I Blame Alan Titchmarsh

[poliphilo]

They say there are fewer small birds around this winter.  I was going to write a post about it-  echoing the official line that it's all our fault for paving over our suburban gardens and planting leylandii- which discourages insects, which discourages birds- only there were no fewer than seven sparrows on our feeder yesterday- which is as many as I've ever seen- so I'm not altogether sure it's true.

Mind you, there's still the aesthetic argument.  Patios are hideous and leylandii boring-  so dig 'em up,  people, please!

Comments

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

We live right in the middle of lovely common land which supports a mixed woodland (holly, willow, beech, birch, oak). Why somebody planted a leylandii on it I can't imagine, but last year we got permission from the landowners (even though it is a common there are still owners) to cut the bugger down as the tree surgeon had to bring in a cherry picker to cut it down in sections. It cost us over a grand but it was worth it - let light on to our patio and removed the danger of root damage to our heating oil tank. The moral is, get them out before they get to 60ft high!

In 50 years time someone will probably be bewailing the lack of taste of early 21st century gardeners who pulled out all the lovely leylandii...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That was an expensive trim.

Leylandii is all very well in moderation, but...

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

And the small birds were probably drowned in their nests over the summer!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We had a blackbird raise two batches of fledglings in our ivy this summer.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I don't quite understand the sparrow thing. Sparrows and pigeons were about the only birds we had around when we were growing up, and I lived in an area of terraced houses with no front gardens and paved back yards.

I was assuming it was something to do with the construction of modern houses that didn't give them anywhere to nest.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Well, yes; I always thought sparrows liked an urban environment- that they were basically unkillable.