I used to be concerned when I saw birds on our blackcurrant bushes. My first suspicion is that they are looking for a free meal. But now I am less worried. One of our blackcurrants has an aphid infestation and the sparrows are feeding, not on immature green fruit but on immature greenfly.
In the warm south aphids are consumed by ladybirds. I used to gather up these little spotted helpers carefully, deposit them on our runner beans and let them feed and reproduce. Up north, I cannot recollect seeing a single ladybird this season. Here the sparrows are doing the job for us, picking off the greenfly with deft beak movements, hopping lightly from branch to branch. They cause no damage, they only stay for a moment, close to our french windows, and then fly away.
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