Natural noisy alarm clocks
THERE has been a right, old racket outside our bedroom window over the past couple of weeks and it’s not the late-night locals heading home from the two village pubs.
In fact, it begins about 5am, as the sun is rising and continues until well after I go to work at 8am, or 8.30am if I feel like a bit of a lie in.
The noise is coming from our gutters and eaves, where the sparrow families meet up for a proper shindig to welcome the day.
It is amazing just how noisy house sparrows can be, after all, they are only five and a half inches long.
They are certainly competition for the larger, raucous starlings when they both invade our bird table.
I find it fascinating to watch as the “spadgers” hop in and out of the squabbling starlings to snatch seed from under their bills.
They seem to have no fear as they hang off the garden wall, waiting to pounce.
Back in the gutters, the sparrows there seem to take great joy in heaving moss onto passing humans on the pavement below.
You will see house sparrows in towns, parks and gardens.
They are classed as “small brown things” by some birders, but they are beautiful, cheeky birds, providing much entertainment if you spend time watching them.
Males are distinctive, with a grey cap and bib.
They are streaky brown on top, and grey underneath, with chestnut wings and white wingbars.
Females and youths are streaky brown and described by one guide as ‘drab’.
Drab is not a word I would associate with the delightful, tiny, sleak female that hopped onto our bird table this morning.
She may not have been a kingfisher, but she was pretty in her own way.
The reason for the commotion in our gutter is that house sparrows live in colonies and nest in holes or crevices in buildings, in ivy or other bushes.
In fact, we do have a ‘sparrow bush’ at the back, which is another lively place during the day.
Sparrow numbers have been declining over the last 30 to 40 years as hedgerows vanished in the countryside.
You are more likely to see them in towns and cities, although numbers in London have plummeted.
So it’s good to keep providing seed for them on your bird tables to supplement their usual diet of seeds and nuts.
Did you know that house sparrows have an extra bone in their tongue to help them hold and eat seed?
The bone stiffens the tongue for added grip.
The Goddess of Love, Aphrodite was a big fan of sparrows, regarding them as a love bird.
And, while Aphrodite hasn’t lived in our village for a while, the birds certainly act like they are in love by having lots of noisy quarrels.
It annoys a small minority of people, generally suffering with hangovers, but I do love to hear those crazy sparrows in the morning, performing a wonderful soundtrack to the summer.