Baroque Musical Chairs
 

On Fri, 03 Mar 2017 01:09:42 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Woody wrote:
More likely the abundance of grey squirrels and magpies that steal the
eggs out of the nests - and not just sparrows.

That wouldn't explain the sparrows round here disappearing so quickly.
I assumed it was some sort of virus or whatever. And if it were predators
stealing eggs, why are there so many pigeons?

No, it's farmers. They have killed all the small insects which are the
sparrows' main food source.

d

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In article ,
Don Pearce wrote:
That wouldn't explain the sparrows round here disappearing so quickly.
I assumed it was some sort of virus or whatever. And if it were
predators stealing eggs, why are there so many pigeons?

No, it's farmers. They have killed all the small insects which are the
sparrows' main food source.

Again, near overnight? And in central London?

--
*What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary? A thesaurus.*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

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On 03/03/2017 11:14, Huge wrote:
On 2017-03-03, Don Pearce wrote:
On Fri, 03 Mar 2017 01:09:42 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Woody wrote:
More likely the abundance of grey squirrels and magpies that steal the
eggs out of the nests - and not just sparrows.

That wouldn't explain the sparrows round here disappearing so quickly.
I assumed it was some sort of virus or whatever. And if it were predators
stealing eggs, why are there so many pigeons?

No, it's farmers. They have killed all the small insects which are the
sparrows' main food source.

In Central London, where Dave lives? Lots of farms there. Not.

It's a well-kept secret but the Vauxhall City Farm is only a quarter of
a mile from MI6. :-)

--
Eiron.

Baroque Musical Chairs
 

On 3 Mar 2017 11:14:44 GMT, Huge wrote:

On 2017-03-03, Don Pearce wrote:
On Fri, 03 Mar 2017 01:09:42 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Woody wrote:
More likely the abundance of grey squirrels and magpies that steal the
eggs out of the nests - and not just sparrows.

That wouldn't explain the sparrows round here disappearing so quickly.
I assumed it was some sort of virus or whatever. And if it were predators
stealing eggs, why are there so many pigeons?

No, it's farmers. They have killed all the small insects which are the
sparrows' main food source.

In Central London, where Dave lives? Lots of farms there. Not.

Doesn't matter. The surrounding countryside is where the insects bred.
Do you have another explanation for the disappearance of flying
insects?

d

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On Fri, 03 Mar 2017 11:27:38 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Don Pearce wrote:
That wouldn't explain the sparrows round here disappearing so quickly.
I assumed it was some sort of virus or whatever. And if it were
predators stealing eggs, why are there so many pigeons?

No, it's farmers. They have killed all the small insects which are the
sparrows' main food source.

Again, near overnight? And in central London?

Yes.

d

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On Fri, 03 Mar 2017 11:36:25 GMT, (Don Pearce) wrote:

On Fri, 03 Mar 2017 11:27:38 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Don Pearce wrote:
That wouldn't explain the sparrows round here disappearing so quickly.
I assumed it was some sort of virus or whatever. And if it were
predators stealing eggs, why are there so many pigeons?

No, it's farmers. They have killed all the small insects which are the
sparrows' main food source.

Again, near overnight? And in central London?

Yes.

d

Just did some Googling

http://www.independent.co.uk/environ...w-1026319.html

d

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In article , Don Pearce
wrote:
On Fri, 03 Mar 2017 11:36:25 GMT, (Don Pearce) wrote:

On Fri, 03 Mar 2017 11:27:38 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article , Don Pearce
wrote:
That wouldn't explain the sparrows round here disappearing so
quickly. I assumed it was some sort of virus or whatever. And if it
were predators stealing eggs, why are there so many pigeons?

No, it's farmers. They have killed all the small insects which are
the sparrows' main food source.

Again, near overnight? And in central London?

Yes.

d

Just did some Googling

http://www.independent.co.uk/environ...w-1026319.html

What isn't clear from a quick read of that is why the effect might be
disproportionately severe in London, which probably had fewer insects than
the countryside before the decline outside London.

The thought that occurred to me is that the air pollution might also weaken
the birds. But I didn't see any attempt to correlate against that.

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
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Baroque Musical Chairs
 

In article ,
Don Pearce wrote:
On 3 Mar 2017 11:14:44 GMT, Huge wrote:

On 2017-03-03, Don Pearce wrote:
On Fri, 03 Mar 2017 01:09:42 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Woody wrote:
More likely the abundance of grey squirrels and magpies that steal
the eggs out of the nests - and not just sparrows.

That wouldn't explain the sparrows round here disappearing so
quickly. I assumed it was some sort of virus or whatever. And if it
were predators stealing eggs, why are there so many pigeons?

No, it's farmers. They have killed all the small insects which are
the sparrows' main food source.

In Central London, where Dave lives? Lots of farms there. Not.

Doesn't matter. The surrounding countryside is where the insects bred.
Do you have another explanation for the disappearance of flying
insects?

But other bird species didn't get wiped out so quickly. Do sparrows have a
particular and picky diet? That would be odd for such a previously
successful species? In the average London garden they outnumbered all
others by a very large percentage.

--
*The colder the X-ray table, the more of your body is required on it *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Baroque Musical Chairs
 

In article ,
Don Pearce wrote:
Just did some Googling

http://www.independent.co.uk/environ...w-1026319.html

Yes - I've read that before. But no explanation for the suddenness of it.
Did farmers start using a new and very powerful insecticide?

And adult birds can live for 20 years (in theory). So a lack of young
replacements would have made their decline gradual?

--
*Why do psychics have to ask you for your name? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Baroque Musical Chairs
 

On Fri, 03 Mar 2017 14:15:17 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Don Pearce wrote:
Just did some Googling

http://www.independent.co.uk/environ...w-1026319.html

Yes - I've read that before. But no explanation for the suddenness of it.
Did farmers start using a new and very powerful insecticide?

And adult birds can live for 20 years (in theory). So a lack of young
replacements would have made their decline gradual?

Yes to the first. For the second, sparrows have their predators like
any other bird and as soon as a decline sets in the balance is upset
to a point where the predators make short work of the remaining birds.
They may theoretically live to 20, but very few did so a decline over
four or five years fits the bill very well.

d

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