Who Killed...?

I was saddened to read that the House Sparrow has declined by 68% since the1970,s.
Seems that some blame is put on the building of decking and paving in our gardens resulting in less food for chicks. I have say that in the 30 years living here I have only ever seen one cock Sparrow in the garden ...but that was way before I laid my patio and made my garden more wildlife friendly.
I do remember them in huge numbers when I was a kid and was paid to scare them off the veg plots with a paper bag snapper...remember them?:D

 

Bag snappers, hey? I remember my granny telling me about them.:D

 

Free gift with the Dandy:D

 

I think its as much to do with over feeding and infection transfer than decking.

 

Nick, I bet a pound to a pinch of cacker, that Paul doesn`t know what we are talking about.:gnthb:

 

I dont know what your talking about, but then I am younger than you two.

And we have loads of sparras around here.

 

Yeah, right.:lollol:

 

I can`t say we have loads-we don`t, but we do get the odd one or two. Certainly not as many as I remember when I was younger. I had heard it had more to do with massive car parks getting built-but then again the crazy paving era did strike in the 70s didn`t it?

 

Most bird species are down.
I hardly ever see sparrows, starlings or greenfinches any more. My garden used to team with them.

 

Anyone want starlings?

We have far too many.

Now Greenfinches, not seen any of them for years.

We have pigeons and doves, we never had, along with magpies and herons.

The bird population is just changing, just the same as we are.

 

Got plenty of starlings, and we get woodpeckers here too, woodpigeons, magpies, what have turned up this year are crows, there have been loads of them this year.

 

I've got sparrows feeding (and various tits) and everyone is scathing saying how common they are but I'm happier now to see them than anything else. There are certainly less starlings -and I don't really miss them but guess it's not god news really.

Last year there were plenty of green finch feeding too but I haven't seen any for a year.

 

It's the same over here, not many sparrows any more, although we do get a few of them in the garden now and then.

We get lots of pidgeons (ugh! messy and noisy, I could do without them), magpies, jays, the heron or two, blackbirds (also not as many as years ago), haven't seen starling here in our garden for a few years now, crows, lots of tits, and the odd wren and robin. I think the latter two are probably resident.

PS - I don't know what a bag snapper is either.

 

When I was a kid and lived in my parents terraced house there was always the sound of House Sparrows calling from the roof tops and there was a hole where they used to go in and nest.

I then got married and moved into a brand new bungalow with my first hubby and sadly there was nowhere for the sparrows to nest in the modern designs of rooves and though I used to feed the birds on a regular bases never gave a thought to provide a place for them to nest.Even after I married Mr Kandy and we lived in a pre war bungalow still never thought to find them a nesting place because in those days though we were members of the RSPB thought more of trying to attract all the other birds into our garden to nest.

It wasn't until we moved here and raed in the quarterly RSPB magazine that the Sparrows were in decline that I thought we must do something so we trotted all the way over to our nearest!!!RSPB shop at Sandy and bought a Tit box and a Sparrow Terrace.Back home Mr Kandy armed with drill and hammer as well as a ladder climbed up and installed the nest boxes.

When I went out to see his handy work saw that the Sparrow Terrace ws not under the eaves where it should have gone but along the same line as the Tit box.When I pointed it out to him he got a strop on and refused to reposition the Sparrow terrace so to this day it is still where it was put and though we havn't had any Sparrows nest in it it was home to a bee the other year and this year we had Blue Tits nest in one of the sections.

We still have Sparrows come into the garden,both Tree and House as well as other birds so at least we are keeping them alive

It was said in the RSPB magazine that because of the designs of new houses these days there are no gaps where either Starlings or Sparrows can nest,though in this village due to **** workmanship a few have found holes in which to bring up their young.

I do hope that we don't lose this lovely little bird completely as I for one would miss their chirps in the spring and also their squabbles...