Sparrows attacking my beetroot leaves!!

Beatlefan

It's distracted them a bit, thanks Lotus Eater. However the vandalism has continued a bit, although some of the (now) netted beets have reached a reasonably decent size, although I did lose a large number of seedlings due to the vandalism.

Elsewhere on the veg plot, the sparrows have pulled up very young cabbage plants and had a dust bath (before the rain) where I'd planted the nasturtiums. Not many of the nasturiums have come through yet, so whether the dust baths have disturbed them or whether they've been pecked them out of the ground, I'm not sure.

I've also noticed the tops of the shoots on a couple of onion plants have been pecked/eaten off and one of the pea plants has been eaten back to virtually nothing (although only on 1 plant ). Not sure what's to blame for this!

Luckily I've got some seeds left over to plug the gaps where the vandals have pulled out seedlings, so will sow a few more seeds this weekend if we get a dry spell, and hope for a decent summer!!

We've had sparrows and blackbirds nesting in our garden this year, so I guess my poor old veg is a prime food source for their young.

Something's also been nibbling the leaves on the runner bean plants, the lettuces and the broccoli, but I suspect caterpillars or other insects on those rather than the sparrows. Can anyone suggest anything reasonably organic I can spray to deter the caterpillars and bugs?

Many thanks.

Mooksville

If it makes you feel any better, you're supporting a threatened species! House Sparrows (and their incredibly rare cousin Tree Sparrows) are both on the conservation red list due to their rapid rates of decline.

A loss of habitat has hurt them badly, although in your garden it's probably a decline in their regular food source (insects) that is causing them to go for your veg.

Simplest option is to put out some high energy food (sunflower seeds, chopped peanuts etc.) which will be an easier and more useful food source for them than your veg.

Plus you get to enjoy watching them closely and know that you're protecting a threatened species!

WestonDave

We've got food out for the birds and they're not obviously going for the plants - they do tend to be picking the insects off some of the more established plants - I see them a lot on the rosemary bush for example. Last year we hadn't got the feeders established and the beetroot was stripped bare every time I planted it - this year they are looking happy and healthy under their netting.

We seem to have a lot of sparrows - they certainly aren't endangered in our garden - both us and next door have nests in our eaves. In our case they seem to co-exist quite happily along side the swifts who are also nesting up there (fantastic birds to watch on a summer evening!)

Mooksville

WestonDave wrote: »

We seem to have a lot of sparrows - they certainly aren't endangered in our garden - both us and next door have nests in our eaves. In our case they seem to co-exist quite happily along side the swifts who are also nesting up there (fantastic birds to watch on a summer evening!)

It's great that you're supporting a good number in your garden - it could be that you and your neighbour are supporting the local area's population. Unfortunately there aren't many houses built nowadays that have eaves capable of supporting sparrows, or gardens with lots of insects.

House Sparrow numbers are down by over 60% in the last 25 years, Tree Sparrows down by 95%!

Problem is, they're a sociable bird. They hang around in groups, and there are still 2 million birds out there, so people see them regularly and assume there isn't a problem, but in reality where you see 10 sparrows today you may have seen 30 a few years ago, and if those declines continue we'll lose them.

So keep up the good work by feeding them!

Beatlefan

Thanks Mooksville. We do agree with you that it's worth supporting wildlife in the garden in any way you can. I'd seen on Springwatch that the numbers of sparrows were declining, which was shocking as they're such a common sight in the countryside and gardens. We've loved watching them having a bath and a drink since we started putting water out for them.

I'm confused though because our next-door neighbour does feed the birds regularly, so they do have somewhere very close by to go for peanuts, etc. Perhaps my veg is just too tempting!! :rotfl:Also I'm wary about putting out nuts cos we had mice and rats sniffing round in winter and I don't want to attract them back again!!

Thanks though for your post, we're keen to help wild birds as much as we can (we've got swallows nesting in the garden again this year too!!) but I'd like a few veg left for my family to eat at the end of the summer too!!

floyd

I was just coming on to ask a question about what on earth had scalped my beetroot and a quick search has given me the answer.
I saw 4 house sparrows sitting on the edge of one of the pots that have my Boro beets in, I just thought they might have been looking for bugs so left them to it.
Big mistake, out of the 35-40 plants only 5 still have any remnants of leaves other than a bald stalk :eek::eek:
Good job I wanted them as baby beets as they are now ready to pull up. I had no idea they were such prolific thieves last year I netted them to keep away pigeons but it looks like I was after the wrong culprit all along

They had also taken little beak-shaped nips out of the edge of one of my chilli plants but they stopped at one attempt :rotfl:

rabidbun

They're definitely a threatened species in my garden - they've used my hanging basket liners for nests, eaten eight batches of peas so badly that they've been stunted to half height, eaten my lettuces, my beans and my raspberries (plus blackcurrants earlier in the year) and had dirt baths in the rest of that bed to dig up almost all the new plants. They also do their best to block my gutters.

We get on, but they know when to leg it! Have resorted to netting at the moment, which I feel a little badly about (as they were liking my GYO) but they're on their second nesting, so there's lots of em here at least.