Sparrows gone AWOL

[KestonKid]

For years we have had daily visits from a flock of sparrows but haven't seen or heard them for about ten days. They flew about round various gardens near Goose Green/Adys Road/Keston Road. As far as we can tell nothing has changed in the habitat. They coped with various cats and even a sparrowhawk. Would love to hear that they have just moved in safely somewhere nearby. Meanwhile we are keeping the feeders topped-up and putting out fresh water.

[Cloudberry]

Same with the goldfinches that come to my feeders. There were 11 of them on the 23rd - a regular group of 8 plus 3 apparent interlopers with much loud squabbling, then none for several days and the nyger seed they like seemingly not touched. Then this morning 3 of them are back. Perhaps they've been conserving energy in the cold weather... but a cold golfinch still needs to eat and they normally munch the contents of a couple of feeders in as many days. A mystery. Sparrows here have been around, though less frequently. I hope yours are back soon.

[se22cat]

The area around Goose Green used to be full of Sparrows, Housemartins a good amount of Robin Redbreasts and numerous other small birds when we moved here in 1980 up until the mid 90s when I noticed a rapid decline. I guess air and noise pollution are the main culprits, though there used to be more front gardens with hedges and other vegetation so that may be related I suppose.

[jaywalker]

se22cat, I agree with you about concrete (although one always has also to mention cats). To be honest there is also a corvid factor.

I think a lot of this is change in the ecosystem: it may just be that some species are better adapted to the changes in the environment, e.g. it is warmer than 20 years ago and MUCH less air pollution (no lead in petrol etc). For example, corvids (the most intelligent of species :-) ) tend to live in a different dimension to other birds.

I have two jays, sundry magpies, and even crows visiting my garden. They of course eat the eggs of the smaller birds but that is what they do. In these circumstances only the canny smaller birds (robins, blue tits, black tits, wagtails and - actually, for me, goldfinches) increase. The feral pigeons (huge increase in these) take any table food instantly. Woodpigeons are on the increase. There is even a woodpecker occasionally, and recently a heron (!). Blackbirds (the most neurotic of species even if they sing well) have long gone as they are ground feeders that cats attack (and foxes will destroy their nests). I think the blue tits exploited the weather this year and had about five broods including into late November - their population has really exploded and it should be a law to bring back foil capped glass milk bottles.

[minder]

That's strange as all the sparrows I see every day on my feeder have suddenly disappeared. Maybe it was something to do with the past few freezing mornings/nights we've seen?

Everyday I have jays, magpies and loads of crows seeing the woodpigeons off. Also have a couple of robins that suddenly appear when I put out a feed (3 times a day in this weather) bluetits and starlings in groups.

There's also at least 3 blackbirds that I see very early in the morning scuttling about for leftovers so they are still around.

[firth]

I am suspicious of the Parakeets being too teratorial and with no natural predators, my sparrow numbers have also decreased whilst the parakeets have moved in, Chadwick road/Bellenden area

[minder]

You have a point. I hear the parakeets sqarwking? from over the way (near the Greendale area) and they seem to be getting nearer and nearer.

[sillywoman]

Yes, we've noticed more parakeets roosting in our trees, and a comparable decline in smaller birds. It does make me wonder whether there's a connection?

[RosieH]

Cats cats cats cats cats cats cats cats cats.

12 million birds a year.

Thanks, cats, you inappropriately over-populated on this tiny island predator bastards.

[DulwichFox]

Nothing to do with cats.. Mankind..

House sparrows have declined in many parts of the UK and their plight has generated lots of interest as it was not clear to why their numbers were failing.

A prize was offered by the Independent newspaper of ?5000 for the person who came up with a clear scientific reason to why they were declining. This was awarded a couple of years back to Kate Vincent who found out that the lack of insect prey during the breeding season was preventing house sparrows raising healthy young.

The question is why have insects declined in urban areas? It seems that humans have changed the urban landscape dramatically in recent decades with many gardens lost under concrete and decking and many sparrow sheltering hedges removed and replaced with 'low maintenance' fencing. The over reliance of garden chemicals is also a worry for garden wildlife.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/wildlife/f/901/t/38211.aspx

DulwichFox

[RosieH]

Cats and foxes.

[JohnL]

When I was younger we always noticed there were blackbird years and there were thrush years (and they were separate) - maybe there are sparrow years.

edit: of course blackbirds eat worms and thrushes eat slugs/snails :)

[leenorris78]

I live at the end of Ondine road and the sparrow flock live opposite in a garden with a garage, also at the end of ondine road.

