Sparrows of Ipswich Survey 2016

A survey of house sparrows in the town in 2016, conducted by members of the RSPB Ipswich Local Group. You can help us by reporting sightings of sparrows in your locality. Information that no sparrows are in your area is JUST as important as positive reports. This form has been moved to Google Forms.

I would like to thank the many people who have contributed sightings and observations to this survey. This is a combined map of questionnaire results and a bicycle survey done in the breeding season. You can see a map of just the questionnaire survey results on their own here. The error in the markers is typically a radius of about 100m

Pins show results from the survey, which carry more specific details. Green pins are where breeding has been observed, blue pins indicate the presence of sparrows but no breeding seen, and red pins are reports of areas without any sparrows (and often reports of when they were last seen). The pins can be opened up to display any comments the observers may have made. The comments and observations are interesting, some of the ones for negative results show how long ago it has been since sparrows were last seen.

I surveyed parts of the town using a bicycle and synchronised audio/GPS tracking. This is mainly done by ear, and where I could detect the high-level calling of the males I listed that as a nest, with other more generic sparrow calls I noted presence. Unpaired males create more than one nest and call from the sites to attract a female - not all these nests will become active. These are the tracks, with green flags for nests and blue flags for the presence of sparrows detected. I make an implicit assumption that there are no sparrows along a track with no markers. It was gratifying that this was not contradicted by the questionnaire results, with the possible exception of part of Rushmere Road near Colchester Road. This vindicates the WGUS methodology of censusing in the breeding season

Sparrow clusters in Ipswich

There are notable colonies in

• Gainsborough
• Westbourne
• Castle Hill
• Chantry
• The north-eastern IP4 district
• Rushmere St Andrew
• Grange Farm estate

We will need the results of the level 2 survey to get a quantitative indication of distribution, so this description is anecdotal rather than analytical. Touring the town by bike, I observed that there are large sparrow colonies in the Gainsborough part of town, and the Westbourne area. Castle Hill has a respectable number, but seems to be more fragmented. On the north-eastern side of the town IP4 has more than would be expected, and the village of Rushmere St Andrew has a healthy flock.

Sparrows are absent from the town centre

There are none to be found in the centre of town. Although the obvious explanation for that is that there is less habitat I am not sure this is carried - I have observed sparrows in the centre of large Continental towns (Paris, Lugano) and in the centre of smaller UK towns like Glastonbury. In Paris and Lugano the sparrows win food from al fresco dining. Ipswich isn't short of such opportunities, but they are left to the pigeons and gulls.

Grange Farm estate, Kesgrave

An honourable high-five and mention should be made for whatever town planner specified that the old farm track be retained in Grange Farm estate, Kesgrave. I used to cycle that track on the way to work, and noticed that this bounded by what looked to me like old-growth hedgerow with many standard trees in it. I plotted a 2km long line of chirping sparrows . This is confirmed by a Grange Farm resident in our survey

This seems to work as an extended reservoir of sparrows, and as a long linear feature it is a wildlife corridor so if some calamity hits a group new birds can move in along the hedge. Certainly Grange Farm estate is unusual in being a relatively recent build with a sparrow population; I observed their presence for several years.

IP4

I have no good explanation or hypothesis of why postcode district IP4 has a widespread, though fragmented sparrow population. This region also has many RSPB Ipswich Local Group members, so will be of particular interest. Unlike the Gainsborough area, and probably the Chantry birds, which are nearly contiguous colonies, IP4 seems to be a collection of micro-groupings, perhaps around the green spaces which seem to be a bigger part of the district than in other parts of the town. For instance cycling along Brunswick Road there is a definite cluster around the egress from the Brunswick Road recreation ground which is a haven for sparrows, then a gap until the small parade of shops and Kingsgate Drive

Reports of the decline in sparrows

One of the things that was telling in the 2006 survey, but is hard to put on a map or structured way, was the comments, which were a narrative of the fall in sparrow populations as recalled by residents. I've taken a selection of the ones we received this time, which tell two stories. One is the background of decline, but unlike in the mid 2000s there does seem to be some hope in that sparrows can sometimes return, even after an absence of many years.

• The flock here has declined by up to 50% since we moved here in 2002
• About 5 years ago there were many sparrows living in thick bushes at the end of my road, Brookhill Way (near the Nuffield). One day I came home and 3 men from the council were cutting down the bushes...
• Large colony of sparrows now reduced to a handful
• Think the crows & starlings displaced from nesting in my neighbours gutter
• We have lived here for over 30 years. During that time the number of sparrows declined, to a point where we did not see any at all. Then a year or two later, maybe 10 years ago, we saw a sparrow or two back in the garden and the numbers have gradually built up
• We have lived here for 3 years and confirm we used to see up to 12 most days.
• Much fewer than in previous years
• sparrows regularly nested in hopper on a down pipe. they were there every year until about 10 years ago
• Since looking out for sparrows to fill in this questionnaire I have only seen two. We used to have lots more visit the garden (hopefully more will come as time goes on!)
• There is no doubt that there are far fewer sparrows, due, I feel, mainly to the to the proliferation of plastics soffits and fascias, and also because they are prevented from visiting the roof space close to its guttering
• Until about 10 years ago regularly had a pair of sparrows visiting front garden vegetation and feeding. This is an Edwardian mid-terrace house & I believe they nested in the sofits of the next door house which were poorly maintained.
• Once a numerous bird in my garden. Also large flocks (1000+) visited the adjacent farmland opposite my house at grain harvest time. A small colony exists 200m away but have never been seen in this well watched garden.

but there are also signs of hope...

