ONLY 25 years ago if you tried to plant veg in your garden you had to use nets to keep sparrows off. Not the most attractive of birds but they stayed when others flew off for winter.

Global warming, fewer nesting places, changes in snow cover, industrial farming practices - all may be contributing but the truth is nobody knows why the sparrows have gone.

I wonder if they had more colourful plumage like their finch cousins would they be missed more. Poor little creatures! Maybe it is a sign of the concrete bird-less world to come which some worse case scenarios have predicted for mankind.

I think I might just plant some lettuce which I used to fight the sparrows tooth and nail for, leave it uncovered and just hope the little brown birds will once again chatter and squabble over the feast that I will gladly provide for these busy little birds that were so much a part of Britain's wildlife scene not so many years ago.

PADDY MAXWELL, Lordshill, Southampton.