Countryman Diary - October 2011
My childhood was spent in a small town in a house built by developers who didn’t just cram in as many houses as possible to gain the biggest profit margin but instead made sure residents had well-proportioned gardens.
I recall seeing hundreds of sparrows in the gardens of our estate, perching along the telephone lines and on those old-fashioned iron lamp-posts with the crossbar from which we used to dangle one-handed and make ape-like noises (or was that just me?).
Didn’t the grown-ups label the little bird as a nuisance? I certainly remember Mum screaming when the cat regularly brought them into the house as a ‘present’. So whatever happened to the humble sparrow?
The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) tells me that urban house sparrow populations have been in decline across much of Europe since the late 1970s and the bird is now listed as a species of conservation concern.
It is thought that populations may be influenced by several factors, including pollution levels, insect abundance, nest site availability and the presence of predators. Building new houses without gardens, together with our craze for decking or paving over gardens to park the car, hasn’t helped either.
BTO researchers have discovered that sparrows prefer gardens over other forms of urban green space, and hope this knowledge can be used to help urban planners in the decision-making process.
Mike Toms, BTO’s head of garden ecology, explains:
“Our research suggests that much of the green space in our towns and cities is unsuitable for breeding sparrows.
“When you think about it, this makes a lot of sense. Urban parks, for example, tend to be rather open habitats, with little in the way of the dense scrubby cover that sparrows favour and with few nesting opportunities.
“Urban gardens usually have some thick bushes in which the sparrows can gather and, importantly, they have nesting opportunities in nest boxes and the cavities under roof tiles.”
Homeowners can encourage sparrows by planting cotoneaster, berberis and other suitable shrubs, and by offering nesting opportunities in the form of nest boxes with a one and a quarter inch (32 mm) diameter entrance hole.
More information is at www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/gbw/about/background/projects/sparrows/
field-survey.
The booming bittern
I could put up with the sweet little sparrow as a neighbour but I’m not too sure about the bittern — Britain’s loudest bird. Once thought to be extinct in the UK it has, according to the RSPB, enjoyed its best year since records began.
Following intensive conservation efforts, its population has risen over the last fifteen years from just eleven males in 1997 to 104 this year. They are secretive wetland birds and live most of their time within dense stands of reed, making them difficult to count.
However, the males have an amazing ‘beatbox’ ability: they fill their gullets with air which they release to make a booming ‘song’ which can be heard several miles away, enabling scientists to determine the bird’s population.
This summer, researchers found evidence of at least 104 ‘booming’ males, principally in East Anglia.
However, the bird has also recolonised the Somerset Levels (in 2008), where surveyors found twenty-five males, up from fourteen in 2010. Following an intensive period of habitat management since the mid-1990s, Somerset is now the second most important county for booming bitterns in England, after Suffolk, which recorded thirty-three boomers. Norfolk, with twenty-three booming males, was third … and that’s far enough away from my ears, thank you.
Rough guide to hedges
Regular readers will know that The Countryman is a great admirer and champion of our hedgerows. They are an undervalued treasure trove of tradition, beauty and quirkiness and vital to many forms of wildlife.
So I was delighted to see that the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has produced a new guide called ‘ A little rough guide around the hedges’.
It is packed with useful information about English hedgerows and CPRE also hopes it will encourage people to get out and about in their countryside during early autumn.
Bill Bryson, CPRE president, says:
“For well over a thousand years hedgerows have been a defining attribute of rural England, the stitching that holds the fabric of the countryside together.”Emma Marrington, CPRE’s rural policy campaigner, explains:
“Hedgerows play an important role in maintaining the diversity of the countryside and contributing to the character and beauty of the landscape.“Now is the perfect time of year to get out into the countryside and see how many different species you can spot in your local hedgerows. These boundaries have been a part of the landscape for thousands of years and the more species you can spot, the older the hedgerow is likely to be.
“Hedgerows are one of the most iconic features of the English landscape but, they may not be around in centuries to come. It’s important we do everything we can to halt and reverse their loss and degradation, including improving their management and protection laws to ensure their long-term survival.”
Apparently, the oldest known surviving hedgerow in England is Judith’s Hedge in Cambridgeshire, which is over 900 years old.
Competition winner
Congratulations to Mrs J Richards of Bingley who won a two-night mid-week break for two people at Hellifield Peel Castle from our August issue.
An age-old question
A farmer asked his son to fetch one of the two horses from the field and harness it to the trap to take him to the village. The lad asked him which horse to fetch.
“Bring t’ oldest — we’ll use t’ oldest up first.”
“In that case, Dad, I think you’d better go for it.”
Paul Jackson
Editor
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