Sparrows

[Lmfao]

Anyone know about birds, especially sparrows?

Middle of this year (or before that) I had a pigeon make a nest in the 'bush' growing over my garage. Sweet I thought and eventually a youngern appeared.

So I bought some seed and chucked it out into the garden.

All good, some sparrows, a robin and young pigeon eating it all up.

Put a 'table' into the bushes on the side of the garden and stuck some seed on it with some water for the little ones and continued to put seed on the grass for young pigeon.

Nice to watch them....my cats love watching them as well (very old cats, not too bothered about running around)

On an aside, young pigeon is now called crazy pigeon as he/she doesn't give a damn about my cats and is quite happy to 'stare them out' lol.

My question is now about the amount of sparrows!

Loved watching the 'parents' feed the young but now I put seed out aaaannnnnnd....its gone!

The most I have counted is 31 before they got spooked and flew off.

Just put out a large bag of seed, most on the table some on the grass, walked back into the house, turned around and there was a covering of sparrows.
In no time all the seed was gone??

Have I done wrong and now need to supply 20 quid of seed per week?

Any help....ta

Ps: did feel bad at one point when I looked out of the window and saw a large bird with one of the sparrows in it's 'hand'....good looking bird though

 

[EFLImpudence]

No, you haven't done wrong.

If you stop putting it out they will go somewhere else.


Try it with pasties and sea gulls at the coast - or in nearby town late at night.

 

[Tigercubrider]

good that you see so many. An old office - we used to see them flocking (there is a correct word) before roosting in 100's or 1000's
Round here you don't see so many

I don't feed the birds too often, because I don't want them to rely on me .
we have red kites in their 10's circling.

 

[conny]

They know winter is coming so are trying to store fat to both keep them warm and sustain them when temperatures drop below zero.
Do you live in a town/city as opposed to the countryside? We live in the countryside and have sparrows and wood pigeons in the garden but now winter is approaching we see a variety of other birds such as tits, wood peckers, starlings etc. Spring brings an abundance of lots of different birds, especially when we have put seeds on the table or in the feeders.

One word of caution. DON'T put bread or cakes out for the birds. It has a tendency to swell up in their crop and is hard for them to digest, resulting in them not actually getting enough nourishment. We have found they love sunflower hearts and coconut shells filled with suet and wild seeds.

 

[KenGMac]

Lmfao, good evening.

We live on the promenade with the sea however, within the rear "Garden Areas" behind these properties lies a plethora of Sparrows + Pigeons

I have been feeding the sparrows, blue tits, a Robbin, as well as the Pigeons for years, fat balls and seed.

My next door neighbours had allowed an Ivy to grow and completely engulf a rear semi-circular stair, so far so good.

The Sparrows began to "Roost" in this Ivy overnight, it was absolutely hilarious to watch and listen to the Sparrows squabbling and arguing about sleeping sites, the Sparrows arrived in small flocks, I think at times there were 80+ birds minimum

What became really funny was that a single Sparrow would arrive and fly into the ivy only to be repulsed by a sitting tenant.

On a few occasions there would be a young Starling that would sit on the rainwater gutter, dive of and enter the Ivy, sometimes the Starling would be repulsed on several occasions by squatting Sparrows, but eventually the Starling would find an empty berth for the night..

Disaster struck, the owner over several days cut down the ivy so the "roost area" became reduced, But? the same number of Sparrows pitched up to try to roost, as above on steroids, birds squabbling all over the place.

Where we are now is that there are multiple small [possibly] family groups of Sparrows roaming around, put out some Fat balls and there are several different "families" or "flights" of Sparrows arriving to feed.

What I find of interest is that a couple of years back the Sparrow was considered to be on the endangered list.

Also, i have observed that there are different "Species" of Sparrow arriving in the family groups.

Must admit the Sparrows have given me, at least, a load of fun, despite [being a Scot] the expense of feeding them [what no eggs?}

Ken

 

[securespark]

I rarely see sparrows in Stockport.

 

[Doug99]

Magpies and rooks are in abundance around my garden and rarely see a sparrow.

 

[EFLImpudence]

I rarely see sparrows in Stockport.

Do you go there more often than rarely?

 

[securespark]

I think I'm a fairly frequent visitor, my postcode begins SK...

 

[EFLImpudence]

Ah. Ok.

I've never seen a sparrow in Stockport.

Lots in Bournemouth and here.