I Think I Have Found Some Of England's Missing Sparrows

[rowanwitch]

They are all in my friends garden. The bushes are full of them, she has a pair of song thrushes too. I will get some live mealworms today and give them a treat.

[murraymints]

I have all of Scotland's spuggies...can't keep them going ! hungry wee blighters..

[rowanwitch]

It's so nice to see them, but they make a hell of a racket for small birds.

[murraymints]

they have 2 feeding times around 7am and 5pm.. thrush ..starlings blackies etc middle of day..crows magpies etc around 7pm... strange

[rowanwitch]

I've been putting the left over cat food on the lawn after three days the crows are starting to queue up for it. Cath is going to wonder what I have been up to.

[Chipchopper]

I thought that sparrows were chiefly seed eaters, except when feeding their young in the spring.
It will be interesting to know if they will eat the mealworms.

[murraymints]

mine have seed and scraps from table...they love curry rice !

[jakep]

We had no sparrows for about four years.
In the last three years or so they’ve come back in good numbers. I enjoy watching them feed the juveniles who are almost as big as their parents!

[Hopkirk]

Translation please Murraymints.

What are spuggies?

[rowanwitch]

I am starting a list for friend and daughter to continue. With a few tweaks this garden could be a mini nature reserve.

[murraymints]

sparrows Hoppy !

[Tilly2]

On the other side of the coin, yesterday, I spent 20/25 minutes watching a Sparrowhawk sitting on a pergola in my garden. It must have been digesting a previous meal. It had feathers stuck to its beak. A couple of hours later it was back but it only stayed for about 5 minutes. Absolutely beautiful, it was.

[murraymints]

we get them here often Tilly...I don't look !

[rowanwitch]

It's why we need more sparras, we get more sparrowhawks, think of the sparrows as a food crop.

[murraymints]

saw one take down a blackbird a couple of weeks ago...mid flight..

[rowanwitch]

The local kestrels are specialising in wagtails, seen a few taken recently. The buzzards are more used to Gregg's sausage rolls a friend throws out for the foxes.

[murraymints]

with a large country estate just up the road we get a lot of birds of prey... bit of shooting going on just now..glorious 12th and all that...

[rowanwitch]

Bullfinch, hoping to see other half of pair I love them