|
Last updated at 12:50 27/02/06 |
||
Welcome to the
|
 " I need a hedge !" |
I came to this conclusion of an uncaring media due to the struggle I've encountered to get anyone in a position of influence to understand and publicise the significance of habitat destruction as the main reason house sparrow numbers are still falling.
Most house sparrow nest sites have been destroyed deliberately or eradicated during roof repairs or renewal. Estate agents and property surveyors insist bird's nests are removed from houses. Sadly, many people do not like having house sparrows nesting in their roof and are happy to see them gone; their incessant chirruping is either loved or hated. Sparrows thrive where roofs have holes, where cover is available and there are places to search and find food, and they like to be left alone. Hedges and ivy also give the house sparrow a chance to find suitable accommodation if they have been evicted by yet another thoughtless homeowner.
In my opinion, the rapid changes in our urban & suburban environment has caused house sparrows to disappear from many of our towns and cities. The removal of hedges and front gardens for car parking has eradicated the cover used by most of our sparrows as an important part of their habitat requirements.
While many interesting ideas have been put forward about sparrow decline, by those who are actively studying the problem, sparrow loss is continuing apace because critical time is being wasted looking for a mystery cause that does not exist.
It's really strange that while all over the world, endangered animal species are facing extinction because their habitat is under threat from mankind, the humble British house sparrow is oddly perceived as not affected by local habitat destruction - but by a mysterious cause! - Something new we have added, rather than what we have taken away.
Instead, we have intriguing theories put forward like sparrowhawks, magpies, cats, tidy gardens, mobile phone masts and the volatile compounds in unleaded petrol affecting insects, as possible reasons for sparrow decline. Journalists and concerned organisations habitually list these familiar possible reasons whenever a new idea is suggested.
 Website Author, Donald E Lyven |
People have always tidied their gardens; magpies, sparrowhawks and cats have always been with us, and as for phone masts, these are purely coincidental with the era we live in. It would be better to study the increasing widespread use of pest and weed-killers in people's gardens, now that these unnecessary products are absurdly peddled by greedy multinational chemical companies and sold without restraint by supermarkets alongside their groceries.
The concern about unleaded petrol needs to be further studied, considering that in America, the fumes from petrol pumps are extracted away, and not allowed to escape into the atmosphere, protecting their customers from the potential carcinogenic effects of benzene. Curiously in this country, this hazard is conveniently ignored by the petrol industry.
I hope after you read my various essays on the important close links I've observed between my local sparrows and hedges, you will appreciate why I believe most urban and suburban house sparrows prefer to live where all the factors important to their needs are immediately available. I suggest hedges are the key element in this, providing the vital protective cover they require, including linking nest site with food supply.
Destroy the hedges and the sparrow colony they support will inevitably disappear, most probably dying out if they cannot relocate to a similar environment promptly.
What follows is a list of several articles I've sent to various editors during the past two years, with little success. How many of them have been responsible for habitat destruction themselves I wonder? I make no apology for any reuse of my own text and ideas in these essays. If something is worth saying, it's worth repeating. As is:
Sparrows Need Hedges!
Cotton Bags CampaignMy wife and I are running a campaign to distribute cotton bags to use for shopping as an alternative to the oft discarded plastic supermarket bags that are so popular and damaging. See our cotton bags page for more information. back to top |
Correspondence from J. Denis Summers-Smithback to top |
Also:
|
Read the replies/rejections I've received so far
|