Blackbird

Put the cat amongst the pigeons

Yes, it's sad, but to be distraught? That's what parents are sat by their dying child in a hospice.

I totally sympathise, Namsnanny.
I do not think you can liken the predation by other birds to that of domestic cats. It is natural whilst the existence of so many cats isn't natural - it is simply human self-indulgence at the expense of the natural world.
"The most recent figures of how many creatures are killed by cats are from the Mammal Society. They estimate that cats in the UK catch up to 100 million prey items over spring and summer, of which 27 million are birds. This is the number of prey items which were known to have been caught." rspb.org.uk
Dogs cannot be let off scot-free. They disrupt the breeding cycle of ground nesting birds and are a threat to other creatures when let off the lead for exercise. I have seen notices on moorlands asking owners to keep their dogs on leads and then been dismayed and angry to see many people flouting that request.
Keeping pets such cats and dogs is a very serious threat to wildlife and should be acknowledged. The way things are heading the day will come when there is no significant wildlife to be endangered. Is that when people will suddenly wake up to how their choices have affected the world we live in?

Do not put collars on cats. The amounts I treated at work for collar related injuries was outstanding. Some injuries took months of intensive treatment to heal, one or two involved amputation of a fore limb. Some cats hung themselves in trees.
I’m sorry but the cat was only doing what was natural. I do appreciate the birds and rodents too but it’s nature- a collar isn’t.

I am sorry you witness her demise and are upset, again, natural.

So distressing for you. I am sorry. I’ll never have another cat for this very reason.

I remember vividly many years ago 2 distraught children who'd just found their missing cat; he'd strangled himself jumping over a fence and the collar had caught on something sticking out.

@morelikeit - you quote the rspb, but don't add that they also say there is no evidence that cat predation has any impact on bird populations - cats mostly take weak & sickly birds that won't actually make it through to the next breeding season.

I have 4 cats & one of them is a hunter. She has a bell on her collar.
I love birds & feed them on very high feeders but we do get the occasional fatality. She does catch a lot of mice & although that does also upset me ( although I am pretty good at rescuing them!) my neighbours are delighted as they have a rodent problem.
The other 3 cats don't bother with hunting at all.
It is in a cat's nature to hunt- she has food down 24/7 so she is not hungry. I guess we get about 5-6 fatalities a year ( she is obviously not very good at hunting!!)
A friend who is active in RSPB assures me that no cat will ever catch a fit bird & I should look at it as culling not killing
but I would still rather she didn't do it.

Namsnanny I do understand why you cried. While I was at my daughter's house her cat caught a tiny blue tit, and then dropped it. I picked the bird up with a tissue, as gently as I could, intending to take it to a safer place in the garden. It was lying in my hand, in the tissue, looking directly at me, and moving slightly, seemingly unharmed. As I walked across the garden its tiny chest rose and fell, and I saw the light go from its eyes. It made me sob, I was so unhappy to see this tiny and beautiful creature lose its life as I watched and could do nothing,

I feel your hurt Namsnanny.
I cried my eyes out when a cat killed the blackbird in my garden.
Luckily i now have a garden that cats very rarely enter.
We have so many different birds in the garden but my favourite is a family of robins.
I see them every single day and they see me and don`t bat an eye lid,they watch me and dh whilst cutting the grass awaiting to pounce on the up and coming worms.

We've always had cats and the most recent one, alas no more, wasn't much for killing birds usually. Unfortunately, to my horror, he just couldn't resist wrens. Such pretty little birds with a wonderful song. I managed to save several during the course of his life but there was always the odd one brought in dead for consumption under the kitchen table! It made me so sad. However, he was a champion rabbiter and kept the garden from being decimated by the peskie creatures - we didn't realise how good he was until he was gone, we're plagued with them now & they eat everything, given the chance. We have a lot of bird feeders which are sometimes used by the local kite & sparrow hawk as a fly-in take away & magpies and jays who rob the nests - all far more destructive to birdlife than any cat we've ever had.

My vet told me not to use a bell. They have a little hole in them that can catch and severely damage (even rip off) a cat's claw when scratching.
My cat hasn't caught a bird for years as she's now 13 and not too nippy, though she's OK at mice and baby rabbits. Round here, the biggest predators on eggs and birds are the magpies and the squirrels. Seeing a squirrel up a neighbour's tree taking every egg is a terrible sight.

Oh Namsnanny I am so sorry! You are being perfectly reasonable in my humble opinion. That would have utterly destroyed me too! Indeed simply reading it is distressing enough. How terribly sad! I am so very sorry! I know you will feel upset about this for a very long time as the memory will not go away. Don't let people say you are more tender because we are in lockdown either. I believe that if you are a person who finds this overwhelmingly upsetting then it would hit you no matter what circumstances you were in at the time.

