Love the little things and would not do a thing to harm them in any way.
But all of a sudden they have taken a fancy to dead-heading the primroses.
Only the yellow flowers are affected and the poor birds are no longer "our
sparrows" but "YOUR sparrows".
First, has any gardener come across this sparrow thing in their garden?
Second, do other gardener's have this problem where ownership of something
is abruptly transferred to them, however innocous, by their better halves?
Regards
Mike Gilmore
WinsfordWalledGarden, SW England,
USDA Zone9a

But all of a sudden they have taken a fancy to dead-heading the
primroses. Only the yellow flowers are affected and the poor birds are
no longer "our sparrows" but "YOUR sparrows".

Oh, it's the sparrows then? I wondered who was doing the damage, not
having caught anyone at it! But we now have a handful of sparrows after
some 8 or more years' absence, so I don't mind sacrificing a few
primroses! Wonder why, though - they aren't eaten or removed, just
decapitated.
--
Klara, Gatwick basin

In article ,
says...

Oh, it's the sparrows then? I wondered who was doing the damage, not
having caught anyone at it! But we now have a handful of sparrows after
some 8 or more years' absence, so I don't mind sacrificing a few
primroses! Wonder why, though - they aren't eaten or removed, just
decapitated.

Are primrose seeds poisonous to baby sparrows? The only practical
result for pulling off a flower head and not doing anything with it
would be to stop the seeds forming.

So they still remember how to do that do they.

Many, many years ago when I worked on the parks in Hastings we always had
pieces of wood about 12inches long pushed into the beds of polyanthus and
black cotton strung between them to form a confusing weave to keep the
sparrows off.

We always reckoned that they used them as part of their courtship ritual.

--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk

In article , Mike Gilmore muddywelli
writes
Love the little things and would not do a thing to harm them in any way.
But all of a sudden they have taken a fancy to dead-heading the primroses.
Only the yellow flowers are affected and the poor birds are no longer "our
sparrows" but "YOUR sparrows".
First, has any gardener come across this sparrow thing in their garden?

Yes, it's a well known habit of sparrows.
Actually, they're not going after mine.
Try growing different coloured primroses.

Second, do other gardener's have this problem where ownership of something
is abruptly transferred to them, however innocous, by their better halves?

Well, that's equally well knowm, isn't it? Usually children.

--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

In article , Inge Jones
writes
In article ,
says...

Oh, it's the sparrows then? I wondered who was doing the damage, not
having caught anyone at it! But we now have a handful of sparrows after
some 8 or more years' absence, so I don't mind sacrificing a few
primroses! Wonder why, though - they aren't eaten or removed, just
decapitated.

Are primrose seeds poisonous to baby sparrows? The only practical
result for pulling off a flower head and not doing anything with it
would be to stop the seeds forming.

A sparrow doesn't have enough foresight for that. ISTR reading that it
might be connected with getting the nectar at the base of the flower wen
food is short in spring.
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

I've had the same thing. It's always yellow flowers but not just primroses -
they do the same to yellow crocus and pansies. Just one of those things -
the birds are a delight in the garden and I don't begrudge them a few
flowers, whatever their motivation for doing it!

Neil.


"Mike Gilmore" wrote in
message ...
Love the little things and would not do a thing to harm them in any way.
But all of a sudden they have taken a fancy to dead-heading the primroses.
Only the yellow flowers are affected and the poor birds are no longer "our
sparrows" but "YOUR sparrows".
First, has any gardener come across this sparrow thing in their garden?
Second, do other gardener's have this problem where ownership of something
is abruptly transferred to them, however innocous, by their better halves?
Regards
Mike Gilmore
WinsfordWalledGarden, SW England,
USDA Zone9a

In article , Mike Gilmore muddywelli
writes
Love the little things and would not do a thing to harm them in any way.
But all of a sudden they have taken a fancy to dead-heading the primroses.

Funny, I was going to start a thread about that!!!!!!
We have had a tremendous display this year - and they have all been
snipped (

Only the yellow flowers are affected and the poor birds are no longer "our
sparrows" but "YOUR sparrows".

They have done yellow, red, pink and mauve here.

First, has any gardener come across this sparrow thing in their garden?

Yes - they do it every year to a certain extent but this year seems to
be literally frenzied. And it's not just sparrows. I have seen
chaffinches and greenfinches doing it as well.

