Passerines are perching birds, the latin/scientific name for a House Sparrow is Passer domesticus so putting two and two together it is obvious that, historically the House Sparrow was a very common bird around dwellings and farms. In other words a common perching bird in a domestic environment. Sadly that is no longer the case  as said often before and not just by me, they are far less common than formally. Apparently they are  now absent from central London and other cities where they were at one time, in plague proportions. If the decline continues at the rate it is they could well become totally absent in my lifetime, in other words extinct! We are lucky to have a few in my garden regularly and I am glad to welcome them.

I had a very hectic musical weekend (my alter-ego) so no blog update but today I went back to see my Kingfisher and can report he is safe and well but didn't perform for me today. Over the weekend someone had disturbed his perch and I suspect that this had confused him and he went and perched elsewhere this morning.  As far as Otter is concerned, there appeared to be a lot of activity and new spraint at one of the Otters favourite sprainting sites. I am going to position the camera just at dusk and we will see what we can capture tonight. 

On Friday I am flying to Miami for my annual USA visit. As in previous years the Blog will be "on-tour" and there will be the usual daily updates of my sightings and wildlife experiences from the other side of the Atlantic. This will follow the same format as normal but just a bit more exotic. Last year this had been very popular with some great sightings and photos including Bald Eagle, Royal Terns, Pied Kingfisher, Manatee and lots of glorious  New World Warblers.