Male House Sparrow

Searching, searching, searching for something to use as a blip today! Robin constantly moving around and singing from the topmost branches (with the sun behind it so in silhouette grrrr), Blackbirds chasing each other round the garden and Starlings, gulls and Rooks flying too fast for me to get a shot! Oh where's everything gone? Is there nothing I can use? Well, luckily, a small group of sparrows landed on the bush behind Dad's arbour so ... using my Dad's arbour to hide behind, I sneaked up and took this photo from through one of the openings in the side. It'll have to do.

We had an interesting encounter last night with a hedgehog. My Dad was in the kitchen then opened the back door when we heard him say 'Nicola!' and I shouted 'What?'. 'There's a hedgehog at the back door!' I immediately jumped up and ran into the kitchen (as did my Mum) and there it was! It wasn't a large hedgehog and it looked utterly lost! It kept trying to squeeze behind things and then settled down in the corner as if to hibernate right there and then! My Dad put on his gloves and I followed him down where he put it next to the border and left it. Hopefully it's found a nice, cosy place to hibernate for the winter :)