Spot On!

If you look at Field Guides you will see that Rock Sparrows are shown with a bright yellow spot on the throat.  To see this feature in the field is incredibly difficult especially as birds often sit in a hunched position. I was watching a flock of over 50 Rock Sparrows this evening in our local vineyards and was photographing one individual on a small building.  When I looked at the pictures there clearly was a very prominent yellow spot.

Rock Sparrow revealing the "yellow spot"

Today was otherwise fairly uneventful.  I did have a wonderful ten minutes watching a male Golden Oriole calling and feeding in my back hedge and later a Woodchat Shrike was singing from the top of a pine tree.  I am hoping the latter is part of the pair which nested by the garden last year. 

Tawny Pipit

 Also in the vineyards the small number of Bee-eaters have dug some nest holes in a sandy bank so I am hopeful that a new colony is forming.  A late Black Kite hurried north and a splendid Tawny Pipit posed for a while.