Sunday 30th: Today, and for a few days this week, a lone House Sparrow has been at the back door several times a day for mealworms. The Sparrow is a fledgling having not been out of the nest long, its beak is still yellow, but it always appears to be on its own even when there are plenty of other Sparrows around. It may be that its parents have cut it loose as they have younger chicks to manage, but this seems unlikely as it is rather late in the season. We usually measure the rate of chicks by the amount of Sparrows queuing for mealworms. This has dropped-off dramatically these past 2 weeks! I suspect that the young House Sparrow has either got itself lost or its parents have been predated. This seems the more likely as a Sparrowhawk has been seen on a daily basis and made numerous kills in our garden. This afternoon, the young Sparrow came into the kitchen wanting to be fed. It visits every hour or so and takes 3 or 4 mealworms and then flies away only to return about an hour later. It does tend to hang around by itself and is getting overly tame, to the extent that it occasionally will perch near Sunny our Canary who always has his cage hanging outside the back door. But more worryingly is that the bird spends alot of time in the open on the patio and an easy target for a predator.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
August 2009 - Lone House Sparrow
Sunday 30th: Today, and for a few days this week, a lone House Sparrow has been at the back door several times a day for mealworms. The Sparrow is a fledgling having not been out of the nest long, its beak is still yellow, but it always appears to be on its own even when there are plenty of other Sparrows around. It may be that its parents have cut it loose as they have younger chicks to manage, but this seems unlikely as it is rather late in the season. We usually measure the rate of chicks by the amount of Sparrows queuing for mealworms. This has dropped-off dramatically these past 2 weeks! I suspect that the young House Sparrow has either got itself lost or its parents have been predated. This seems the more likely as a Sparrowhawk has been seen on a daily basis and made numerous kills in our garden. This afternoon, the young Sparrow came into the kitchen wanting to be fed. It visits every hour or so and takes 3 or 4 mealworms and then flies away only to return about an hour later. It does tend to hang around by itself and is getting overly tame, to the extent that it occasionally will perch near Sunny our Canary who always has his cage hanging outside the back door. But more worryingly is that the bird spends alot of time in the open on the patio and an easy target for a predator.
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