Big Garden Birdwatch - where are my sparrows?

At the end of January I took part in the RSPB's Big Garden bird watch. I wrote an account of my experiences in my Big Garden Birdwatch post. Now the RSPB have collated the results from over half a million people. The table below shows the top ten birds in East Sussex.

Rank in East Sussex	Species	Average per East Sussex garden	In my garden
1	House Sparrow	3.4	None
2	Blue tit	3.3	2
3	Starling	2.6	2
4	Blackbird	2.6	3
5	Woodpigeon	2	1
6	Great tit	1.4	None
7	Chaffinch	1.4	None
8	Robin	1.3	1
9	Collared Dove	1.2	1
10	Magpie	1.1	2

We also got 1 goldfinch (19th in East Sussex), 1 pied wagtail (30th), 1 song thrush (22nd). Our scores for the top 10 birds are a little less than average, which is surprising since we have a big garden with plenty of trees. That said, the trees and bushes allow the birds to stay out of sight and I didn't include any that I couldn't positively identify from a tantalising glimpse of a shape or a tail.

We do have one gaping gap right at the top of the table - no house sparrows. On previous years we've had a few but this year - none. For me, this is a particularly sad omission. I grew up in the London area and the cheeky sparrow was very much a bird of my childhood. Every time we threw crumbs out in the garden - no posh RSPB food then - dozens of squabbling sparrows would descend to enjoy our scraps. I didn't really notice them going. I had moved around, gone to university in Sheffield and then moved to Sussex. Now seeing or hearing this lively little bird has become a special treat rather than a part of every day life.

If it was only our garden that is missing sparrows, it wouldn't matter, but - although house sparrows are the most common bird in our counts - the RSPB say "Numbers of house sparrows, also on the red-list, dropped by 17 per cent in gardens compared to 2012 ..."

On their Red, amber and green explained page the RSPB tell us that "Red is the highest conservation priority, with species needing urgent action."

Kate Vincent completed a PhD Investigating the causes of the decline of the house sparrow in Britain and the associated web site has some information on What you can do. Her suggestions include:

• provide seed all the year round - especially sunflower hearts
• provide mealworms in summer, to help the fledglings
• provide a good mixture of shrubs in the garden
• leave some grass long
• provide a well topped-up bird bath all the year round.

Listening to an Uckfield morning - Late March

A month ago I wrote Listening to an Uckfield morning, a post about the sounds I heard as I walked from my Manor Park home to the station. It's a regular walk for me. Now, at 6 a.m,.it is light but still bitterly cold. In fact, I think it is is colder than when I took the same walk towards the end of February.

Last time it was all robins and blackbirds. This time, it is mostly pigeons. As I left home, I could hear the coo-coo coo-coo of woodpigeons. Some still roosting in tall trees, others are already on the wing. As I pass a hedge of conifer by Tesco Express, there is the cheeky chatter of house sparrows.

Woodpigeon - captured by Bushnell 3rd March 2013

One good thing about the lousy weather is it gives early risers common cause. Instead of the usual nod or wave, we speak. “Freezing, isn’t it?” then there's a cheery hello from a walker who has braved the cold to exercise her dog.

While winding round Downsview Crescent, I hear some rather raucous crowing and see a small group of rooks overhead. Are they heading off to their feeding grounds? I see a large black bird perched on a TV aerial – it has a black beak, which makes it a crow.

As I head into Southview Close the sound of traffic starts to dominate. The sulky morning light lets me see as well as hear what is about. Two collared doves perch in the robinia tree near Streatfield House and seagulls are wheeling overhead. I wonder if we are due more snow? The gulls often herald a storm of some sort. A blackbird clinging to the edge of the building sings a rather mournful song. It is the only one I hear on my journey. Did the others sing earlier in the day? Or did they not bother on this dreary apology for a morning?

As I turn into the town the cooing of the woodpigeons is replaced by a more bubbling, purring noise. I am hearing the feral pigeons who find perches all over the facades and roofs of Uckfield’s higgledy piggeldy shops.

As I approach the station, I hear the hiss of a hydraulic brake. My heart sinks as I see two buses pulled up next to the pub. This is never a good sign. They are replacing trains that can't run due to an electrical fault. Over the sound of grumbling commuters is the pip pip pip of a blue tit.

Briefly in the warm to get my ticket then about 20 minutes tooing and froing then onto a bus. Looking out of the window as we trundle along the road to Haywards Heath, I see lambs. The first I’ve seen this spring.