I must admit, I have not been outside much over the christmas period and hope that the sparrows are still about.

I will be on the lookout as they use my garden often. Come to think of it, the fat ball is untouched.

Lee

[jaywalker]

perhaps they have just moved out for the winter. I visited a friend in a Warwickshire village a couple of weeks ago and there were about 200 (so it seemed) sparrows in a large bush but this was adjacent to farm land lying fallow. I wonder if they move out of town if it is as mild as it has been and go to exposed fields (perhaps because plenty of insects but I suspect mainly for their absolute favourite mud baths). they are the most socially organised of birds, second only perhaps to starlings. I was amazed by the division of labour I saw in the flock that used to visit me when I lived in Kennington: look-outs, child-minders, foragers, scouts, leaders. Once I had a sparrow-hawk dive bomb the garden: the sparrows alerted by the lookouts, it missed and, looking not a little sheepish, flew away.

[Sue]

I thought "my" sparrows had gone, but a little flock of them has come back over the last couple of days :)

[tomdhu]

How I would love to hear some chirpy sparrows on a sunnyy summer morning again!

I grew up in the coutryside in the 50's and 60's when there were so many of them.

Our garden backs on to Gilkes Crescent where the is quite a good sized area of mixed over-grown greenery so we have regular robins, blue tits, wrens and black birds also frequent Woodpigeons, jays, crows and the occasional woodpecker. On a rare occasion we might see a small raptor or even a heron as they seem to be inclined to perch when the cloud cover is extremely low and dense.

To get things moving in the right direction, I am going to make a sparrow nesting box this week - to accomodate four pairs in the hope of attracting some to reside.

I will post a message if I have success, meanwhie any other suggestions for attracting them would be welcome - audio tape??

Tom

[Sue]

Give me your address and I'll ask some of mine to come over to yours :)

[BrandNewGuy]

DulwichFox Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> A prize was offered by the Independent newspaper

> of ?5000 for the person who came up with a clear

> scientific reason to why they were declining. This

> was awarded a couple of years back to Kate Vincent

> who found out that the lack of insect prey during

> the breeding season was preventing house sparrows

> raising healthy young.

>

> The question is why have insects declined in urban

> areas? It seems that humans have changed the urban

> landscape dramatically in recent decades with many

> gardens lost under concrete and decking and many

> sparrow sheltering hedges removed and replaced

> with 'low maintenance' fencing. The over reliance

> of garden chemicals is also a worry for garden

> wildlife.

Agreed about the garden chemicals ? slug and snail pellets are almost entirely reposible for the demise of urban song thrushes ? but there are other possibilities, one of which is the range of chhemical additives in lead-free petrol which might be responsible for the demise of the sparrows' food species. I'm not sure we've lost lots of hedges in recent years, so something else is going on.

Sparrows are also highly sociable and nest in 'tribal' colonies, so the loss of even a few birds can cause the equivalent of 'colony collapse'.

[KestonKid]

As the original poster I have been grateful for the friendly messages. No sign yet of 'our' sparrows but have seen a wren several times and today a blackbird! Like the idea of a nesting box to try to attract them back. Will look into this.

[civilservant]

another agreement re garden chemicals

a couple of years ago, we decided to stop using any chemicals in the garden (except for a bit of glyphosate to see off some Japanese knotweed) although we used to have a real slug/snail problem.

we've been seeing lots more thrushes, blackbirds, bluetits, sparrows and robins in our garden since, and interestingly the slug/snail population has been lower than when we used pellets to control them - although we've admittedly grown savvier in our planting as well, and stopped planting stuff which snails might enjoy munching on

the real annoyance is seeing the bloody local cats that come and prowl around and maraud up and down our garden and scare off the birds - it's not as if they NEED to eat them to survive.

[Sue]

KestonKid Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> No sign yet of 'our'

> sparrows but have seen a wren several times and

> today a blackbird!

I have a wren in my garden too!

I love wrens!

[tomdhu]

I always seem to remember sparrows just loving having sand/dust baths on paths and unmade roads. I think it helped them get rid of parasites.

Probably now that everything is concreted over it could mean they can no longer get rid of the parasites and are suffering accordingly??

Tom

[tim hill]

they go to warmer places, called ,Migration

[BrandNewGuy]

Not sparrows - they mostly stay very near where they were born, though winter food foraging can take them further afield.

[owlwise]

The sparrows in my garden are there all year round. They were washing in the birdbath just yesterday. I feed them everyday .