Sparrows Need HedgesHouse Sparrows - Their Decline Explained and Current Status in Barnet (Part 1)
London still has house sparrows if you know where to look. True they have declined dramatically in areas of the capital where there are few places for them to nest or feed, and as a result many districts have now lost them completely; but in pockets of the outer suburbs where there are hedges for cover, gardens for food and crevices in buildings for nesting, sparrows are thriving as much as they ever did. 2005 was a reasonable year for house sparrows around my chosen study area - within the Borough of Barnet, the area of north London where I live - especially on the archetypal sprawling council estates where the majority of sparrows are still found. I discovered this by noticing the correlation between council estates, hedges and house sparrows and first wrote about it in 2002. Since then, of the 130 sparrow colonies I am now aware of in Barnet, (most found by actually walking the streets) 92% are in council housing areas. Considering that only around 12% of the borough’s 125,000 households are council, this is a startling statistic. More so, when about half the Council properties are flats and in general have no sparrows.
Last year I observed and photographed sparrows at different locations in Barnet during varied stages of their lives carrying out a range of activities, and I’ve used these pictures throughout; I wish to state: There is no unknown cause for the disappearance of sparrows from our towns and cities, as yet to be discovered. The reason sparrows are vanishing is the direct result of habitat loss. And in this essay I will endeavour to explain why.
Personally, I never considered their disappearance a great mystery; their decline was a natural and logical result of the continued habitat destruction taking place around us. It seemed that’s what society wanted. It follows, if you take away a particular bird’s habitat, that bird will experience difficulty and eventually go. This is just as true for sparrows as with any bird species. Conversely, put in the correct habitat and birds will, hopefully, find and use it; e.g. the excellent Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve at Barnes in southwest London.
I know it’s believed house sparrows can live anywhere, and they have been very adaptable when pushed, but let’s not imagine they do this through natural choice. I could live in a car if I had to but I would not choose to. It’s important to re-stress, birds are commonly found where their preferred habitat is, just as you will have more chance of finding kingfishers near a stream or seeing a jay in a wooded location. Similarly, house sparrows will be where there is access to a roof space, cover and areas to feed from, and not around a modern apartment block with an impenetrable roof, surrounded by a carpark. These new developments often have just a few patches of spiky plants growing up through thick layers of inert bark chippings - why?
House sparrows are named because of their association with humans and our desire to live in dry structures, which the sparrows enjoyed too. Our grain gathering and the rich pickings around us, especially near our livestock, attracted them. Consequently, sparrows have traditionally suffered persecution, firstly with farmers for eating various foodstuffs and latterly from the majority of city dwellers, who have either unwittingly removed cover and feeding areas from around their houses, or willingly by forcibly evicting sparrows from roofs. Current food hygiene regulations prohibit birds nesting anywhere near where food is prepared or sold. This obviously excludes house sparrows now from most of our city centres where food outlets are commonplace and anti-bird measures cover many buildings. These changes in our lifestyle have caused sparrow loss across much of the United Kingdom. Alas, the wildlife and biodiversity Quango’s tasked to deal with sparrow decline are relying on the expertise of bird organisations before they come up with any answers. The situation with these talking shops benefits no one - certainly not the present well-being of house sparrows - there is no constructive information about helping the birds on their websites.
Little has changed since I attended the Defra sponsored National Sparrow Conference, held at London’s City Hall in February 2004, apart from starting my own website: www.sparrowsneedhedges.com which deals with habitat destruction, containing photographs and articles I’ve written about house sparrow decline. It’s an odd thing; some respondents think I’m saying sparrows just need hedges, which is nonsense! I chose the name to represent the typical traditional front garden, which provides the sparrows’ dietary needs of weeds, buds & seeds, together with bugs, caterpillar and various grubs. An evergreen hedge like privet acts as useful year-round cover to help facilitate this.
It’s important to understand the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) do not own the nation’s sparrow flock. They may be the only organisations the Media consult and get their information of birds from, but these bodies are made up of individuals like any other organisation, and are only as sharp as the knowledge and ideas of the members who make up their numbers. Could some form of rivalry between these two respected groups be hindering a definitive statement on house sparrow decline? Just because someone knows the Latin name of the house sparrow does not immediately make him or her an expert on its needs. In this case, obsession with scientific methodology has created a situation in which research scientists are ignoring the ‘emperors new clothes’ of the blatantly obvious and mundane habitat loss dilemma causing sparrow decline, while they are striving to discover some type of tantalising mysterious killer virus or whatever; that if only it could be determined, would somehow solve the house sparrows’ predicament overnight. Yes we know many young sparrows are not surviving through lack of invertebrate food; but where do you think they get this food from? Juicy grubs do not live on bare concrete or oiled hardwood decking.
