Birdwatching

[Slim]

Sorry to hear, maybe it can be repaired with a metal plate with a hole.

[Fishy]

I can hear the blue tit chicks in the bird house.. any idea when they make an appearance..

[Fishy]

Think our blue tit family have moved out..

[Nickslikk2112]

We've just had a Blue Tit nest clear out in the vicinity. The young ones sit on the bird feeder pole while a parent feeds them - apart from one it flies out, then abruptly does a U-Turn back to a nearby tree. The parent does go and feed it

[Slim]

I asked ChatGPT about bird evolution, it's very good at infographics now. Click for a decent size render.

Highslide Image Viewer

Thought it might be interesting to see the state of human ancestry at those times .. apart from the human those mammals are roughly mouse-sized. Your great, great, great ( x a few dozen million) great grandparents.


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[The Picnic Wasp]

I've always enjoyed feeding birds and wildlife. It has become more difficult recently as gulls have taken to nesting in the gulley behind the chimneys in this area. That doesn't really bother me except when I put food out for the foxes at night, any gulls with chicks will swoop down on the foxes making the most horrific racket. Even in complete darkness.

I get a bit of grief from a couple of neighbours about the foxes but their claims about them being a nuisance are either exaggerated or just completely untrue. They can be a bit noisy in the mating season but that's normal behaviour and nothing to do with where they find food.

There's woods about 100 metres from where I live, mostly tall ash and beech so luckily there's a small Rookery. They make a racket in the early hours during spring but there's no mention of that by the local naysayers. There must also be about 1000 Jackdaws which flock onto the roofs opposite my house, nearest the woods. The roofs go black with the numbers. It's quite a sight.

I hate those who complain about birds and wildlife trying to eke out a living when about 500 houses have been built in this town in the past 10 years. The acreage of natural habitat destroyed is scandalous and totally down to the fact that house prices are high here.

No Bullfinches this year as yet, maybe a one off last year, but I must have an artificial House Martin nest installed for next year. I was delighted when they started to rebuild a nest a couple of years back but so disappointed when I realised the replacement PVC soffit boarding had prevented them completing.

[Nickslikk2112]

We've had to stop feeding birds a lately. I know RSPB advice is to stop seed feeders in the Spring because of the viral disease which finches pick up, but it's also been attracting Rats to the garden.

Taking the feeders down has pissed off the Squirrel. Mrs S keeps the bird food outside in a plastic box, the Squirrel has managed to eat its way into the box, little bugger, thankfully we disturbed it before it could fill its stomach.

[The Picnic Wasp]

We've had to stop feeding birds a lately. I know RSPB advice is to stop seed feeders in the Spring because of the viral disease which finches pick up, but it's also been attracting Rats to the garden.

Taking the feeders down has pissed off the Squirrel. Mrs S keeps the bird food outside in a plastic box, the Squirrel has managed to eat its way into the box, little bugger, thankfully we disturbed it before it could fill its stomach.

I don't think rats would survive very long with my fox visitors. I realise the Grey Squirrel isn't indigenous and is a danger to garden birds as well as the virus they carry, but I can't help liking them. I used to have a few here on a regular basis, but I think they may also have fallen prey to the foxes.

No sign of any Sparrow Hawk kills around here recently. One had regularly been picking off the pigeons which roost under my neighbour's solar panels but it must have found easier targets elsewhere, or met its maker perhaps.

[Slim]

I keep getting pigeon crap on my garage door, and noticed some on a front window earlier. Can you get fake hawks I wonder? Ah, you can, just had a look on Amazon.

Pigeons hate hawks.

[Nickslikk2112]

Well, we get Sparrow Hawks, Kestrels and Buzzards round here. We also get a bloke with a shotgun who shoots pigeons in the field behind us, binbags full of them. We still get plenty of Wood Pigeons. They'll breed all year round.

We have a pair of more or less resident Wood Pigeons in our garden, Limpy and her/his mate. Coo.

[The Picnic Wasp]

I keep getting pigeon crap on my garage door, and noticed some on a front window earlier. Can you get fake hawks I wonder? Ah, you can, just had a look on Amazon.

Pigeons hate hawks.

As well as model birds of prey you can also buy a hawk kite attached to a pole. My neighbours had one for a while. It flew quite well but didn't deter the gulls they were hoping to intimidate. Gulls are hard though.

[Slim]

I remember strolling through Trafalgar Square in 2002 or so and suddenly thinking - wait a minute, where are all the pigeons?

When I'd lived there a couple of years earlier there'd be a knee-deep fog of them, partly because you used to be able to buy breadcrumbs in little bags to feed them. Then I noticed a bloke with a hawk!

When I worked at Broadgate a man with a hawk used to come once a fortnight. He'd let the hawk off, it would fly up to a ledge on Lehman Brothers for a bit, then it would come back. No aggressive behaviour, it just sat there. Then it would come back. Very rarely saw a pigeon there. I need some sort of low rent version of that.

[The Picnic Wasp]

I've always had a fascination with birds of prey from a very young age. I used to constantly sketch Golden Eagles on my school brown paper jotter covers.

I always assumed that at some stage I would take up falconry but something always seemed to get in the way. I'd like to think it might still be a possibility.

[Slim]

This got a brief mention on the national news yesterday. Coleorton, a village about 5km from here and on a regular cycling route has an "absolutely huge" anti-social buzzard.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgmn6edqy6o