Not your fault that is the way Mother Nature operates. Never put food or water near a nesting site if you can help it. With the volcanic ash you may be receiving something to prevent the ash from the water source may be helpful to all the creatures.

One thing that should be of interest on here is that you state they are tree sparrows rather than house sparrows. Most on this side of the Atlantic worry about the house ones. I understand from the BBC that house sparrows have dropped to an all time low in the British isles. Is it the same in Denmark?

Hi, Maifleur.
Thanks for answer me. Well, only started to watch the birds this winter, but in this area have LOTS of tree sparrows. If they are really rare in Europe, for sure I'm living in their secret place :-) because here... tree sparrows EVERYWHERE!!!
Only one week ago I saw a small group with 3 or 5 house sparrows and have noticed that they are nesting under the roof of my neighbor, very, very close to my nest boxes... :-0 But haven't seen them using the feeder since then, but I'm putting sunflower seeds, peanuts and fat balls and have read house sparrows don't like it very much, right?

The Great Tit and my dogs fur

House Sparrows are a HUGE problem for all cavity nesting birds. Please go to www.sialis.org to see what you can do about them. It is a Bluebird site but it has a lot of House Sparrow info. You also must be SURE you have House Sparrows, the pic looks more like Eurasian Tree Sparrows (nearly 100% sure) NOT House Sparrows, I am not familiar with them but I do not think they are a threat to your cavity nesters. Please do some research on them. They may be delightful birds.You always want to be SURE you know what you have before you act! Good Luck!

I have attached an article about house sparrows in europe. I could not find the one I was looking for but this points out what is happening in the whole of europe.

Another recent article that is making the rounds is that birds are becoming smaller than they have been in the past. Some are atributing to warmer weather but since lack of food can also cause animals to become smaller there probably is a combination of problems.

Here is a link that might be useful: European house sparrows

Hi, Maifleur.
Very interesting article. Thanks.
And I do think they are getting smaller. I bought 2 Blue Tits nest boxes and after they started to build a nest, the Tree Sparrows (for sure) put them out and are now nesting in there. They REALLY SQUEEZE them selfs into the tiny, tiny role!!! We are talking about Tree Sparrows into very small roles!!! The solution was to take one of the boxes and nail a piece of wood with a smaller role in front of the original role, almost too tight even to the Tits and now they are happy and nesting in it.
But I'm paying a lot of attention to the House Sparrows (no signs so far), and had seen the www.sialis.org thanks to someone who put this information at another topic. SO SAD!!!!

We learn so much in this forum!!!

Thank you all that have inspired me !!!

Agi