sparrow resting on a twig in early Spring sunshine.
To be honest, I have had so much more fun from photographing sparrows than I have from shooting them that I have made sparrow nest boxes to encourage them; as well as turning a blind eye when they eat as much of my hens’ feed as the hens themselves.
By the way, for those of you interested in photography, the photos on this site were taken with a Samsung GX20 camera – more details available here: -
