[va-richmond-general] Re: More on the ill-fated Dutch "domino Sparrow"
- From: WEalding@xxxxxxx
- To: va-richmond-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 11 Dec 2005 21:37:10 EST
I've been reading Chris Roberts' "Heavy Words Lightly Thrown", a book about
the origin of nursery rhymes. In the chapter on "Who Killed Cock Robin?",
there is a fairly extensive discussion of the decline of the House Sparrow in
Britain, that is probably also applicable to other European countries.
Factors include:
An initial decline between the World Wars, probably related to the decline
in horse transportation, which meant less spilled grain and dung.
A 59% decline In London between 1994 and 2000, and a further 25% decline in
2001. Various explanations are presented:
- Cats and other predators
- pesticides that kill insects
- the generally tidier gardens that reduce habitat
- modem architecture with fewer nest sites
- more efficient harvesting means less spilled grain
- harvesting earlier in the year leaving no food for juvenile birds in late
summer
We saw the importance of spilled grain for House Sparrows when we visited
Churchill, Manitoba a number of years ago. We were amazed at the abundance of
House Sparrows. Churchill is up on Hudson Bay, 600 miles from any major
city, separated by boreal forest and tundra. It's also a major grain shipping
terminal. The main transportation link is the railroad, and that's where we
saw lots of grain on the tracks, presumably spilled from railcars, and we
figured that the House Sparrows were thriving on that.
Wendy Ealding
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