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Yesterday (Friday) afternoon, as I walked out of our back door, I saw a baby sparrow flapping around on the patio 
. It's eyes were still closed but it was a decent size and it looked like the wing and tail feathers were just beginning to break through (about 0.5cm in length).
Sadly this isn't the first time we've come across young hatchilings over the years - a fair few of them seem to throw themselves from the established Sparrow roost in our eaves, every year
.
Usually, however, they are so very small (as in newly hatched) that they're dead by the time we find them. Yesterdays freefaller was very much alive and after a short discussion OH and I decided to try and give it a chance, afterall, in some parts of the country, sparrows are, apparently, a very rare breed (but not in our garden).
Obviously feeding such a young bird was out of the question and we know from past experience that the RSPCA aren't interested (we found a similar sized hatchling 2 years ago and RSPCA were less than enthusiastic because its' chances of survival were slim to not at all).
So I carefully scooped the youngster up, using a clean plant pot and gently tipped it in to the oregano hanging basket which is directly (if several feet) below the nest site and out of reach of any hungry puddy cats. The youngster immediately began calling for its' parents.
To be honest OH and I really didn't hold our much hope of it surviving but by nightfall it was still very much alive and still calling. Neither of us had seen the parent birds and we were certain that come morning it would have died.
To our surprise it was still alive this morning but obviously much weaker and not very vocal at all. We trully thought it was on it's last legs but then a little later OH spotted a parent bird (the female) leaving the hanging basket
.
We were amazed and relieved and by mid-afternoon the little fella was vocalising for all it was worth and appeared to be getting stronger and stronger. I saw the female leaving the oregano at around 6.30pm so that makes 2 confirmed sitings and we can only assume that more visits have been made that we haven't seen which would account for the transformation from deaths door to active little blighter.
I dread tomorrow morning now because last night we went to bed convinced it wouldn't make it but now there is hope. I hope we find it in good health tomorrow morning but either way, we know that we gave it the best chance we could.
I think I must be one of the few Grapes praying fervently for a continuation of the good weather (even if it means 2 hours of watering every night) until it either dies or fledges. Fingerscrossed everyone.
Reet
x
. It's eyes were still closed but it was a decent size and it looked like the wing and tail feathers were just beginning to break through (about 0.5cm in length).Sadly this isn't the first time we've come across young hatchilings over the years - a fair few of them seem to throw themselves from the established Sparrow roost in our eaves, every year
.Usually, however, they are so very small (as in newly hatched) that they're dead by the time we find them. Yesterdays freefaller was very much alive and after a short discussion OH and I decided to try and give it a chance, afterall, in some parts of the country, sparrows are, apparently, a very rare breed (but not in our garden).
Obviously feeding such a young bird was out of the question and we know from past experience that the RSPCA aren't interested (we found a similar sized hatchling 2 years ago and RSPCA were less than enthusiastic because its' chances of survival were slim to not at all).
So I carefully scooped the youngster up, using a clean plant pot and gently tipped it in to the oregano hanging basket which is directly (if several feet) below the nest site and out of reach of any hungry puddy cats. The youngster immediately began calling for its' parents.
To be honest OH and I really didn't hold our much hope of it surviving but by nightfall it was still very much alive and still calling. Neither of us had seen the parent birds and we were certain that come morning it would have died.
To our surprise it was still alive this morning but obviously much weaker and not very vocal at all. We trully thought it was on it's last legs but then a little later OH spotted a parent bird (the female) leaving the hanging basket
. We were amazed and relieved and by mid-afternoon the little fella was vocalising for all it was worth and appeared to be getting stronger and stronger. I saw the female leaving the oregano at around 6.30pm so that makes 2 confirmed sitings and we can only assume that more visits have been made that we haven't seen which would account for the transformation from deaths door to active little blighter.
I dread tomorrow morning now because last night we went to bed convinced it wouldn't make it but now there is hope. I hope we find it in good health tomorrow morning but either way, we know that we gave it the best chance we could.
I think I must be one of the few Grapes praying fervently for a continuation of the good weather (even if it means 2 hours of watering every night) until it either dies or fledges. Fingerscrossed everyone.
Reet
x
and so we're guessing that the parent birds are feeding him more than we thought. He couldn't possibly have lasted this long without food - surely? 
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