A Lone Sparrow Tale

Last Monday my wife decided to defrost the freezer. Out of it came a lone bagel which she hung on the tree - a convenient branch stub and the hole made it possible.

Before long the brightly coloured bread doughnut attracted a flock of starlings which convene regularly on our apple tree. Their normal fare is to feast on our fat-filled coconut halves and sunflower feeder.

From a distance they are ugly looking brutes but close up you have to admire their speckled plumage.

But the title of this story indicates that the central subject is not the starling but the humble house sparrow.

And I mean humble in its truest sense because the sparrow population of London appears to have been decimated in recent years. So much so, that when I see one in my back garden it is highlight of my daily bird spotting.

So it was that as I was photographing the tree and the bagel a lone sparrow popped into the frame, also attracted to this treat.

Here is the little fella pecking away at the exposed soft interior of the bagel. He was a lithe one. Not the fat fluffy ones that you sometimes see.

And he was all alone. The days of flocks of noisy sparrows, in my part of London at least, are long gone.

The question is: what has happened to them? Has their habitat been eroded? Is it the appearance of a larger bird or predator which caused the population to drop? Has our eco-system changed so dramatically that the numbers of these birds has been radically reduced?

The house sparrow population of the UK declined by 60% between 1994 and 2004 (RSPB), and I have little visual evidence in London of seeing any improvement from this disastrous state of affairs.

So I was very pleased and surprised to see this sparrow enjoying our bagel.  That is until this aggressive starling turned up also intent on feasting on the same item.

I only realised the extent of the aggression by the starling when I processed the photograph. It is clearly attacking the sparrow. It looks quite alarming in this photograph.

In fact, he seemed to end up grabbing the sparrow's hair.

The sparrow beat a hasty retreat to the sunflower feeder. Clearly, sparrows are made of sterner stuff because as soon as the starling lost interest, it was back on the bagel again.

Although it would seem that no harm was done, perhaps this is indicative of the behaviour by other birds which has helped to wear down the numbers of this species. It is hard to imagine this would have happened if the sparrow was protected by a flock but as I only ever see individual ones they are at the mercy of their solitary lives.

All's well that ends well, and after a bit more feasting the Sparrow exited stage right for another perch elsewhere.


All photographs Copyright LouisBerk.com 2018 - No unauthorised reproduction

 

 

"Occupied!"

 

My garden in north London is home to an increasingly large variety of birds, and other wildlife. One of the regular flocks that appreciate the catering I provide are Goldfinches. At times I have seen five of these highly decorated birds feeding on sunflowers and nyjer seeds. They are quite fearless - perhaps because of their numbers - and territorial, even amongst themselves.