Dear Tweeters,

I enjoyed reading about the decline of House Sparrows in Britain and their continued success in Washington. In Saudi Arabia, there is no apparent danger of House Sparrows being extirpated. In fact, House Sparrows and Rock Doves are the two species I see here most often. On the compound where I live , there are close to a thousand of them living on about seven to ten acres. They make up, I'd say, about 50% or more of the avian biomass here, with Rock Doves taking up most of the remainder. The sparrows poop all over the cars. You can find roost trees by noting "perfect parking spots" under shade trees, where nobody parks and the pavement is rather white. Maintenance people are always trying to stay one step ahead by removing roost trees, but the birds just move over a few meters.

In the evenings, when it finally starts cooling off and people like to sit around the pools and relax, the noise of the roosting flocks is quite disturbing. If you clap your hands loudly, it quiets them down for about twenty seconds. Then the passerine cacophony begins again.

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

Yanbu, Saudi Arabia



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