As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Saturday 10 August 2013

Splat – bird of spray lets fly to evict sparrow

A few seconds before the picture was taken, this unfortunate sparrow had been living in the bottom of the giant nest.

His landlords’ notice of eviction came out of the blue. The dead-eyed stork was clearly not interested in spreading the love.

The moment was captured in the northern German town of Lübbecke which has several nature reserves.

The sparrow was sent spiralling off course but soon recovered and escaped, according to photographer Martin Nobbe.

e noticed a family of tree sparrows had been sharing the nest as ‘sub-tenants’ until things turned ugly.

‘The little sparrow who was hit could fly unharmed afterwards, but he must certainly have learned a lesson,’ he said.

The stork’s dirty bomb is all the more impressive because it was looking the other way at the time.

Sparrows often share nests made by white storks. This one had been built over several years on a man-made platform. They are used to stop the birds nesting on electricity pylons.

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