Thistle Seed

[Bluebell]

Hello Diane E, So glad you now have Goldfinches coming in your garden, they are so pretty.
It was quite a while after I put up a feeder with niger seed in before they came into my garden but once they found them they have come regularly, usually 3 or 4 they swoop in gorge and off again. Reading the thread Im going to get some sunflower seed hearts and see if they really do prefer them.
About the Sparrows, I know they are meant to be scarce but in my garden in Sussex I have never seen so many as I seen this year perhaps they are changing locations due to habitats etc.

[Diane E]

Hi Bluebell. Thanks for that. A Goldfinch has been back twice today (much earlier in the day than yesterday) so hopefully he/she realises they are onto a good thing!

As for the sparrows, I have only been feeding my birds for a few months so unfortunately I don't have anything to compare to historically. They nest in the eaves of my, and a lot of my neighbours, houses and apparently have done for a long time. I suspect that what I have done is create a nice comfy place where they can all hang out together. There's food, lots of open soil for dust baths and water features for drinking and bathing and a great privet hedge for hiding in. (I suspect they'd come in and watch the telly if I let them!) There is hardly any part of the day when there isn't a sparrow here. I'd love to count then but they won't keep still. I once got to 29 but I reckon its probably more like 40 or something. One of the male sparrow has got a lot of white speckles on him - even in his chestnut areas. When he flies in the sunshine his wings look almost white. Could he be a bit albino? And now there are some youngsters with lots of white splodges too. Maybe in a few years I could have a white sparrow!

[catalaze]

Super about all your sparrows. Count them! Getting up to 25 still gives a useful record & it gets much quicker once you're in practice. I've never got beyond 2 here. Your note about the Privet hedge is interesting. The only house around here that has lots of House Sparrows also has a thick Privet hedge (& lots of feeding & probably eaves, too). They can get inside Privet easily, can't they? Nice and safe, perhaps. Your house and garden sound like House Sparrow heaven!

[emf]

I too shall start keeping records I think. I didn't realise anyone would be interested. we have sparrows here. About an hour or so ago, I watched about 10 of them having their breakfast. It was quite amusing. There were three on the fat ball feeder, two on the ordinary seed feeder and the five others were desperately trying to get to either of the feeders (occasionally bullying one of the others off).

None of them spotted for quite some time that there is also a tray on the pole, just below the feeders that was full of the same stuff! They also always totally ignored the other feeder that is about four feet away. Reason being? There's a big lavatera about two feet from the feeder they use which makes excellent cover.

As I was watching them from the kitchen window, they suddenly all flew off and hid in the lavatera as the dog trotted out to do her early morning business. As soon as she was a safe distance away, they flew back out again. So I do think to have success with sparrows, you need some sort of close by cover.

[May]

Our sparrows (and there are many) all hide in the climber which is in close proximity to the bitd table and feeders. In fact they usually come down and half of them will perch in this before they go to the feeders and often if they hear us coming they will flee to the safety of the climber and sit there chattering and squabbling till we're gone!

[Diane E]

The more I think about it, Catalaze, Emf and May, the more I think you are absolutely right. The cover (my privet hedge) is the HQ of the sparrows daytime operations. Everything starts from there. The privet is old and the green bits don't start until 2 or 3 feet off the ground and the soil beneath it is bare. They drop down out of it 'SAS style' to feed or dustbathe or drink/bath from the little fountain which is underneath at one end of it. They fly there if they are spooked. The hedge sometimes looks like its alive with twitching bits and I'll see a tail pole out here, a head poke out there. Its very amusing.

Touch wood, touch wood, touch wood! I have not had a sparrow hit my patio doors yet and I think thats because they instinctively fly to the hedge when disturbed - the flight path being parallel to the patio doors. And the starlings (who did used to hit the doors) now seem to be copying them and flying towards the hedge too rather than trying to get up and over the house extention where the patio doors are.

Over time the sparrows have begun using the hanging feeders more and more as well. They have a go at them all now - the port hole one, the tray and the wire mesh feeders. Interestingly, it was the females who started doing that first. The males took a bit longer to try!

I have contacted my local ornithological society. There are going to get back to me after the weekend (they have gone on a birding weekend!) about counting and stuff. Should be interesting.