[Nightranger]

Unfortunately, an error in the wording crept in during editing by the paper but to prove the original press release was not contradictory, here is the press release as sent out:

HEADLINE: Postcode lottery for sparrows

People living in north Bolton are up to sixty per cent less likely to see house sparrows in their garden than people living in the south of the town.

Data from Lancashire Wildlife Trust’s annual garden bird survey organised by the Environmental Resource Centre indicates that house sparrows are found in two out of three gardens across north Bolton. In one area, the abundance is down to one in three gardens whereas gardens in the south of the town almost universally see visits from one of the most familiar of urban birds.

House sparrows have a very limited home range and have declined by more than sixty percent nationally over the last twenty-five years. Local records may be important to understand the many causes for decline, which may be largely due to habitat loss in urban areas.

However, the picture is not all gloom and doom with species such as the blackbird and the familiar Christmas symbol, the robin present in more than ninety per cent of gardens. The survey also shows the importance of garden feeders to birds like the long-tailed tit that suffered terrible declines following the bad winter of 1963.

Lancashire Wildlife Trust holds an annual garden bird survey, which takes place during the Christmas period and the most recent survey results are currently being processed. If you would like to take part in the next survey contact the Environmental Resource Centre, Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and Merseyside at 499-511 Bury Road, Bolton. BL2 6DH. Tel: 01204 663754.