Sparrows Need Hedges

A Recent Local Sparrow Colony Disappearance

There is a house in a street near to where I live, where house sparrows nested in the roof using two access points under the sofit board at the front of the property. There were several large leylandii trees in the garden a few feet apart, presumably originally planted to provide a dense hedge.

Nothing was done to these trees over the years; they were never cut back and so grew tall with their tops reaching higher than the line of the guttering. The sparrows would spend hours in them chirruping away, flying to and from their nest in the roof and using the trees as cover to fly from when they descended to the ground to feed and fly back into when disturbed.

Many front gardens in the same road have been removed for car parking over the past few years, including several either side of the leylandii garden, and so the colony of sparrows were quite isolated but survived and were always evident whenever I used to pass this house on the way to and from my allotment throughout the seasons.

Unfortunately earlier this year, the owner of the house had the trees cut down, apparently wanting more light, leaving a row of three-foot stumps in the front garden. The house sparrows were later seen sitting on the guttering and made longer flights to and from some sparse hedging further down the road. This situation lasted for just over a week until one day they were not seen or heard again, not even further along the road. They had gone.

This event was extremely upsetting for me, as they were the last colony of house sparrows in that road and the second nearest colony to my own home. Whether they moved away or died out is almost irrelevant, for the fact is, it was the destruction of these trees, providing the necessary dense cover these sparrows required, that caused the sparrows to disappear from this location. The man responsible was not even aware or cared he had sparrows living in his house!

With the dense cover gone, the
house sparrows soon disappeared

More front gardens in this particular road have gone since this sad incident, as residents object to paying £35 a year to the local council to park outside their own homes. They pay even more for second and third vehicles. I understand front garden loss has been accelerated across the borough since the introduction of these Controlled Parking Zones.

My council was quite slow in introducing these CPZs, as they have been used elsewhere in London for many years. One can only surmise that the continued removal of London's suburban front gardens has had a detrimental effect on the habitat of the House sparrow. Hedgehogs are also becoming rare. Sparrows' need hedges. They provide the cover they feel comfortable with for protection and safety.

Most hedges are in front gardens, not back gardens and it is the destruction of front gardens for car parking that has unwittingly caused the dramatic decline of the house sparrow in our towns and cities.