The Unintentional Aviary

One of my four kitchen garden plots is netted against cabbage white butterflies - a regular pest when growing brassicas. The netting also serves to keep cats and birds off the plot - the cats leave a mess and the birds will peck at young plants and slow their development. During my regular morning visit today, I found I had gained a new aviary populated by nine sparrows, mainly youngsters. They were not there at 9 pm yesterday evening and I'm not sure how they got in or why eight sparrows should follow the first one to gain entry. Their normal residence is a large ivy 'hedge' approximately ten feet away.

I immediately started to lift the sides of the netting to provide several escape routes but they would always fly away from where I was standing. Only when I had raised the netting on three sides did they finally depart. Photo 1 was taken just before the last three house sparrows escaped; Photo 2 is an enlargement of Photo 1.

Photo 1: The Unintentional Aviary

Photo 2: The last three house sparrow residents

These house sparrows are regular feeders at our Finches Friend bird feeder ...

Video 1: House Sparrows on Finches Friend Bird Feeder

I will re-peg the netting later today taking extra care not to leave any entry points. And remember to check it daily just in case.

Garden netting is a potential hazard for wildlife. We once found a male pheasant trapped that was successfully released. And a few years ago there was one casualty (sparrow). So please take care when putting up netting and monitor daily for the presence of unintended captives.