Scrapbook image

Your scrapbook

Forgotten your details?

Enter your email address and we'll send your username and password to you

London

  • Partly CloudyToday
    9°C/17°C
  • CloudyTomorrow
    7°C/15°C
  • See Gardeners'
    7-day forecast

Our Gardeners' 7-day forecast warns you of changing weather conditions (including frost, high wind and drought) and suggests actions to take to protect your plants.

Gardeners' World magazine - 3 issues for £1

Save 25%

Subscribe now

Advertisement

Gardeners World blog

RSS RSS | What is RSS?

Wildlife

Sparrows in Paris

Posted by: Richard Jones, 23 April 2008, 09.57AM

Path and borders in the Promenade Plantée, Paris Paris, for an old school friend's birthday party. I've got a couple of hours on Sunday morning before the Eurostar home, so where better than a park to sit and watch the sights? I'm on the east side of the city, between the Bastille and Nation so it's a stroll above the Avenue Daumesnil. I say above, because the park is the Promenade Plantée, a disused railway viaduct converted to an elevated walkway awash with trees and bushes, and planters full of flowers.

It's very busy with promenaders, commuters, joggers and roller bladers (even though there are signs saying not to, but hey - this is Paris). There's lots going on but I have to admit that there are not many signs of wildlife. The plants are fastidiously tended and the borders manicured. Not one weed sprouts anywhere. As I sit and watch all the passers-by, my ears gradually become accustomed to the general hubbub and I slowly realize that, in fact, there are plenty of rustlings and twitterings from the denser growths.

There are sparrows, hordes of them. Now this is a puzzle. I hardly ever see sparrows in London. Admittedly there is a small gang of about a dozen in the block of back gardens in my East Dulwich street. I've come to pay them very close attention because I know sparrows are still on the decline in England. I rarely saw them when I lived in Nunhead and there are precious few in Dulwich Park or Peckham Rye. They have become something of a novelty with me. So how do they do so well in this narrow green strip through the densely populated 12eme arrondissement?

Something occurs to me. Are the houses of south-east London no longer attractive for nesting in the eaves? What with roof insulation and loft conversions, perhaps the birds are being edged out? Ironically, the five- six- or more-storied Paris blocks probably have eaves far less accessible to interfering humans. Is this why the sparrows are so numerous here?

Police station in Paris, featuring large caryatids on the upper floors The Promenade Plantée is a fascinating way to see this part of the city, with views down every boulevard and into the private courtyards of the apartment blocks. All manner of strange architectural detail is revealed, but my favourites were the bizarre caryatids surmounting the police station.

Comments

  • Paul Narramore

    25 April 2008, 08.31AM

    I agree with you about the numbers of sparrows in Paris. Some years ago on a visit our family walked out of the Notre Dame Cathedral when I heard this loud chattering noise and discovered in the raised beds in front of the cathedral, planted with lavender, hundreds of sparrows. It was fascinating to watch them as I'd never seen so many in one place in the UK. And yet as a child in the 1950s, the sparrow was our most common garden bird.

  • patti

    25 April 2008, 01.17PM

    We've just come back from Paris and we too remarked on the number of sparrows to be seen, particularly in the gardens on the Champs de Mars. Very odd seeing as we seem to have lost most of ours.

  • Sandra, Bristol

    25 April 2008, 03.10PM

    I was in Paris two weeks ago and we stopped for a baguette in a park area close to the Champs Elysee. There were sparrows everywhere and they were so tame I was hand-feeding them. At times I had two or three trying to take bread from my hand at the same time. Very entertaining!

  • Jennifer Baron

    25 April 2008, 11.10PM

    Every year we have had a family of blue tits nesting in our bird box which was made to blue-tit measurements given on a form collected from a visitor centre at Tockholes whilst out walking. This year the sparrows have pecked at the hole and made it bigger and are now nesting there. We are looking forward to the new family taking residence in our garden. We have never seen as many sparrows as this year.

  • Mel ab Owain - British Trust for Ornithology

    29 April 2008, 11.17AM

    I've had the same experience in Paris - huge numbers of sparows!

    What is even more perplexing is the variable fortunes of sparrows in the UK - severe decline in London and the South East contrasted by equally strong growth in the West (up 92% in ten years in Wales). Despite a lot of research we still cant come up with a satisfactory reason why, though housing upgrades, unleaded petrol and agricultural change are all possible factors.

  • kaycurtis20002000

    30 April 2008, 04.44AM

    I live in surrey near Redhill, there is a garden with an overgrown hedge walking past you can hear the continual chattering of sparrows, so more over grown hedges may be needed to accommodate these little birds.

  • Geoff and Janet

    01 May 2008, 06.21PM

    We visited this same Paris park in the middle of April, having read about it in a guide book. We too heard and saw plenty of small birds and also the men who were giving the plants their manicure. It was hard to believe we were 3 minutes from Bastille!

  • maggie hughes

    01 May 2008, 07.30AM

    That walk-way in Paris is beautiful, and sparrows are more plentiful there. We visit usually twice a year and have coffee/hot chocolate at Les Phares on Bastille sitting outside of course. There are always sparrows hopping about under the tables.However I was most interested to read about the lack of eaves affecting sparrow populations.

    I live in Bristol and over the years have become aware of their decline. But for the last six years as I have walked along a road in south Bristol I have heard the chirping and cheeping of sparrows; the only place I ever hear them. I too came to the conclusion that the eaves must have something to do with it as well as the privet hedges in the front gardens of most of these houses. The houses late 1920's local authority housing, much of which has not been externally modernised to a great extent.

    I would be interested to know if the eaves alone and/or the privet makes a difference to the few existing sparrow communities we have.

Leave a comment

We'd love you to post a comment, but please be aware of our Code of Conduct.

Please email gworld@bbc.co.uk to report any comments you feel are inappropriate. Please detail the post title and the comment you are referring to in your email. We'll take a look, and take appropriate action.

By submitting your contribution to this site, you confirm your acceptance of the website terms.

Thank you for your comment

Thank you for your comments. All comments will be looked at by a moderator, however, due to the numbers of comments we receive, we can't promise that all will be posted on the site.

 

Subscribe to the magazine

May edition of Gardeners' World Magazine

In May...
The May issue is on sale from 29 April. Subscribe today and receive the next three issues of Gardeners' World magazine for just £1.

The UK's number 1 gardening magazine

Our show

BBC Gardener's World Live

Gardeners' World Live, 11-15 June 2008

See details

TV & Radio

Television icon

What's on this week

Find out what gardening programmes are on TV and radio this week. And read more about the Gardeners' World programme.

Offer

Planter

Buy a Felco pruning set for just £44.99

BBC Magazines

© BBC Magazines Ltd. BBC Worldwide Ltd.

The BBC Gardeners' World Magazine word mark and logo are trademarks of BBC Worldwide Ltd.

BBC Magazines is owned by the BBC and our profits are returned to the BBC for the benefit of the licence-fee payer.