Second, do other gardener's have this problem where ownership of something
is abruptly transferred to them, however innocous, by their better halves?

Oh yes.
Children springs to mind ))
--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.
I won't respond to private emails that are on topic for urg
but if you need to email me for any other reason, put ransoms
at jandg dot demon dot co dot uk where you see

In article , David Hill david@abacusn
urseries.freeserve.co.uk writes
So they still remember how to do that do they.

Many, many years ago when I worked on the parks in Hastings we always had
pieces of wood about 12inches long pushed into the beds of polyanthus and
black cotton strung between them to form a confusing weave to keep the
sparrows off.

We always reckoned that they used them as part of their courtship ritual.

Well, the one's I have seen doing just seem to be doing it for fun - not
another bird in sight!!! They just snip off the flower, look at it then
snip off the next one and so on and so forth. Don't seem to sip any
nectar . . . just snip, snip, snip (((
--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.
I won't respond to private emails that are on topic for urg
but if you need to email me for any other reason, put ransoms
at jandg dot demon dot co dot uk where you see

"Jane Ransom" wrote in message
...
In article , Mike Gilmore muddywelli
writes
Love the little things and would not do a thing to harm them in any way.
But all of a sudden they have taken a fancy to dead-heading the
primroses.

Funny, I was going to start a thread about that!!!!!!
We have had a tremendous display this year - and they have all been
snipped (

Only the yellow flowers are affected

I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that they may feel
threatened by them thinking they are finches?? Especially now during the
nestbuilding and breeding season?
Just a thought

Shannie

In article , shannie
writes

Only the yellow flowers are affected

I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that they may feel
threatened by them thinking they are finches?? Especially now during the
nestbuilding and breeding season?

They have done red, yellow, pink and mauve here - so it's not just
yellow that sends them into snipping mode (((((

--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.
I won't respond to private emails that are on topic for urg
but if you need to email me for any other reason, put ransoms
at jandg dot demon dot co dot uk where you see

The message
from Jane Ransom contains these words:

/snip/

Second, do other gardener's have this problem where ownership of something
is abruptly transferred to them, however innocous, by their better halves?

Oh yes.
Children springs to mind ))

At least you know they're not the milkman's then.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

On Tue, 20 Apr 2004 22:01:26 +0100, "David Hill"
wrote:

So they still remember how to do that do they.

Many, many years ago when I worked on the parks in Hastings we always had
pieces of wood about 12inches long pushed into the beds of polyanthus and
black cotton strung between them to form a confusing weave to keep the
sparrows off.

We always reckoned that they used them as part of their courtship ritual.

There's a photo in today's Leiden paper of a coot that has built a
nest around a fountain in the middle of a canal. The coot is sitting
on the nest with steady spray of water falling on it.

Whilst in UK last week, we observed a fight between a squirrel and two
magpies over ownership of the contents of a bird feeder. The magpies
won. We also saw a woodpecker using the bird feeder a few days later.

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 17:28:26 +0200, martin wrote:

On Tue, 20 Apr 2004 22:01:26 +0100, "David Hill"
wrote:

So they still remember how to do that do they.

Many, many years ago when I worked on the parks in Hastings we always had
pieces of wood about 12inches long pushed into the beds of polyanthus and
black cotton strung between them to form a confusing weave to keep the
sparrows off.

We always reckoned that they used them as part of their courtship ritual.

There's a photo in today's Leiden paper of a coot that has built a
nest around a fountain in the middle of a canal. The coot is sitting
on the nest with steady spray of water falling on it.

A bit off topic but check out the photo of the swallows nesting last
year ON TOP of a tubular wind chime under the porch of our front door
!!

Spot the guy in the middle !!

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/pottery/Swallow/nest.htm

On Tue, 20 Apr 2004 20:31:06 +0100, klara King wrote:

But all of a sudden they have taken a fancy to dead-heading the
primroses. Only the yellow flowers are affected and the poor birds are
no longer "our sparrows" but "YOUR sparrows".

Oh, it's the sparrows then? I wondered who was doing the damage, not

Blue tits here attacking the Quince, we've slowed the rate of nipping
by installing a peanut feeder in the tree so they're all gorging
themselves before attacking the flowers

--
The Flying Hamster http://www.korenwolf.net/
We're all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars (O Wilde)