1 EAGLETON NOTES: A New Colony

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Wednesday 17 June 2015

A New Colony

Oh dear. More emails. "Why are you not blogging?" It seems that if a week goes by and I don't blog (not because I don't want to but because I'm just living other parts of my life) that is the magic trigger for the 'are you ok?' emails. You know what? I really love that there are people out there who care enough to ask. Thank you.

One of the things that has been very rewarding this week has been seiing a new colony of Sparrows establish itself in the garden. As I said in a post a few weeks ago entitled Lucky I have a colony of sparrows living in the roof above my bedroom. Perhaps ten years ago I set up a nesting box on the wall of the garage. It was badly sited because it’s on the North wall and has never been occupied……until this spring. I first noticed a sparrow going into it a few weeks ago but now it’s clear that it has established itsef as a little overspill colony.







26 comments:

  1. Lovely pix GB... I love seeing the birds as I don't get to see them so much here. Just hear them.

    You just keep being busy...I find.blogging requires reflection and thought and a good idea ... And my current "busyness" ..not sure about that spelling....means less blogging. No shortage of material but less perhaps less time or even inclination to share it.

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    1. Thanks Fiona. I'm over-run by the little creatures. I love them I have to admit. They are noisy, boisterous and have a voracious appetite.

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  2. Cute... And each with their own entrance! :-) ... I think in the Blogworld, we perceive people's blogs as their nests... When the nest is usually busy (frequently updated), and then suddenly there is no apparent activity for a while, one does wonder...

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  3. Wonderful news. Bloody sparrows are eating me out of house and home.

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    1. An me Adrian. Half a kilo a day plus nuts and fat balls. They are worth it though.

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  4. I guess the sparrows were ready for the suburban sprawl. Love the shots in your previous post.

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    1. The sparrows are definitely the housing estate dwellers of the bird work Violet Sky.

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  5. The sparrows seem to love their new condo...they look well fed too, will they be able to still fit through the holes in a few weeks I wonder.....you'd better make them a gym to go with their condo.
    We do wonder when our blog friends go MIA, but it's also nice to know that we all care about each other isn't it?

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    1. Virginia it's lovely to know that those of our Blogworld care.

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  6. It is a bit early to inquire after only a week of no posts... one week flashes by so incredibly fast that it happens very easily for me not to post at all, and knowing how full of activity your offline life always is, I would not start worrying before a whole month passed without a post.
    Shame on me - I had no idea sparrows nest in boxes! We have large colonies of sparrows here, but I've always only known them to nest in hedges and bushes. The box-nesting kind were, in my mind, always the blue tits and coal tits and lots of the type of birds you find further away from houses and more in the woods. Learned something new there!

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    1. Meike I think frequency is a matter of habit. I'm sporadic and unpredictable in my posting but after three sequential days there is sometimes and assumption that a longer period presages a problem. It might. But it doesn't usually for me. There are few bushes here for them to nest in and they seem to prefer nesting in buildings. There are no tits out here in rural Lewis.

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  7. How lovely that your flats- for- birds are in use. We have blackbirds occasionally nesting in our (tiny) courtyard, but sadly they tend to desert their nests when the weather warms up and we sit out there, tho we try to be quiet. But their song is the most sublime of all birdsong, I think.

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    1. Frances my Mum and Dad had a blackbird that habitually nested in the creeper on their kitchen wall and didn't seem to worry about the human proximity.I'm not sure whether blackbirds or song thrushes get my subliminal vote.

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  8. I don't think I would be happy about sparrows living in my roof GB ~ don't they have lice?

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    1. Carol the roof construction is rather different to England and NZ (and I assume Australia) in the on top of the rafters there is a wooden roof (sarking) on top of which there is a waterproof layer and the tiles or slates (the latter in my case) sit. The space in between is isolated from the inside of the house. I can't even hear them even though they are just above my bedroom. They may have lice but I think that most lice are host-specific even if they could get through all the barriers to me.

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    2. Exactly Carol! I was just about to say that . Perhaps only Aussie sparrows have lice... And poop everywhere too. Most Aussies would actively discourage them nesting around their houses but then there is no shortage of trees to nest in here .

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    3. Helsie your comment encouraged me to investigate this matter further. Frankly I'm surprised that any of us have anything to do with any birds at all! There seems to be little in the way of disease, mites, lice or parasites of many sorts that they don't potentially carry or have. However whilst I may live in proximity to them I don't really get near enough to them for anything to transfer itself. It would seem that few, if any, of their nasties will survive once they leave their host.

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  9. oooh lovely! I don't think I know anyone else who's had success with bird boxes in their garden (though I know lots of people who have them). Perhaps they just need to wait a few more years.

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    1. Helen I was going to remove it this year but I'm glad that I didn't.

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  10. Wonderful pictures, as usual, Mr. Edwards. Lucky birds. I have a house attached to my greenhouse that has been used two different years, but no nesters this year.

    I lead a wonderful life. I love my life. But, I feel that it is not condusive to exciting blogs. So, I get stuck wondering what to write about. The same walk? The same hobbies? The same greenhouse? The same Colorado? So many times I think of quitting. Even this week. But I love reading other's so much!

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    1. Thank you Mrs Thyme. When I was young (I was, once, honestly) I believed that life should be made up of interesting, ernest, conversations. I soon realised that life is largely froth and bubble (I'm sure that's a quote) and I came to enjoy and learn from other people's froth and bubble. What may be ordinary to you is probably very interesting to me because it shows me someone else's life and living; perhaps even a different culture.

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  11. Great photos of birds, Graham - the greenfinches (sweet) and these sparrows: nice. The closest I can get with my camera is a country mile - so to speak.
    Carry on. McGregor

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    1. Thank you McGregor. The greenfinches have been prolific this year too. I'm fortunate in that most of my shots are taken through the windows of my house and the birds seem to feel ok at that distance - or perhaps there are reflections which mean they cannot see me.

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  12. I'm a bit like Librarian. You'd have to missing for a while before I thought anything other than you were probably even busier than usual. And I think some of us are more given to worrying than others - and you know what camp I live in. You'd know how strange the idea of sparrows living in a birdhouse is to me. Cute, though.

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    1. There are many more places for birds to live in the wild where you are Pauline although I do recall the swallows living in the shed just outside your garden.

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