I can only try to comfort you somehow by saying that the natural world is very resilient. But I know this doesn't help. My legs are wobbling for you now actually. Like many others, I cannot watch wildlife programs such as those by David Attenborough. I get impossibly distressed about the things that happened. Even a film that was not about wildlife but included a scene of an animal in a sad situation years ago distressed me so much I have never got over it and can't cope with it now! Some of us are just made this way. Please do not reproach yourself. You are very loving and empathic. Try and be kind to yourself. Having a good cry is not a bad thing. I do it pretty often. Things upset me very easily. I know how compassionate and kind you are from previous experience. Please just treat yourself gently and you will recover so that you can manage better, with time. Bless you. Lots of love, Elle x ?

I quite understand you Namsnanny. I used to have a nesting box in my garden, regularly used by blue tits. Last year there was quite a commotion coming from my garden and there was a magpie sticking its head in the tiny hole in the box, and dragging the babies out. None survived. I removed the box and have never replaced it.

I also get cross when cat lovers say that it’s natural for cats to catch birds. It’s not - big cats only kill when they are hungry. Domestic cats kill for fun. Why do cat owners buy those things on sticks to tease their cats, which makes them want to catch birds?

I've got 3 cats and they're too laid back to scratch themselves.
One of them brought a tiny fieldmouse in last year and promptly lay down and went to sleep while the little critter ran amok in the living room.
It was me who had to chase around looking for it then catch it in the spider-catcher and put it outside away from the house.

I've never had a bird " presented " to me nor have I seen any dead ones or their feathers in the garden thank goodness. My cats are so lazy ! 2 asleep inside and the other on top of the bin and they've never strayed far either. Well behaved.

That's sad. Not all cats kill birds. My own Mr Cooper sits outside and doesn't bother with any of the birds. They hop around near him without a care.

My dog used to chase cats if they dared to come into the garden, what he would have done if one confronted him would be anyone's guess - turn and run, I think. They used to sit on the fence and sneer at him.

I feel your pain. Through my married life I have had 15 cats and seen every side of them. At present I gave 2 house cats who are not allowed out because of a virus they carry (not the dreaded Covid). Through the years only some of my cats have been serial killers others prefered to sit on my knee. A bell on a collar did not stop mine as a cat will stalk and are very patient. Once I tried to save a blackbird nesting near our house. I keep the cat in for a day but as soon as the door opened she went back and later that day killed it. That made me sad as I really love blackbirds and love to hear them singing in the trees early evening. Another of my cats used to sit by our pond when he heard them flapping around near the sides and just hook them out. You may ask why people keep cats. I love them because theyy are a law unto themselves, free spirits. I am glad I have my dog as well because now my cats are not chasing the pigeons off the garden the dog does a good job.

I had a cat once who was a great hunter. Rabbits, pheasants, moles, mice, shrews birds. But on one occasion when he approached a black birds nest, the blackbird attacked him. He never went after a blackbird again.

RustyBear

Wouldn't it be better if the predatory birds benefited from the weak and sickly birds?

Glad my 2 moggies are housecats. I love cats and would have more if i could but i also love wildlife and so they are kept inside from being kittens. I have some lovely black birds and tits nesting in my garden. Would be devastated if a cat killef one of them

Namsnanny - very sad. I'll never forget, when I was a child about 8 watching blackbirds build a nest and lay her eggs in a bush in my Gran's garden. Stupid me, I picked up one of the eggs when the parents were away, just out of curiosity. The parents never returned and the eggs were wasted.
Another aspect of your problem, blackbirds are ground feeders and hop around all unsuspecting so are easy prey for cats.

I love birds and cats - we have a cat (though she only chases moths and insects) and we also enjoy watching the birds that visit our garden from time to time! The difference between cats and birds however, is that cats have been domesticated to live with us and birds are wild creatures whose natural habitat is certainly not our back gardens! It's lovely to see birds in our gardens but in actively encouraging them to visit purely so that we have the pleasure (and it is a pleasure) of observing them has it's risks and occasionally nature will out! It is sad that the cat got the blackbird ..... but in it's natural habitat it wouldn't have been in danger from the cat. Bird lovers also have to accept some responsibility for their actions.

Callistemon, (what's the point of cats?) - what's the point of humans? Cats are carnivores, of course they have a hunting instinct, but humans have a choice. Is it only some killing that we object to?

I know how you feel. We have a pond close to the house. The ducks produced twenty-two ducklings. Sweet and fluffy. I went round every day to see them. All twenty-two have vanished - killed by the local cats. I’m a cat lover myself - but that’s just horrible