Blogger: Aggie Rothon, Communications Officer
Come rain or shine, good mood or bad, I shall be driving this same route every week day. Over the rail way lines, right at the sharp corner, under the bridge and out in to the open as we putter along the field edge. At the moment it is golden with corn stubble and I wonder how it will change as the season turns. Perhaps cocoa brown with the autumn plough and green with the wary green shoots of winter wheat come the colder months. Each morning I am thankful that the school run allows me to take in this landscape. As Robin grows older perhaps we will even be able to cycle the route together.
At the moment, I am particularly interested in one certain spot along the way. I first started taking notice of the house directly to the left as you cross the railway line because of the perennial sweet peas growing on thick spider-leg stalks up the garden fence. I have been trying to grow sweet peas in my garden for several years now, with varying degrees of success, and had been wondering whether a fence full of the perennial type might not save a lot of heart ache. There is nothing worse, in my mind, than a tray full of ailing seedlings when you are hoping for clouds of fragrant colour.
So it was the sweet peas that caught my attention first, but having got my eye in on this certain spot I started to notice the cluster of house sparrows that frequent the area. They like the sandy soil next to the railway fences to dust bathe in and with the eaves of the tiled house right next door they must nest here too. I have noticed that the houses garden has a firethorn bush, now covered in bright orange berries that the little birds flit in to and feed from like a small herd of scurrying brown mice.
I don’t know whether the people that live in this house are aware of the importance of the wildlife in their garden for, to use science speak for one moment, house sparrows are ‘birds of high conservation concern’. They are also a red-listed species which means that house sparrows are in trouble; to get on to this list their population has to have seen a severe crash in recent years.
I am guessing that these particular householders are stepping up for nature without realising it. By keeping their pyracantha bushes healthy and fruiting well and by allowing wilder areas to remain so, they are helping house sparrows to thrive here. But now you know that house sparrows need a bit of help please do give them a hand. Plant some seed bearing flowers, put out some peanuts, keep bushes in your garden for them to frequent. Then perhaps my little school-going boy, in years to come, will have house sparrows to watch when he does the school run himself.
Article in EDP on Saturday 15 Sept 2012. Photo credit: Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)