{"id":657,"date":"2011-07-25T20:46:59","date_gmt":"2011-07-25T20:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/?p=657"},"modified":"2011-07-27T06:51:45","modified_gmt":"2011-07-27T06:51:45","slug":"on-tits-and-sparrows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/2011\/07\/25\/on-tits-and-sparrows\/","title":{"rendered":"On tits and sparrows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opposite the advertisement for the Grant Arms Hotel, Grantown-on-Spey (“The Wildlife Hotel”) in Autumn 2011’s Birds<\/em> magazine from the RSPB<\/a>, Caroline Nash tells us she’s helping to save sparrows. As you might know, sparrows\u2014which for some of us are the epitome of garden birds\u2014are declining in numbers<\/a> across the UK. Nash is working on a project to find suitable habitats for the insects sparrows feed on, and is monitoring how sparrows use the different habitats the RSPB has set up in London parks.<\/p>\n

Since last summer we’ve had two bird feeders hanging off the balcony above us. One contains peanuts, and is frequented by great tits, blue tits and various finches (mainly greenfinches, but I’ve seen a goldfinch too). Oh, and a squirrel who had the grace to look guilty when I drew back the bedroom curtains one Sunday morning. The other feeder contains bird seed (which does not, to my disappointment, grow into baby birds).<\/p>\n

\"Mrs<\/a><\/p>\n

Anyway, this feeder has been empty for a few months. The reason for this is the dirty pigeons that infest London. When I installed the feeder, I used the smaller perches, because “Pigeons and other large birds” weren’t supposed to be able to stand on them. These pigeons found a way. So I then cut off the crossbar of the perches. The tits and finches could just about stand on them; the pigeons figured that they could hit the feeder and make the seed fall out, whence they could eat it (and crap all over my porch to boot). All my efforts at pest control failed. No amount of intense green laser beams in their eyes would make them stay away for long. I seriously considered investing in an air rifle but using it to best effect would involve some serious remodelling of the back door.<\/p>\n

\"Great<\/a><\/p>\n

The time came for me to troop into Robert Dyas and buy some more peanuts for the first feeder. As I was there, considering giving up on seeds and getting a second peanut dispenser, I saw they had seed feeders that were supposedly squirrel- “and other large birds”-proof. Score. <\/p>\n

I bought it, and a new bag of seed, and installed it on the porch. The result has been some very pissed off-looking pigeons, and\u2014finally!\u2014house sparrows in my garden. <\/p>\n

\"House<\/a><\/p>\n

I call that a win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opposite the advertisement for the Grant Arms Hotel, Grantown-on-Spey (“The Wildlife Hotel”) in Autumn 2011’s Birds magazine from the RSPB, Caroline Nash tells us she’s helping to save sparrows. As you might know, sparrows\u2014which for some of us are the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,133],"tags":[140,139,138,137],"class_list":["post-657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-photography","tag-blackbirds","tag-dirty-pigeons","tag-sparrows","tag-tits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}