Goodbye, wee sparrow, you made our garden a happier place

[kiloran]

Looked out the sunlounge window a couple of hours ago, and 20-30 sparrows were sitting peacefully in/on a hedge, a few feet away from a feeder. They're a permanent feature there these days, chattering away.

Then....BLAM!

A dark shape swooped down and blasted into the hedge, and then flew off with a sparrow to a neighbour's tree. All over in a split second. A sparrowhawk I presume, I usually see one in our garden a few times a year, sitting on the fence. Not a sparrow to be seen since. Hopefully they'll be back, but there's so many, they are an easy target.

--kiloran

[AleisterCrowley]

I've never seen sparrows doing anything 'peacefully' - there are usually loads in the bush outside our kitchen window back home (Shropshire), making a constant noise and whirring around the place. I do like them though. For some reason i rarely see them down here in Slough (and I'm next to a park and Eton playing fields, not dense urban)
Perhaps they prefer rural fringes?

[kiloran]

I've never seen sparrows doing anything 'peacefully'

You're probably right. I never was a master craftsman of the english language.
How about 'contentedly''?

--kiloran

[AleisterCrowley]

They certainly seem cheerful, and very cheepy
I miss having the sparrows around. We get a few blackbirds here, lots of magpies (yuck) and an increasing number of ring-necked parakeets (really)
Plenty of red kites too - looked out of my window yesterday and one was doing a low pass, showing off the 'forked' tail feathers, angled to steer

[midnightcatprowl]

They'll be back in my experience. Have lots of sparrows and a sparrowhawk(s) that passes through. Actually the sparrows seem to get over the shock faster than my cats who come racing inside and usually upstairs too for safety!

[colin]

Perhaps they prefer rural fringes?

sparrows are birds of woodland edge, so small trees and shrubs they come down to the ground to feed in grassy seedy areas not too far from trees, so where cities /towns provide these areas in parks and gardens with suitable shrubs and medium to small trees there are sparrows it seems to me .

[Slarti]

I've never seen sparrows doing anything 'peacefully' - there are usually loads in the bush outside our kitchen window back home (Shropshire), making a constant noise and whirring around the place.

If you think sparrows are noisy, you should have starlings squabbling over your feeders. If there are enough of them they can drown out the TV!

They are very dog in a manger, in that if there is one on the feeder, having a go, the next one to arrive won't land on one of the 5 free perches, but will try to get at the one already in use. Then they end up fighting an squawking over it, usually in an ascending flight. Which is when a sparrow will nip in for some nosh.

Slarti

[AleisterCrowley]

The feral parakeets in Windsor Great Park take some beating!
They gather in a tree, and squawk...

[Slarti]

The feral parakeets in Windsor Great Park take some beating!
They gather in a tree, and squawk...

When going to their roost, they fly over a hotel I used to use in Weybridge and the noise meant that you couldn't get to sleep before sunset.


Slarti

[AleisterCrowley]

I was sat in my local park last night, and there were several of them hopping from treetop to treetop, making a right racket..