When I was a youngster it was common to see flocks of sparrows. Australia once said that the budgerigar was the equivalent of sparrows. By the early seventies there were around 12 million sparrows. House sparrows have dwindled in the last 25 years according to the RSPB by 62% enough of a drop to be red listed as a species of high conservation concern. When we moved here we started with a flock of 4 and began looking out for them. Our flock has increased to as many as 12.
With the start of the frosty, crisp, whiteover mornings and snow being forecast our neighbour soon had a collection of tits and finches clinging onto their hanging containers of peanuts and fat balls. We put a seed tray out last week. It snowed prettily but quite heavily yesterday. This is an early start, for here, of what may be another long and cold winter. There were so many birds all trying to tuck in at once today and so many more queuing up for a turn that I'll have to dig out at least one more tray to keep up with the demand.
Enjoyed reading your blog, good luck!
ReplyDeleteWe didn't get any snow here dahn sarf, but we still had plenty of hungry birds. I was at my parents place this morning, my mother feeds them. Sight of the day was not a sparrow, but a moorhen. I had to walk past and all the little birds flew away, but the moorhen climbed into a low branched apple tree. Very odd seeing a bird with webbed feet doing that!
ReplyDeleteThanks Claire, it's very nice to hear you had a good read.
ReplyDeleteSurely not a transspecies moorhen? I've always been enamoured that there can be a little adventure around the next corner when nature can throw these charming, and sometimes comical, surprises at you. I'll tell you about a fox in a blog post because I think it'll make you smile. It's trying to snow again as I write btw.