Mrs Pawley (Letters 26/11/2020) may well be right with her suggestion that something sinister has happened to local house sparrows.

Here, in central Ross, they had perhaps their most successful breeding season for some years, with a substantial flock frequently in our garden.

After the third week in September I realised they had vanished. Now I only occasionally see one or two.

Evidence for their absence is clear in the most abundant flowering of our yellow winter jasmine in years.

Just outside our window, the birds can usually be seen in October pulling the buds off and dropping them on the ground in an orgy of avian vandalism.

Christopher Thompson
Ross-on-Wye

Where have all our sparrows gone?