HOUSE SPARROWS – AN OPINION
In the last
issue the Editor reported a conversation about house sparrows with “a nice
lady”. He was worried about the decline in their numbers while she was less
concerned about the fate of “messy birds”.
I join with the
lady in a dislike of large congregations of the bird. My dislike goes back to
my boyhood in wartime Leicestershire where the yards in which bullocks were
kept over-winter attracted large numbers of sparrows, feeding in the mangers
and nesting under the pantiles, fouling the feed and damaging buildings.
Cleaning sparrow excrement from cattle troughs on cold wet mornings was no fun
and the cattle were probably not keen on it, either.
Later I worked
at a plant breeding institute which bred the high-quality winter barley
varieties now providing a large proportion of the malt used in British beer.
The winter barley breeding program was, at first, set back by large flocks of
sparrows which could, in one visit, completely clear all the milk-ripe grain
from a small plot of a new selection. The problem was solved at considerable
expense by putting nets over most of the experimental plots.
Anecdotal
evidence of this sort abounds and some old farming books advocated sowing wheat
varieties like Rampton Rivett with long strong awns in fields near to
the farm building. Unfortunately sparrows cannot read, and eat grain from
unawned and awned wheat and barley with equal relish.
These opinions
about the house sparrow hark back to before 1980 (after that I had spells in
Australia where the white cockatoo and the Galah (a grey and red parrot) were
the main hazard when trying to measure yields on experimental plots). Since
1970 there has been a decline in sparrow numbers estimated by the British Trust
for Ornithology to be about 50 per cent overall, but varying from region to
region (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends). The house sparrow, however, is still
one of the commonest British birds and the BTO does not regard it as
particularly under threat (Conservation listing: Unlisted /Green, Biodiversity
Steering Group: unlisted), a view echoed in Suffolk Birds (2000. Systematic
List. p.136). There is generally a consensus about some of the main factors
behind the decline, including a diminution in breeding sites, reduction in
grain lying about the farm yard and an increase in predator numbers.
Recognising the present level of the sparrow population and then having some
idea of the reasons, should we strive to return it to its former size or is
there a desirable (‘optimum’, ‘sustainable’?) population that could be aimed
for?
In Suffolk the
practice of buying cattle to keep in yards over-winter and to use arable
by-products such as bedding straw, barley straw, cereals and sugar beet pulp,
was too laborious and has more or less vanished. With it have gone many of the
buildings, usually open fronted sheds with tile roofs, ideal nesting sites for
sparrows. Similarly there can be no return to unhygienic and wasteful open
grain stores, providing both shelter and an unending supply of food, and the
combine harvester has replaced the stack yard and threshing drum. Few of these
changes can be regretted; ask the farm worker who worked all day threshing
barley, his lungs full of dust and a shirt full of awns or spent a part of each
weekend strawing down and feeding bullocks.
Any attempt to
increase numbers, therefore will probably have to come from the householder and
gardener rather than from the farmer. The sparrow, more than any bird, is a
commensal depending on man for food and shelter and seldom straying far from
habitation and this is a case where ‘think local’ might work. In old houses
sparrows often nested under the eaves, pushing under the slates and filling the
gutters with nesting material. Removal of the plastic ventilation grill beneath
the eaves in modern houses would provide more nest sites. Cats and sparrowhawks
are blamed for falling numbers, but science has generally absolved the latter
and, anyhow, rather sparrowhawks than sparrows. Perhaps a cat tax or a cat
curfew, such as they have in parts of Australia to protect small native
marsupials should be considered.
Even if, and it
is a big if, these measures were introduced it is unlikely that sparrow numbers
would return to their former excessive levels, but would this be a biodiversity
disaster? I for one think not and, on the assumption that for every extra
sparrow there will be one less chaffinch or similar bird, think that a reduced
but stable house sparrow population is desirable, both from biodiversity and
agricultural and gardening viewpoints.
Footnote: If
you are nostalgic for swarms of sparrows I suggest a holiday in Melbourne,
Australia and particularly a visit to the botanic gardens tearoom. There the
sparrows are so numerous that they snatch the food from your hand, foul the
tables and generally make a meal unbearable - a lesson about the introduction
of unsuitable wildlife.
Michael Kirby, The Studio, Blythburgh Road, Westleton, Saxmundham, IP17 3AS
E-mail: e_j_m_kirby@btinternet.com
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