Bumpy roads mean a meal for a sparrow

WHO would have thought a bumpy country road and a well-loaded grain trailer might be a major contributor to improving the population of a much-loved but steeply declining species of bird?

I can report, however, that is precisely the case in our Devon parish, where the harvest has started in earnest and the grain trailers are heading backwards and forwards between the fields being combined and the grain stores.

On the way they have to negotiate some of Devon’s notoriously potholed roads and every jolt and bump can send a small shower of grains – in this case oats – bouncing out of the trailer and onto the road.

Early yesterday, as I parted the bedroom curtains to take a first look at the weather, there were dozens of house sparrows hopping about on the lane outside the house hoovering up the gleanings as fast as their little beaks could go.

It was a heart-warming sight, given that, according to the RSPB, changes in agricultural practices and fewer fields left to overwinter as stubble are behind the radical decline in house sparrow numbers.

The conservation charity reports: “Declines in rural house sparrow populations are thought to be linked to changes in agricultural practices, particularly the loss of winter stubbles and improved hygiene measures around grain stores.

“House sparrow numbers were not monitored adequately before the mid-1970s. Since then, numbers in rural England have nearly halved while numbers in towns and cities have declined by 60%. Because of these large population declines, the house sparrow is now red-listed as a species of high conservation concern.”

Improved hygiene around grain stores is almost certainly a good thing and in many places farmers are switching back to leaving stubble through the winter, as well as growing special seed mixes in field margins to help the birds through the hungry gap.

But it seems the unintended consequences of a poor road surface and a meandering trip from field to grain store are beneficial to the birds.

No farmer wants to waste precious grain – especially when there is a war in Ukraine and warnings of potential shortages of food if imports are hit as a result.

But it has long been known that while improvements in farming efficiency are generally to be welcomed, the downside is that the share of farm crops left for wildlife has been in decline. Long may the bouncing trailers and the tiny showers of grain continue to keep our village’s healthy looking flock of sparrows well fed.