Spring Equinox - green shoots?

Well Spring's arrived - allegedly.

It's less than 2 weeks ago I was crowing about "spring becoming an unstoppable force". Since then we've had heavy, drifting snow and rain and unrelentingly cold miserable weather. The frog spawn is looking a bit sorry for itself and the daffodils are decidedly confused but ...

Wild arum, bluebell and fritillaria leaves under oak.

... green shoots are breaking through all over. Just a few weeks ago the area below our oak was barren looking mud. Now leaves of wild arum, bluebell and fritillaria are growing rapidly. Maybe, just maybe spring is arriving.

Blackthorn winter

I must admit that I really didn't believe it when they first started forecasting snow just before the weekend. Surely the most we could expect at this time of year is a light dusting. Oh how wrong I was.  As I travelled to work Monday morning, I admired the pretty blossoms of blackthorn and almond. On the way back I was glaring at increasingly heavy, driving snow. In The Woodlands (1825) William Cobbett talks about blackthorn winter.

It is a remarkable fact, that there is always, that is every  year of our lives, a spell of cold and angry weather, just at the time that this hardy little tree is in bloom. The country people call it the Black Thorn winter; and thus it has been called, I dare say, by all the inhabitants of this island, from generation to generation, for a thousand years.

Over the last day or so the weather has been more than angry enough. When I was coming home Browns Lane in Uckfield was getting too treacherous for most vehicles. The snow seemed to be falling in gusts and flurries for most of the night. By morning it wasn't, on average, very deep but the wind had swept snow off the Dene and onto the pavement and road. When I trudged to the shops it came over the top of my boots. Our little daffodils were completely buried and there was a good dusting over the trees and shrubs.

The aptly named Cornish Snow camelia, photographed 12 March.

But what of our wildlife? This morning, there were very few foot prints in the snow. We put food and water out for the birds and were rewarded with a mob of squawking starlings. As for the frog spawn that was laid only a few days ago, I'm hoping that the snow has been a protective blanket rather than a shroud.

Frog spawn

Give or take some forecasted snow and sub-zero temperatures, spring seems to have become an unstoppable force in the Uckfield area. The number of flowers blooming in the garden has increased from a few shy snow drops to a cascade of daffodils, primroses, hellebores and so many more.

Helebores and snowdrops photographed on 10 March, 2013.

Leaf buds are fattening, blue tits inspecting boxes and the frogs in our Manor Park garden are, at long last, spawning.

I've been keeping rough records for some time and this is the first time that I've noted them spawning so late. Here are the dates I've recorded over the past few years

• 2013 - 6th March
• 2012 - 25th Feb
• 2011 - 20th Feb
• 2010 - 28th Feb 
• 2009 - saw frogs active in pond 18th Feb
• 2008 - saw frogs active in pond 29th Feb
• 2007 - saw frogs active in pond 11th Feb
• 2005 - 19th Feb.

The frogs have produced a reasonable quantity of spawn in a few days.

 Of course, our frogs are not the only ones to have been busy recently. From Twitter, two local people had frogs spawning well ahead of mine:

• Tim Benians (@UckFramingCo) on the 27th of February
• Jenny Bacon (@Metique) on the 1st of March

Jenny is one of a heroic band that make sure that Uckfield's toads get to the pond on the Harlands estate by picking them up, putting them in buckets and carrying them across the roads. This work started around the 6th of March and continued for a number of days.
 
 

February's visitors

I've had my Bushnell trail camera out for 12 nights in February. That's most of the fine nights. Over that time I've been looking for a pattern. I've allocated each visit to a 2 hour slot as shown below.

Animal visits while the camera was out in February.

Sometimes a fox goes through early in the evening. These early visits tend to be fleeting, with the fox often moving through at speed. I had already worked out that we usually get a midnight visit and, as you can see that is the peak time. These visits can be quite lengthy with the fox sniffing and sometimes digging in the grassy area. As we get nearer to morning, these visits tail off; the latest for February being at 4.23 am.

We are getting a few night-time cats. Like the foxes, the peak is around midnight. However, I have not yet seen both together. We also tend to get cat visits just as the light is fading and at dawn.

The 'midnight' fox, which visited at 11.09 on 24 Feb 2013.

This wasn't a very representative survey. I had my camera out for less than half the nights in February and never when it was wet. However, I am beginning to build up a picture of their habits.