No, the Tree Sparrow Treat isn't some delicacy made from tree sparrows (that certainly wouldn't make me popular with the RSPB...now four and twenty Blackbirds, that's a different matter....), or even a treat for them (which might make me popular with them), but rather just a treat to see them.
Tree Sparrows once widespread and familiar have totally disappeared from many areas putting them firmly on the Red List. Their populations in the last quarter of the 20th Century declined by around 95%, the probable result of changes in agricultural practises - changes in the time of year crops were sown and the use of herbicides. The former reducing stubble fields in the winter and major impacts on insect numbers in the latter case.
Largely absent in many Southern counties and North West Scotland, rare in Wales, the North West and South East England and elsewhere patchy in their distribution it was rather nice today to watch around six of them busily feeding outside one of the hides at Venus Pools in Shropshire. Rather handsome little birds and probably with 'Sparrow' being the first bird name learnt by me and children of my generation and generations before rather sobering to have them on the Red List.
In fact most of the visit was spent in the hide overlooking the shaded and sun dappled feeders with the comings and going of large numbers of Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Great Tit, Dunnock, the Tree Sparrows and an occasional visit from a Great Spotted Woodpecker, oh and two Nuthatch. My first encounter with these colourful characters as I have only really been seriously birding for the last year and tend to also stick mainly to 'my patch', so even a shot on a feeding station was a welcome opportunity.
We did wander around the site and visit the other hides but without event and the one event that did happen - an Osprey flying over the reserve - we firmly managed to miss as we were in the small bird hide at the time. Of course people that asked 'Did you see the Osprey?', changed tack on our reply of 'No!' to 'well it was only there for 30 seconds or so..', as if that would make us feel better..'Oh 30 seconds, not worth the effort really then eh...'.
So rather than an Osprey in flight I will leave you with a far more exciting picture of a Chaffinch and the news that I spotted my first Swallows of the year at the local patch early this week.
and finally finally something from the bird feeders at home which when I was a lad was seen as rather a pest in most areas (the bird not the feeders) resulting in large scale actions to reduce the numbers but that is now just like the Tree Sparrow on the Red List... the Starling. Not a name that immediately conjures up images of an appealing bird but they are very handsome in fact with their Lemon Yellow beaks and striking feathers and we have our own adopted little group of about 15 of them that eat us out of fat balls and squabble for the best position on the coconut shell.
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