Sparrows

My flat is almost at the top of a hill, and immediately outside is a coombe - a narrow steepsided wooded valley, with a stream, which leads down directly to the river Tamar by way of a mud creek. Because the coombe passes through so many different levels it is home to a very wide variety of birds, from wrens and goldcrests to black backed gulls. I once counted the birds I saw as I walked down one side, along the shore a little way and back up the other side, and there were over 30 species just on one walk. At the back, however, it is a very different story. Almost the only birds that ever visit my tiny back yard are sparrows. There's a very active colony in some dense shrubs outside my patch, and as I put out food for them they often visit in number. One day last week, in fact, I counted 34 on the ground at once, and there were others on the fence and in the silver birch trees on the other side.

Yesterday I saw the first fledgling on the fence begging for food. Today, in the midday break between heavy rainstorms, it seemed that every adult had a chick on each shoulder - the little flock has trebled in size overnight! I love watching the interaction between social birds like these, and looking at this flock and the many others I see in this area it is hard to believe that they are in very serious decline in this country. In the cities, anyway, they have all but disappeared, although in this small rural town they are thriving.