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RE: [GWL]: gardening trends

Graham,
Check with the bird experts in your neck of the woods.  I'll bet you will
find that while the adult sparrow is a seed eater, the young sparrows can't
digest seeds until they are 4 to 6 weeks old.  I've seen as many as 15
sparrows in my vegetable garden working the plants for aphids and such to
feed their young.
Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: Graham Rice [g*@tiscali.co.uk]
Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2001 7:20 AM
To: Gardenwriters@topica.com
Subject: Re: [GWL]: gardening trends

In England, it's not the English Sparrows that sit in rose bushes and
eat aphids, they only eat seeds. It's the British equivalent of the
Chickadee, the Blue Tit, which is the rose bush aphid eater.

Graham Rice

http://grahamrice.com

>Raptors gotta eat too. They're usually pretty efficient at killing.
>IMHO the "dark side" of attracting birds to the garden is their
>@#$% dust baths that fling carefully planted seeds here and there.
>Then they stand up and nosh on my tender lettuce babies...and I
>begin to regret having fed those furry fiends all winter.  I'm
>talking here about California quail.  The most beneficial bird in my
>yard has been English sparrows who are small enough to perch on
>rosebushes to nosh on aphids.  Margaret L
>
>>I recently read a note here that said gardeners are buying more ornaments
and
>>fewer plants.  The writer sighed at that.  I don't.
>>Anything that keeps gardeners out there among their plantings is a
positive,
>>and there's no surer way to put your personal stamp on a garden, to make
it
>>uniquely yours, than to decorate it with artwork as you would the interior
of
>>your home.  Granted, sometimes it's all gnomes and flamingoes... the
outdoor
>>version of Elvis-on-velvet and poker-playing dogs.  Not for me, nor for me
to
>>judge.  Everyone starts from where they are.
>>Appropos of nothing, has anyone here written or read anything on the dark
>>side of attracting birds to the garden -- i.e., the inevitable arrival of
>>raptors?
>>JF
>
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