Friend or Foe

Picture this scene!

On Sunday the 26th November, I'm in my son's bedroom counting and recording the birdlife in the back garden. There were approx. 15 House Sparrows busily feeding and preening and generally having fun as only these wonderful birds can. As the little darlings were lined up on my garden fence, I thought it would be a good idea to have a go at digiscoping. I therefore set up my telescope, opened the window and started experimenting with the settings on my camera.

By the time I had worked it out, all the sparrows had departed. Anyway, I left the scope up and the window open (freezing by now) just in case they returned. In the meantime I started surfing on the internet while cursing my luck at missing out on a great picture. However, the next time I glanced out of the window, imagine my surprise when I saw this magnificent raptor perched on the fence where the sparrows had been. My heart rate went through the roof as I fumbled with the camera and tried to get the telescope in focus.

This bird of prey is the Eurasian Sparrowhawk or Accipiter nisus. The barring on the front is brown-grey in the female and rufous in the male. The female is also much larger than the male and has a white stripe over the eye. From my photograph the white stripe can just be seen which makes this one a female.

House Sparrows have declined by over 60% in the last 25 years and are now on the RSPB red list. Some people blame predation by the Sparrowhawk as one of the causes. The number of Sparrowhawks in an area is naturally restricted by food availability and the number of suitable nesting sites. If songbird numbers increase, Sparrowhawk numbers increase. If songbird numbers go down, so do Sparrowhawk numbers.
This very close and sensitive link between Sparrowhawks and their prey make the hawks a monitor of the health of the ecosystem. The very presence of Sparrowhawks is evidence of a healthy environment with strong populations of songbirds.

The cause in decline of urban and suburban populations of House Sparrows is, as yet, unknown but early evidence from research has pointed to a lack of native plants and associated insect food causing a reduction in chick survival. Do not tidy the garden in the autumn. Delay pruning trees and shrubs, and cutting back dead herbaceous stems until late winter. This will provide birds with food throughout the winter, from seeds and the insects found hibernating in the stems of plants. Stacking woody stems in a partially shaded area of the garden provides habitat for insects, which in turn may provide a source of additional food.