Blackbird

Oh, what a shame. We have bluetits in a nesting box that we have been spending hours watching going to and fro, so can understand.

A lot of cats won't tolerate wearing a collar, unfortunately. It's a shame, but sometimes they do kill birds.

Mine never has, she just brings live mice indoors, totally unharmed. I have to catch them and release them outside.

It's not impossible to keep them out. If you put XXX shaped trellis on the tops of fences, they won't try jumping up on them.

Oh yes they will . At least several around here will.

I'd want to strangle the cat.

They kill millions of lovely birds each year.

Ps what is the point of cats?

I like dogs but cats??

They are the biggest predator of birds. Luckily our neighbour spoils theirs so much she’s too fat to jump the fence any more!

We did have a visiting ginger tom but we have a sensor device which fixes on the end of the hose and squirts anything which walks through it. We’d move the hose around and hide the end in the flower beds. It did get the occasional pigeon which walked too close as well, but they’re too thick to be deterred. Its seems to have worked on the cats though. Nothing has come in the garden for months.

I'm sending you a hug as I understand how upsetting it is to see a cat get a bird. I feed blackbirds every day and they wait for me to put the food out. Cats are a real nuisance but also sometimes larger birds can target baby birds.

A blackbird nested in our cotoneaster bush last year and hatched some eggs, but they were discovered and predated by a magpie. Cats are not the only villians prowling our gardens!

It upsets me when I hear the blackbirds' anguished cries when their fledglings are at risk from prowling cats.

PS my lurcher keeps cats out of my garden but I hear the blackbirds in the thickets that surround my garden fence.

Yes, it’s a great shame, but the hunting instinct is just there, the same as for any predator that enjoys meat eating.

Callistemon the point to cats is that they purr into your ear, and are light enough to sit on your lap when you want to make a fuss of them.Unlike most Labradors?

Yes, rooks and magpies and jackdaws are dangers to eggs and fledglings here, sadly, but again, the natural world.

I would be devastated, Namsnanny,

We have lots of birds in our garden. I've been feeding them for years and a couple of the robins will now feed from my hand.

I really dislike cats

And I dislike the owners more who don't put bells on the collars

Oopsminty to say I am impressed is an understatement!
Robins eating from your hand.....are you a direct descendant of St Francis of Assisi by any chance? Or Dr Doolittle.

Since lockdown I have spent a lot of time watching blackbirds in my garden. Without a doubt they are my favourite birds and it would upset me terribly if a cat attacked one of them.

We have an uninvited cat that visits us most days and I fear for all the garden birds when he’s around.

I only ever met one cat I really liked, he was a Grandcat but sadly met his fate on a main road.

My late H would have been waiting with a catapult, he didn't like cats.

I could never hurt one and if they sit on my lap I can tolerate them. Just.

*Oopsminty to say I am impressed is an understatement!
Robins eating from your hand.....are you a direct descendant of St Francis of Assisi by any chance? Or Dr Doolittle.*

Ha! Not quite

It's quite common to get a friendly robin. If you have one in your garden, just stand there with meal worms and grated mild cheese on your open hand and wait.

We have a large bush that is home/resting place to numerous birds and they now pop out as soon as I arrive!

I have a nice photo of DD with a robin feeding from her hand when we were abroad. It wasn't in the garden, we were out on a day trip.

This is why I don't watch nature programmes - they always end up being about killing. Nature is cruel and harsh.

I was once walking along hand in hand with my 4 year old DD and we were enjoying watching a sweet little bird hopping along the verge by us. A cat suddenly and silently leapt from the depths of the hedge and gobbled it up before our eyes - cue lots of tears. A hard lesson for her about the world and its ways.

Nature is cruel and harsh.

So true, Luckygirl

In the Canaries, I'd take some bread roll to the beach and throw small pieces at the fish. Within seconds there would be hundreds of tiny fish zooming round, grabbing at the food

I was so happy, throwing my buns and feeding the fish when out of a clear blue sky flew a very large seagull.

This bird then swooped and snatched one of the fish out of the water

I was appalled.

I'd killed a fish

Killed it with kindness

I would be distraught too, Namsnanny especially as he was “your” bird. I felt sad reading that. The blackbird’s song is one of my favourites, so tuneful and melodic. Is the female still around and have the young hatched/fledged?

I have 2 feral cats next door, the neighbour feeds them but doesn’t let them in her house. I have a thrush, robins, sparrows, nuthatches, collared doves, blackbirds I feed. I would want to cry if one of the cats got any of them.
They got one of the wild rabbits in my garden though.