Chris Courtney
Photo: Liz Cutting
‘Wild Ipswich’ Swifts and Sparrows Project – RSPB Ipswich Local Group
House Sparrow
I would imagine that most, if not all of us birders, myself included, could stand accused of having been casually dismissive or even of having made disparaging remarks about House Sparrows at some point during our birding careers!
At RSPB Ipswich Local Group, we decided that we’d like to do something practical to help reverse the downward trends of both of these priority urban species, while at the same time attempting to raise awareness among the wider public.
House Sparrows, for so long that most ubiquitous of urban species, have been redlisted since 2002 and, according to the BTO’s ‘Birds of Conservation Concern 4’ publication from December 2015, are estimated to have declined by 66% since 1969. This sad, longterm drop in the population of House Sparrows provides a link to that other urban breeding species and denizen of our summer skies, the formerly much more ‘common’ Swift, now also diminishing in the UK by some 3% year-on-year. On the face of it, perhaps 3% doesn’t sound that high, but sustained at that level would mean Swifts becoming extinct as a UK breeding species by 2050!
In partnership and collaboration with other wildlife charities and projects, such as Ipswich Wildlife Group (IWG), the Greenways Countryside Project, SOS Swifts and SOG, we have created a project to survey breeding populations and follow up with an affordable nestbox scheme and planned installation service.
Most of us at least are fully aware there is no longer any room for complacency. But to what degree is this message understood by the wider public?
Ten years on we are repeating this exercise, in two surveys. The first is a modified and improved citizen science-style questionnaire; the second a more detailed, randomized
Two surveys, two aims In 2006, the group conducted a survey of House Sparrows in Ipswich that – although not entirely comprehensive in coverage – revealed the principal areas of House Sparrow presence and absence across the town.
T H E HA R R I ER – S p r i n g 2 0 1 6
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