Why we stopped feeding garden birds

[Queens59]

Oui monsieur - and their feet make perfect toothpicks!! Non- just bad English - je suis desolete monsieur! ...and bad French to boot!

 

[PaleoPerson]

Can't imagine why anyone into wild birds would begrudge a Sparrowhawk a meal.

I don't, raptors are my favourite birds and whilst not a 'twitcher', I will go out of my way to watch them like Cumbria to Essex via Gigrins farm. "its on the way home" I told the wife.

Spars are very common here and to set-up a feeding table of live prey for them I feel is wrong. That said, I saw one get a starling off our front lawn last year, I was impressed. I do not begrudge them doing what come naturally, but to deliberately put all the other birds at risk, even although I am trying to help them, I am uncomfortable with. This is the reason we stopped feeding as our garden is perfect for birds of prey to grab a quick meal.

Picture below is from Gigrins farm

 

[PaleoPerson]

This is the Photo I am most proud of.
A wild long eared owl in daylight.
Not a particularly good photo, but a rare encounter.

 

[hedgerow pete]

what amazes me is where you can see this sort of birds.
there is a breeding pair in the post office tower in the centre of brum and at the old QE training hospital, and whilst sat on platform 6 at milton keynes last week i was watching a raptor hunting down the rail way lines.

what always cracks me up is the amount of people waiting for the train and only i saw the bird everyone else did not see it and yet it was there for a good 20 mins

 

[Somerford]

I am staggered at that photo of the Kites - how many are there ? what caused that to happen ? I thought they couldn't stand each other's company ?

PeteinWilts...any ideas ?

regards

S

 

[Poly Hive]

For a chuckle.

We spent a week on a RSPB carpark on the Isle of Sheppy. It was a "Raptor viewpoint" for mainly Marsh Harriers.

We were lined up north to south and to the east the birds flew quite the thing.

The twitchers would turn up just before dusk and hang around for half an hour or so earnestly peering into their technology, which was pointed to the west.

They went, and in one instance with in 30 seconds the harriers were doing a fly past.... it was comical to see, it was straight of of Bill and Ben, pssst the gardeners gone we can come out... LOL

We were in our Motorhome and primarily visiting the Chatham Historic dockyards. VERY well worth while visit, we actually spent three days there all in all.

PH

 

[Black Comb]

Somerford

It may have been here

http://www.redkiteswales.co.uk/

 

[Somerford]

Foxes here are a nightmare - last summer a tunnel over 4 feet long was dug under my rosebed!! And the damage they do to my vegetable beds is so frustrating

Our neighbours haven't managed to stop them coming into their house via the cat-flap.

They are destructive, dirty and noisy - don't belong in urban areas.

You could argue they don't belong in rural areas either. I have had 10+ chickens mauled and destroyed by our 'friend' Reynard the Fox....they congregate in areas due to the abundance of food, urban or rural, and then the population explodes, the food runs out, they die off/start coming into our gardens looking for opportunistic meals.

I'm afraid the gun is the only way to sort them now the hunts can't do it for us, and as for the (IMHO) lunatics who feed them every night with chicken/cat food etc....I just give up !

Mind you, I wouldn't mind someone having a talk to my cats - bloody murderers they are the pair of them. There are no mice within half a mile, and the poor roosting birds in the hedges are getting a battering.

The other morning though I had a nice surprise - opened the living room curtains and a greenfinch flew out of the Christmas tree where it had been taking refuge from one of my felines....it was released unharmed !

S

 

[Poly Hive]

Cats in our garden get short shrift, they run for their lives with the dogs in close pursuit. I make sure they get a fright but not a lethal one.

Bell your cats? Especially as you know they are hunters?

PH

 

[Somerford]

Bell your cats? Especially as you know they are hunters?

PH

I have tried that but every collar gets ripped off and lost - a bit like Peter Rabbit loosing his shoes and clothes !

I do shout at them if they are stalking something and I catch them at it!

S

 

[MJBee]

Midland Beek,

It may well have been a Goshawk as we are surrounded by deciduous woodland, but as I recall the wingspan (as it was flat out on the grass) was no more than 70cm. Either way it was a beautiful bird.

I frequently find small piles of feathers identified as blackbird and great tit with the occasional collared dove that have been taken by raptor unknown.

 

[PaleoPerson]

Somerford

It may have been here

http://www.redkiteswales.co.uk/

No, it was not this one, but a similar thing. See http://www.gigrin.co.uk/index.html.

PH, I have just spent six hours on Sheppey collecting fossils today. Crap finds, trashed one pair of new boots.

 

[PaleoPerson]

Midland Beek,

It may well have been a Goshawk as we are surrounded by deciduous woodland, but as I recall the wingspan (as it was flat out on the grass) was no more than 70cm. Either way it was a beautiful bird.

I frequently find small piles of feathers identified as blackbird and great tit with the occasional collared dove that have been taken by raptor unknown.

Big female Sparrow Hawks can take Doves and Pigeon no problem and yes, they are a good size meal for them. Goshawk? you will be extremely lucky to have one of them around.

Sparrow Hawks use 'plucking posts' i.e. a post or branch that they prefer, where they pluck their prey before eating. If it is in view from a window, it could be a good place to set-up a camera.

 

[beeboybee]

my encounter with red kite's in Mid Wales on Boxing Day!! well worth the extra miles, would recommend a visit.

 

[Meg]

Beebotbee,

I am green with envy!

Meg

 

[PaleoPerson]

Beeboybee

Almost the same vantage point.

Nice single.

lol

 

[TBRNoTB]

I am more than happy to feed our birds but I certainly would not be feeding a damn fox.

Next door neighbour set up a really amateur poultry run. I warned him of two families of foxes and that very night they got in and the poultry enterprise became a few feathers.

There is a plague of foxes, shame they dinna prefer rats.

PH

....or cats!

 

[TBRNoTB]

Plucking Post

Big female Sparrow Hawks can take Doves and Pigeon no problem and yes, they are a good size meal for them. Goshawk? you will be extremely lucky to have one of them around.

Sparrow Hawks use 'plucking posts' i.e. a post or branch that they prefer, where they pluck their prey before eating. If it is in view from a window, it could be a good place to set-up a camera.

Not always, my daughter once filmed one through the window plucking a Blackbird on the lawn.

I once saw a Sparrow Hawk hit a very large flock of sparrows, they exploded as though a bomb had gone off inside the flock.
Same place 1/2 hour later, a stoat chases a rabbit into a patch of grass, minute later stoat re-emerges dragging rabbit backwards. Rabbit looked about six times the weight of the stoat! It was determined not to lose its dinner!
TBRNoTB

 

[Teemore]

I have witnessed a male sparrow hawk take out a grown crow. The Crow was feeding on the ground and i really don't think it knew what hit it! It was several seconds before the rest of the crows reacted and took off in a mob.