feeding Sparrows

Sparrows are breeding now, so along the lines of this London project we’re feeding mealworms, since we don’t want the last chirp to ring out here. I like their chirping, and they’re a harmless little bird that would be missed. We’re getting a decent number of customers, as you can see in this video. It was nice to see the starling repelled – mealworms are too good for starlings. They can slum it on something cheaper.

video

Although London grabs the headlines, the lopping of hedges and the replacement of lawns with nice paving to get the second 4×4 off the road is happening in my neighbourhood too. I did a walk round surveying sparrows in the immediate area, and discovered more than half of people’s front gardens had been converted to a car parking space, which means the loss of a lot of sparrow hedges and grass with insects. Hopefully this mealworm feeder is making up for some of those lost food sources.
This fading out of sparrows is strange. At RSPB Minsmere, which is about as bird-friendly a place as you are going to get, the last sparrow chirp rang out over 20 years ago. I have a 1970s book which says they are “resident and abundant” there (Minsmere, Portrait of a Bird Reserve, Herbert Axell & Eric Hosking, 1977”) but I have never seen one mentioned in the site report or seen one there.
Finally, if you’re American and hate sparrows, note this web address is a .co.uk which means I’m British, and therefore entitled to be crazy :) House sparrows are native in Europe, and we’ve lived with them for thousands of years. They add a little bit of color to our towns and cities, and it is a source of great dismay to us that something seems to be killing them off – possibly us as we tidy up all our gardens and pave over the neighborhood to park our cars. Many British towns were laid out before cars so we don’t all have your garages and driveways, hence the urban pressure on space.
More sparrow decline links:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2655535.stm
RSPB – Insect-friendly gardens may help to slow sparrows’ decline
London House Sparrow Appeal
Food Scarcity is hitting sparrows