The UK tree sparrow population has plummeted an estimated 93% between 1970 and 2008. Recent surveys are encouraging suggesting numbers are increasing but they are still very low from what they used to be. The main populations are found across the midlands, southern and eastern england. Tree sparrows are a bit smaller than house sparrows and have a brown head instead of a grey one.
While doing the first of this year’s winter bird counts on one of our fields at Freiston Shore, our assistant warden Simon Wilson counted 34 tree sparrows feeding. It’s great to see so many in one place and on one of our reserves!! This field is specially managed through agri-environment schemes which are designed to make arable land better for wildlife. Land owners are given money to manage their land for wildlife and there are various options as to what they can do. If you'd like to know a bit more about them have a look at the natural england website here http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/farming/funding/aesiereport.aspx.
Tree sparrow- Neil Smith
Tree sparrows are not keen at feeding out in the open and need cover to retreat to if, for example, faced with a predator. For this reason we planted a hedgerow along the back of the field to encourage tree sparrows to feed here. We are very grateful to the Boston Wildlife Explorers group for all their hard work in planting the hedgerow.
As well as the tree sparrows Simon also noted around 100 each of goldfinch and linnet, so the field is clearly providing plenty of food for farmland birds at present. Lets hope that numbers of farmland birds are on the increase and that agri-environment schemes continue to get funding!