The ‘Umble Sparrer (Sparrow) - Cameos of Birdlife #8
sparrow song
under the eaves ...
coming home
You’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t recognise the House Sparrow, or it’s simple song - ‘Chirp’ or ‘Chirrup’. It makes a variety of other sounds, but they’re all chirps as well. It’s like a continuous conversation (chattering) going on in the background, all the time. But I miss it when it’s not there.
My earliest memory of birds is probably hearing the House Sparrow chirping under the eaves. Sadly in many places it is in decline and in some towns has disappeared altogether.
As regular readers know I sometimes throw in a song - sometimes it works ...
Where have the Sparrows Gone by Emily Barker
From her recent album, A Dark Murmuration of Words, Emily Barker examines our unconscious choices and unspoken prejudices, and essays the search for meaning in an increasingly loud, social media-driven world.
Featured Artist
The picture of a House Sparrow is by Carry Akroyd (1953) - a painter-printmaker whose images examine the relationship between humans, landscape and wildlife. Her representations of contemporary agriculture, botany and birds concentrate on colour, shape and balance.
Here is another example of her work and a short biography ...
Carry Akroyd (born 1953)
Audio Citation
The recording by Shaun Micklewright is used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 license. This and many more can be found at - Xeno-Canto - a website dedicated to sharing bird sounds from all over the world.
Where have the Sparrows Gone by Emily Barker
The reflective song looks outside an apartment window and imagines a post-apocalyptic, birdless London; sensitively directed by Tom Jacob, the video focuses on a family’s search for closure as a powerful metaphor for the loss of species and destruction of natural environments.
“Over the last few decades the Sparrow has gone from being one of the world’s most common and widespread birds to being Red Listed as a species of high conservation concern,” Emily reflects.
“When writing the song, my thoughts returned to the sparrows outside my window – how sad it would be to look out and not see and hear their vibrant movement and chatter. I hope that day never comes.”
“The song title came from some words I saw on an environmental campaign poster. It called to mind an old folk song by Pete Seeger ‘Where Have all the Flowers Gone?’ …”
Good to see spadgers getting their due!
Thanks Josie, I thought so too! And thanks for the memory nudge: ‘spadgers’ – we always used to call them this – but I haven’t heard it used in a long time.
Thank you Clive. Another beautiful post. The sparrow is so common even her that we tend to overlook them.
Thanks. Yes they seem to be doing well over there – even becoming a pest – like the Starling (another introduced bird!).
This was such a beautiful picture and haiku. Sparrows have totally disappeared in my hometown too. They say it could be due to the cellphone towers…
Thanks for your comment. I suppose in our modern congested cities there’s not much room for wildlife, of any sort …
Certainly in decline around here, sadly. ‘The mob’ descending on our feeders usually only number one or two at the moment, although we did see them in groups of eight to ten at times last year.
Thanks for commenting Mick. The’Mob’ describes them perfectly. They can empty our feeders in a day!
Nice post, Clive. I love House Sparrows, cheeky chappies! I remember when growing up here, someone calling them ‘spugs’ and the name has stuck! 🤣 I know they have been declining in numbers but they are the birds we see most often on the ‘fat balls’. They will be there now, queuing up on the top of the hedge! They don’t nest in my garden and I’m almost certain there are 2 separate families. In summer last year I counted 15 hanging around in the garden! Oh, and on a different note, the first butterfly, a Holly Blue, was dancing along the hedge yesterday in glorious sunshine. No heat today so I suppose it’ll be another few weeks before more appear here. Happy Easter!
Happy Easter to you and yours too, Ashley. A Holly Blue that’s nice. We’ve had a couple of early Red Admiral about but nothing else. A sharp frost last night may set things back a bit although there are signs of Robin and Dunnock nesting in the hedges. We can get overrun with Sparrows so I put some feeders further away from the house to give the tits and finches a look in.
House Sparrows are a thriving introduced species here in North America, even in the desert Southwest. In fact, our neighbor’s palm tree is the nesting home for a breeding colony who use our garden as their nursery. It surprises me to hear they’re disappearing from their native territories.
Thanks Cathy, that’s interesting to hear. The problem in the UK is put down to loss of green spaces within cities and modern building practices which fail to allow for access under the eaves for nesting (a problem for swift’s too).
I grew up with sparrows in our garden and wherever we went. I remember feeding them in town centres and then they were just gone. I’m glad that we have a colony at the end of our street and it’s always cheerful to hear them.
They disappeared from our garden (rural) for a couple of years but seem to be back now. Not sure where they are nesting as sadly our house and our neighbours do not allow them access to the eaves under the slates. I suspect they may be breeding in our local churchyard. Their constant chattering and bickering always cheers me up. Thanks.
I enjoy your posts, with paintings, haiku, and recordings of birds. The video was interesting and sad to me. I have heard Emily Barker before, playing a song on Wallender; beautiful voice. Thanks for the post, Clive.
Thanks Ed. I have never seen Wallander (must be the only one!) and I can’t remember where I first came across her songs. But she now lives in Gloucester, not far from where I grew up – so I feel a sort of connection.
[…] This cheerful hokku was composed by Clive Bennett. […]
Thanks for the link to Emily Barker’s song
Glad you liked it Martin.
Beautiful music and text. Love the painting of this sparrow, masterpiece! And happy to mention, here in CH we do have many sparrows.
Thanks Christine. Yes I loved this one too. I think she has uniquely captured a sparrow on a cold winters day. Glad to hear you have plenty of sparrow as they have been on decline in the UK.