Tree Sparrows are now virtually absent from east Norfolk and have suffered a massive general decline across the whole county over the past two decades. With nothing better to do and needing it for my Norfolk Year List we set off on Sunday, in the pouring rain, to search for them. I’d been given a possible location to the west of our place, in a rural village which appears to have largely missed-out on the agricultural revolution – winding lanes with lots of small fields bordered by overgrown hedgerows. It didn’t take us long before we bumped into a very friendly resident who, on hearing of our quest, announced that he had Tree Sparrows on the feeders in his garden and that we were welcome to look! Sure enough, half a dozen birds were buzzing in and out of the nearby hedge and on to his feeders. They didn’t seem to mind the weather but it sure hampered the photography!

Tree Sparrow, at an undisclosed mid-Norfolk location, 16th November 2014