Where have all my mates gone?

The RSPB Bird Watch confirms further decline in the UK of numbers of Passer domesticus, the House Sparrow.

Not, however, in our garden in NE Scotland! We have between 30 and 40 commonly in sight of the sitting room window, and more at the back, with loads of kids, criss-crossing the garden all the time, and their noise is quite noticeable when we are at work in the garden.

We also have a couple of pairs of Tree Sparrow, but I haven't seen any young yet. A Blue Tit family of 7 chicks has fledged from one of our nest boxes. The other box seems to be close to fledging, but we cannot see into it to check the number.