Brunswick Road recreation ground is a typical grassy space, somewhere for people to walk their dogs about, a play area for kids, and some five-a-side football and a basketball hoop. It is bordered by houses on all four sides
The council focused their effort on the western part of the rec (to the left), planting some trees, but also leaving the grass long over the summer in the north-western section in the area behind the existing line of trees. Anecdotally this is supposed to be good for wildlife in general and sparrows as well.
The long grass allows insects to colonise, like grasshoppers, and the seeds are food for the sparrows too. All the sports features have been retained, the football area has been upgraded.
As well as the grass, they had planted hedges and shrubs along the edges of the rec, where it borders onto the back gardens of the houses. This gives continuous cover for the sparrows to move around this corner
This is along the western side looking towards the north-west corner. It's hard to say it's beautiful, but from the point of view of the wildlife it is shelter
and perhaps food - the parks department did well in taking this part for wildlife, working with the existing trees and wild areas while keeping most of the rec for people to use.
The sparrows have taken up residence in the new bushes, along with other common garden birds. There are now two notable colonies, one along the southern edge where there are some legacy ivy bushes, and the new one on the north-western corner. They have also broken out across the road to establish on the other side of Brunswick Road opposite the exit from the rec. Although sparrows are occasionally observed in Brunswick road, this part of the road seems to hold a lot more than I recall it used to
Overall, this looks like a win for the sparrows, a rare example of an increase in the hedge habitat they seem to love.