A variety of plants offer a range of buds, seeds and bugs. Actually stopping habitat destruction is extremely difficult and takes great effort in campaigning. You are up against big business, political pressure on housing, individual choice, greed and often crass stupidity. Witness the destruction by Barnet council workmen cutting away masses of cotoneaster and pyracantha berry laden shrubbery last January, and spraying glyphosate based products on weeds and pavements during the summer! When my council talk about a ‘green borough’ I believe they refer to their lack of knowledge about caring for wildlife….
The Media have occasionally highlighted the sparrows’ plight over the years, but always take the curious line about an ‘unknown reason’ causing their decline. This continued ‘we just don’t know’ approach is infuriating, as is the wasted time and money spent studying this problem; research that has not saved one sparrow up to this point, nor will it do so in the near future while the destruction of their habitat continues. The same sad problem affecting species of animals all over the world - mankind annihilating the preferred habitat needed by particular creatures.
By habitat, I’m including everything, from nest site, food and water sources to cover. Expecting a sparrow colony to do well living in neat bird boxes, stuck on the side of a house, and collecting their food from bird tables and feeders with a ‘weedy patch’ in the garden is a near futile exercise. Sparrows need a wide ranging variety of plants to be able to find the invertebrate food for their young in the breeding season and enough seeds and scraps to sustain them for the rest of the year. Food and nests are not their only requirement though; I’ve observed they thrive best where there’s plenty of cover. Shrubs, bushes and hedges, are all important for them to perch, preen, rest, digest and socialise in; and also to hide from predators if need be. Trees like hawthorn, yew, holly and other berry producing plants also provide food and necessary winter cover. Photos and illustrations of house sparrows in books often show these birds magnificently in close detail, but ignore the bird’s location. Better to show the type of hedge the sparrow is sitting in, to help understand their requirements, rather than it has nostrils! No surprise, it’s in a hedge!
Equally significantly, house sparrows love living close to humans, preferably in our houses. The answer to their needs is in the name they’ve acquired. Lack of proper home maintenance is a sparrows delight. If there’s a loose roof tile, crumbling cement or a gap around a soffit board, sparrows will, if they are in the area and there is suitable habitat nearby, use it to gain access to a comfy nest in the eaves. Ivy growing up the walls of houses is also a potential home for sparrows, yet misinformed people believe ivy will destroy brickwork. Many humans are finally severing the symbiotic relationship we’ve endured with sparrows over the millennia,distancing them by physically preventing the birds living near. How can it adapt if there’s nowhere to nest and nothing to eat? It’s a cop-out to say house sparrows can live anywhere. If they can’t relocate quickly after being evicted, they can die if they fail to find a suitable nesting site and adequate food source.
The perception of the house sparrow problem is relative to what people experience. To someone who notices sparrows, and currently lives in a house with sparrows in a street with other sparrows, there has been no reduction - because the sparrows are still there. And in the course of my employment I visit districts and meet people who don’t realise there is an overall sparrow decline as they still see them and have experienced nothing different during the past few decades. Many people don’t even notice there are sparrows about, as they’ve always had them and are either unconsciously used to them or don’t care either way.
Yet contrast this to someone who misses the birds, living in a house with no sparrows, in a street with no sparrows, in a district with no sparrows, and then the correct assumption is that they’ve gone because something’s happened to them. To add to the situation, many people are not ‘sparrow aware.’ A woman I spoke to earlier this year said she was concerned there were no sparrows around anymore, yet actually had them nesting in her roof! Other people still mistake the odd dunnock, scratching around on the ground for sparrows, adding to the confusion.
What makes sparrows live in some areas and not other seems to occupy the inquisitive minds of many. I suggest most house sparrows live in areas where they are left to get on with their lives with no interference from humans. Typical is the council estate, where people do not own the house they live in, cannot remove their front garden for parking, have no financial interest in the building and are at the whim of the council repair service to maintain the roof as and when there is a problem - for the tenant has no desire to spend money on what isn’t theirs. Compare this to a district where everyone owns his or her house. Here, surveyors, estate agents and house insurers regard the house sparrow as a problem, something to be removed from the roof, like mice or rats from a basement. If parking is at a premium, especially with Controlled Parking Zones, then front gardens and hedges are more likely to be paved over to provide off-street parking. This removes useful cover and places for sparrows to find insects and seeds. Low maintenance is also desired. Many find it easier to pressure-hose or sweep a block-paved frontage than to bother about gardening, grass cutting and hedge trimming.
If house sparrows are in decline because of an unknown cause, then how come I can go and visit the many sparrow colonies I know with a certainty of seeing them, and yet travel to places where there are none? When going to a new district, why is it possible to foretell whether they’ll be sparrows around - or not - purely from observing the local houses and habitat? If the researchers are correct, and there is a reason for sparrow decline that’s yet to be discovered, then it's not operating evenly everywhere. It would be a selective cause, which makes no sense at all; unless this ‘reason’ also knows about habitat destruction, roof repairs, property types and lack of suitable vegetation! |
