I’ve lots of house sparrows here, remain through the winter too (when they are much quieter...). Nest in the roof, holes in eves and pretty much wherever they can fit. West of Scotland.
@Dovefromabove I would never have guessed they'd be on red! I'm really glad we have them in the garden all year round, it was lovely watching the babies being taught, and especially how to bath! I always try to count them. 😄
In my previous house I had loads of house sparrows, on average about 30 sparrows that never seemed to leave my well stocked garden. The house was in a fairly suburban area, 4 years ago we moved to a much more rural property and until earlier this spring I hadn’t seen any sparrows in our garden despite having the same bird feeders up. So I was absolutely thrilled when I started seeing a pair in the garden earlier this spring, they then took up residence in a blue tit box and this weekend, 2 baby sparrows fledged. This is a photo of Mr and Mrs Sparrow trying to entice the babies out.
The loss of traditional pantiled roofs, and the modern technique of installing ‘eave combs’ mean that sparrows are rapidly losing their communal nesting sites … so putting up terraced nestboxes is a way of replacing them.
I don’t think we have ever had any sparrows here. Plenty of dunnocks though.
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
I think there are a lot less around than 50 years ago, but they still seem to be one of the more common birds to me. We have a colony of them year-round in our barns. I love them because they are there every day of the year, with their cheerful, tuneless chirping. They are the sound of home to me.
Carmarthenshire (mild, wet, windy). Loam over shale, very slightly sloping, so free draining. Mildly acidic or neutral.
As a child I loved watching the sparrows having a dust bath in the dried up muddy puddles around the edges of the farmyard. I’ve not seen sparrows having a dust bath for ages … not enough muddy puddles … farmyards are so tidy nowadays. 🙄
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Come and sit in my garden for a while, Dove. We have a shallow stream running down our drive and it is always full of wildlife, drinking, washing, swallows and martins picking up the mud. They'll be dust bathing if the rain ever stops and the stream begins to shrink a bit
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
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I'm really glad we have them in the garden all year round, it was lovely watching the babies being taught, and especially how to bath!
I always try to count them. 😄
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”