Topic: Sparrows - A bird in decline

[steveuk]

Hedge sparrow is another name for a Dunnock, lot browner and tadge smaller than a sparrow, it scoots about the ground and flys low, ]

if you type hedge sparrow or dunnock in search engine, you will se the difference.

or this link give great description
http://www.gardensafari.net/english/pages/heggemus.htm

[markfield rover]

It is okay, they are all here  in Hereford both house/hedge.
We put out those fat b...s and so we have sunflowers germinating
everywhere ,next years food!

[nippie]

We get more sparrows than any other species. I love their cheerful chirruping :)
We get quite a few blackbirds, dunnocks  robins and pigeons buts thats it.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I see a few house sparrows, but nothing like the mobs I saw as a kid in East Oxford. They used to nest under the eaves of Victorian warehouses just up the road, but those are probably long gone by now.

[bumble-dee]

tons of sparrows congregate in our privit hedges and their incesant talking can drive you crazy!   :) but they are lovely and i always feed them. they are so used to me now they just watch and wait whilst i fill their feeders.

no thrushes seen in the past few years actually, shame that! :'(

Dee x

[Carol]

See this thread started in 2004!!!   

I still get the occasional house sparrow, more in the summer but I now seem to have more Tree Sparrows visiting which is good because their numbers were definately in decline.   ;D ;D ;D

[Barnowl]

Also in West London - haven't seen a sparrow in years and get v excited if a thrush turns up. Blackbirds and tits seem ok

[Obelixx]

When we bought this plave 14 yrs ago there were afew sparrows about and I hung up feeders for them.  It took them three years to get the idea and I wasted a lot of fat balls.  Now we have created the garden and planted shrubs for shelter and food and also sealed off the eaves of the house from the attic we have a whole colony of nests and generations of sparrows and tits in residence and maying 2 or 3 broods a year.

We get most of the tits except long-tailed, plus greenfinches and chaffinches, spotted woodpeckers, wagtails, dunnocks, robins, wrens, dunnocks, blackbirds and some starlings plus seasonal fieldfares.   We feed throughout the year so the adults have easy access to food and thus energy for feeding all their broods on garden insects and caterpillars and the balance works out well.  However, Belgian robins and sparrows and tits are not as confident as their British counterparts and won't come to feed if I am too close to their feeding station.