Belford Wildlife Watch Bird Feeding Station
By Tommy Burn aged 14

The children of Belford Wildlife Watch Group and the NEWTs built this feeding station as part of a year-long project to protect the house sparrow.

In 2002 the Belford Wildlife Watch Group started a new project called "The Great House Sparrow Rescue!" This project was based at Hunting Hall and investigated a decline in the number of house sparrows; the cause of this decline, its effects on other birds and animals and what we can do to prevent it. The group learned the house sparrow has just about disappeared from London and Glasgow and is seldom seen in many large cities. RSPB publications say that overall between 1972 and 1996 house sparrow numbers fell by 58%. This was a highly successful, award-winning project.

We began the project by making bird tables and learning a little about house sparrows and other common garden birds. We also carried out a garden bird count to find the difference between the amount of birds in towns and the countryside. The main part of the project was building the Super Sparrow Feeding Centre and stile to access it. The group planted hedges and met up early for a dawn chorus walk. We went to Keilder Birds of Prey Centre where we learned about different birds of prey and how they may have caused the decline of the house sparrow.

The bird hide we built at Hunting Hall allowed us to watch the birds on our Super Sparrow Centre Bird Feeder. We also did a bug count in one of Hunting Hall's fields to see which food was available for young sparrows. In the Autumn we went bird ringing to discover why some birds migrate and others stay at home.

Conclusion of our Great House Sparrow Rescue Project
We found that house sparrows numbers are decreasing due to several reasons, not just one.

Food: There is less food available in the countryside for house sparrows.
Our farmers' surveys showed that most grain stores are now sealed, winter stubble is no longer left standing and the use of Pesticides is increasing.

But…

This can't be the only reason for fewer house sparrows because there are still more birds in the countryside than in the town and none of our local farmer's reported a significant reduction in flock sizes on their farms.

Habitat: There are fewer nest sites, especially around towns as new houses don't have cracks in the walls or guttering for sparrows to nest in.

Predators: There are more sparrow hawks in the countryside but the increasing number of cats and magpies in towns is probably a bigger threat.

The survey we carried out to count the number of birds in our members’ gardens showed there to be most sparrows in our garden at Hunting Hall. Here we provide food; there are grassy headlands, new/old hedges, old buildings and nest boxes. A flock of 40+ sparrows is regularly seen feeding off corn we put on the road for the hens, geese and ducks. This is obviously the way to help sparrows.

Each year, winter stubble will be left at Hunting Hall and we have sown wild birdseed and a pollen mix in areas of our fields. We keep feeders stocked throughout the winter in the farm gardens and at the Super Sparrow Centre. If we can encourage more farmers to have wild areas on their farms which provide seeds and insects for house sparrows to eat and ask people in towns to put up more nest boxes, then house sparrow numbers should start to increase.