Decline and fall....

It's sad how the sound of a house sparrow draws my attention these days in a way that I would not have thought possible thirty years ago. They would flock around my bird table as a boy and a pair always nested just beyond my window in our neighbour's roof. Those that could not nest in the relative safety of the cavities in our suburban houses would build untidy nests in loose colonies in the shrubs surrounding the cricket pavilion in our local park. I fed handfulls of sparrows on the bridge at St James's Park. Now silence. I haven't seen a sparrow in the garden all year so it was with great pleasure that I stood and listened in Aylesbury to a small flock chattering away in the grotty shrubs next to the Post Office depot. People probably thought I was a bit odd staring intently but it took me back instantly to my boyhood.