• When we first moved in about 10 years ago it was a rare thing to see a house sparrow in the garden. Over the last 2 years we seem to have collected about 9/12 in the garden. Although they disappear in the breeding season but reappear when the young come
• Colony of 20+sparrows which have been here for many years
• Been living in my hedge for a few years, approx 7-9 on average
• A few small groups locally, triple nest box put up - successful this year for the first time after 2 years with no interest. One pair nesting in central box but usually 3-5 birds around the nest site in privet hedge.
• Moved here in 1969. About 6 sparrows regularly seen. Numbers dwindled till none seen. In last 2 years 1 male seen infrequently. Delighted recently to see a male and a female more frequently. Long may they stay and increase!
• Didn't have any for 2/3 yrs after moving in but aware of them at top of road. Now they visit our garden regularly and often in reasonably sized groups
• Sparrows moved south in to the gardens north of Dales Road and can be heard from our garden. Last summer about 10 sparrows would sit on the hedge at the bottom of our garden. At the moment we have a male and female as regular visitors
• Colony, probably more than 20, currently nesting around the locality on different houses, several young already seen/fledged. Tend to spend much of the day in a bush on side of house. Use seed feeders and bird baths, and dust bathe on the borders.
• We had not sparrows for several years but they came back about three years ago
• They nest under the eaves of a number of houses and congregate in a number of large privet hedges on the borders of local gardens. The proximity of the trees / shrubs on the embankment of the adjacent Felixstowe railway line is another factor to attract them
• We have a small resident flock that frequent bushes in local gardens. They spend a lot of time in bushes and trees but not sure where they nest. I have had a sparrow nesting box but it has never been used in 10 years
• They congregate on and in large privet hedge opposite and fly across road and also to my back garden, wait to be fed, bring their fledgelings (not many this year).
• Large colony of dunnocks co-exist with the sparrows. Numbers have remained relatively stable over the last 8 years
• 1st time they have used the nestbox since put up 10 years ago. Only returned to the garden in 2015 after 20 odd years when small groups used to dust bath in northwest corner. 4/5/16 1st attempt. Nest 4 eggs - 3 young fledged 2st - 24th.
• There are small groups of sparrows in very limited sites in the village (Grundisburgh) but I cannot attract them to my garden
• We had no sparrows for quite a few years but for the last couple of years they seem to be coming back. At the bird count I counted 6 so maybe they have gone elsewhere. We are lucky living with the Sidegate allotments directly at the bottom of one garden.
• We always had a colony of about 30 house sparrows in our garden and hedges. In the summer our neighbours acquired two cats & for a while the sparrows disappeared, but now seem to be returning. Our garden adjoins Sidegate Lane allotments so we do see quite a lot of birds / wildlife
• From 2014 no sightings, 2015 one or two and good increase this year

So while our sparrows have taken losses, there seems some hopeful signs, it isn't a continuous tale of woe

Conservation

I am not a conservation expert, but having seen a lot of the sparrow colonies of Ipswich it seems to me that there are two places to focus on

• Preserving and monitoring/surveying the successful colonies, particularly the Gainsborough/Westbourne/Chantry ones. It is difficult to say what is particularly good about these areas - some of the houses were probably built to the Parker-Morris standards and have a reasonable amount of garden space. They retain some hedgerows, fewer of the front gardens paved over for cars and there are mature trees. But the age of the houses mean the eaves aren't all uPVC.
• Trying to understand the fragmentation of colonies - Castle Hill appeared to me more fragmented than Gainsborough. Fragmentation reduces the density of the sparrows, but at some point it will reduce genetic diversity. For instance are the patches of sparrows with large gaps between them in IP4 isolated colonies, or is there enough migration of the young between colonies?

In the past sparrows used to move following the availability of loose grain during the Autumn harvest, as described by Denis Summers-Smith "The House Sparrow, Collins, 1963"

House sparrows appear to be very reluctant to move even short distances across country that is unsuitable for them. Hence in winter and early spring they are largely confined to the breeding areas and their surroundings, but with the ripening of weed seeds and grain the area of suitable ground extends and habitats that are isolated in the winter become contiguous at other times of the year. This extreme sedentary behaviour and reluctance to move across, to them, unsuitable country no doubt explains the rather patchy distribution of the house sparrow in sub-optimum habitats, for example in Persia and parts of India.

Over fifty years have passed since that was written, and the modern urban enivronment has fewer weed seeds and less grain, and generally fewer grassy areas, so this reluctance to overfly unsuitable area means the sparrows' environment will appear more fragmented even in summer and autumn.

Comparison with ten years ago in 2006

There were differences in methodology and coverage, but you can compare these results with the results in 2006 shown on a similar presentation. The main sparrow strongholds seem to be the same, there is a bit of loss around Valley Road across the ten years, but the sparrows seem to be holding their own. Neither the Level 1 nor the 2006 survey aimed to do any more than detect the presence or absence of sparrows, to see how numbers change we need to track quantitative surveys like the Level 2 version which needs more effort.