I’m in the SW as well, it’s rained almost every day at some time, just a few days of heatwave, when was that? A distant memory. I’ve watered my hanging baskets and tubs only three times this season.
My garden is about three weeks behind everyone else’s down here, so just saying SW would‘nt be any good at all. Nothing gets planted out till first week in June, or even later.
anyway, I still love the sparrows?
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
I have had goldfinches, green finches, blue tits, long tailed tits, woodpeckers, wrens, tree-creepers, chaffinches, fly-catchers, blackbirds, song thrushes and many other species of birds over about 10 years which i have fed and encouraged.
There were sparrows, dozens and dozens to start with, which nested in my neighbors ivy which cover all their walls and windows and out buildings.
.Gradually, I have seen the sparrows bully, harass, e.vict from nesting boxes ALL the native and other small gardenbirds. I have watched with dismay as the sparrow population has grown to hundreds and the small birds disappear. My own trees are full of sparrows now, my gutters have sparrows. There are droppings everywhere. On a warm day you can smell the excrement in the ivy.
I am sorry friends, I do not like the sparrow and to the contributer in Bulgaria....I feel for you! Sentimentality is fine, but there is a natural balance in the garden and encouraging one species like the bully-boy sparrow in a garden does not contribute to nuturing the other less aggressive birds.
Oh, and many birds eat aphids, the sparrow is not serving humans exclusively as pest eradicators... they are simply feeding themselves. So yes, by all means love the sparrow, but remember all the other lovely birds they displace.
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@Lirio,
OK, I love detective work myself, esp. guessing plant IDs.
I’m in the SW as well, it’s rained almost every day at some time, just a few days of heatwave, when was that? A distant memory. I’ve watered my hanging baskets and tubs only three times this season.
My garden is about three weeks behind everyone else’s down here, so just saying SW would‘nt be any good at all. Nothing gets planted out till first week in June, or even later.
anyway, I still love the sparrows?
(I live in the north of England by the way.)
I must be in a minotity on this issue.
I have had goldfinches, green finches, blue tits, long tailed tits, woodpeckers, wrens, tree-creepers, chaffinches, fly-catchers, blackbirds, song thrushes and many other species of birds over about 10 years which i have fed and encouraged.
There were sparrows, dozens and dozens to start with, which nested in my neighbors ivy which cover all their walls and windows and out buildings.
.Gradually, I have seen the sparrows bully, harass, e.vict from nesting boxes ALL the native and other small gardenbirds. I have watched with dismay as the sparrow population has grown to hundreds and the small birds disappear. My own trees are full of sparrows now, my gutters have sparrows. There are droppings everywhere. On a warm day you can smell the excrement in the ivy.
I am sorry friends, I do not like the sparrow and to the contributer in Bulgaria....I feel for you! Sentimentality is fine, but there is a natural balance in the garden and encouraging one species like the bully-boy sparrow in a garden does not contribute to nuturing the other less aggressive birds.
Oh, and many birds eat aphids, the sparrow is not serving humans exclusively as pest eradicators... they are simply feeding themselves. So yes, by all means love the sparrow, but remember all the other lovely birds they displace.
....a minority I mean.....excuse my spell checker...me...defective, obviously,