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My morning

(34 Posts)
mrsmopp Mon 15-May-17 11:14:18

We have a nest box in the back garden. We've watched a pair of great tits building
the nest and carting food in for the babies. This morning I was fascinated watching one of the babies learning to fly. Flopping around to start with, then he had a splash in the bath. Parents watching him. Then the drama as a magpie swooped and got the baby. Both parents bravely, frantically attacking the magpie.
Yes I know the magpie probably has its own babies to feed, and I know we eat lamb and chicken, but even so, I feel quite shaken.
Nature is red in tooth and claw for sure. Cruel world indeed. I hope there are other babes in the nest for the lovely great tit parents.

NfkDumpling Wed 17-May-17 07:49:35

Apparently all baby birds should be fed on insects so DH announced yesterday that he's not putting out any more feed until the sparrows etc clear the blackfly from our mock orange thing. They've cleaned the roses of greenfly very nicely but obviously black fly isn't as tasty. They've done a good job in previous years. Definelty no peanuts and the pigeons are sulking.

Hopehope Wed 17-May-17 02:34:27

Oh I shouldn't have looked at this thread while I can't sleep. I feel very sad now as well.

Greyduster Tue 16-May-17 21:07:53

Oh I'm really glad about that now we have bought a b****y great bagful of the stuff!?. We do get them around the garden - they just don't come down. They will sit on the tv ariel and twitter away. Probably saying "when is she going to get some sunflower seeds?"

Purpledaffodil Tue 16-May-17 20:10:33

We have four goldfinches who take turns very politely on the niger seeds. Never had any until I started putting those seeds in a feeder. They will eat sunflower hearts if they can but the parakeets usually beat them to it.
I read that peanuts are bad for birds in the spring as fledglings can choke on them, so I tried whole sunflower seeds instead. The lovely but greedy parakeets can empty that in an hour and the mess of seed husks underneath is appalling.
Has anyone any suggestions on a better peanut substitute?

Liaise Tue 16-May-17 20:01:02

DH also hates magpies. They know when he is getting out of his chair to rush over to the window to chase them away and before he gets there they flap of into the bushes. I hate these predator birds. I once saw a jay catch a sparrow in mid air.

NfkDumpling Tue 16-May-17 19:57:49

SGreyduster - apparently goldfinches have gone off Niger seed and moved on to sunflower hearts! Certainly nothing touches the Niger seed in our feeders. It's the fat balls that are really popular at the moment for all our birds. (Except the pesky pigeons)

Jalima1108 Tue 16-May-17 19:17:24

Magpies like to eat eggs of other birds, particularly blackbirds.

Nasty black and white things and not even melodic!

wot Tue 16-May-17 19:07:43

Wish I had great fat breasts!!?

Nelliemoser Tue 16-May-17 18:57:12

It us upsetting but we should not really interfere with this.
Some time ago we watched a Sparrow Hawk demolishing a wood pigeon. A pile of feathers is all you get left. Sparrow hawks are beautiful efficient killing machine.

However we still have far too many big fat pigeons. I have to angle the feeders so that pigeons cannot get to the seed feeders because of their great fat breasts.

wot Tue 16-May-17 18:39:32

It makes me doubt if there is a God the way we eat meat and can't the animals be vegetarian?

wot Tue 16-May-17 18:37:38

A wren, of course

wot Tue 16-May-17 18:19:31

I cannot watch wildlife programs. The other day, I was peering into a nest box in my garden as no one had used it last year. Out shot a tiny bird, which I think was a week and made me jump!

annodomini Tue 16-May-17 18:15:03

I must have been a hardened toddler. Looking out of granny's window, I saw a cat dash past with a chick in its jaws. DM tried to shield my eyes, but I am reputed to have exclaimed, 'Let him chew it!' I think I developed some sensitivity as an adult.

Luckygirl Tue 16-May-17 17:48:25

It is truly grim isn't it - when I hear people extolling the beauties of nature, part of me agrees and part of me wants to point out that it is predicated on survival of the fittest and that can be very cruel indeed.

I once walked along a lane with my DD (about 4, I would think) and we were enjoying the sight of a wee bird hopping along the verge by us, when a cat darted out of the bushes and in a flash made dinner of it. A bit of a harsh lesson for my little one.

mrsmopp Tue 16-May-17 17:00:25

Maybe I could cover the patio with wire netting or something to keep the birds of prey away from my babies. Or something! Or just sit there with a gun in my hand.
After watching the great tits carefully building the nest and feeding the babies it was such a shock. It all happened so quickly.

hildajenniJ Tue 16-May-17 15:11:15

One morning I was sitting having a cuppa at my kitchen table, watching the little birds, sparrows, great tits, blue tits and chaffinches feeding on the bird table. Suddenly, there was a commotion and most of them flew away. Down swooped a sparrow hawk and grabbed one of the remaining great tits. I was shocked, not so much at the catch, but seeing a sparrow hawk so close to the house!

mrsmopp Tue 16-May-17 14:15:47

They absolutely love dried meal worms. Buyology sell them for £4.99 a kilo.
Haven't seen them cheaper.

Greyduster Tue 16-May-17 12:24:49

I wish we did get more garden birds, Nfk. We have a bird bath, bird feeders, and regularly put out apples, fruit cake and other goodies on the lawn, but only seem to get sparrows (which I do love), pigeons, magpies and blackbirds on a regular basis. We get very excited if, like the other day, we have a great tit (first one for nearly six years), or a goldfinch of which there are lots around but in spite of putting out niger seed, they don't come down into the garden. sad. We couldn't move for birds of all kinds in our last garden.

NfkDumpling Mon 15-May-17 18:11:41

Has anyone else noticed a rise in garden birds feeding and nesting in their gardens this spring? We've put it down to the drought in this area as we have a pond with a small waterfall.

shysal Mon 15-May-17 17:48:32

On my feeder the crows are the only corvids intelligent enough to pull up the filled coconut halves by the string and anchor it with their feet while they feed. The others dangle upside down and aren't always successful. My bird feeder has been very busy recently. A whole jar of Flutter Butter gets emptied in one day, by starlings and tits.

TriciaF Mon 15-May-17 17:11:46

Magpies are the worst, I think. When we lived in a town I once saw a group of them swooping down on a cat. So Shysal I wouldn't worry, your cat was probably being brave.
We have some newly hatched chickens, in a small run covered by mesh, and a buzzard is regularly swooping down to see if he can get one.

rosesarered Mon 15-May-17 16:57:08

We have a sparrowhawk calling in regularly ( sometimes gets a small bird, sometimes doesn't). And red kites patrol for unwary pigeons.A pigeon nest was pulled to bits a few weks ago and everything in it was despatched....only found the dead parents lying in the garden, feathers everywhere.Rooks or magpies or jackdaws, who knows?
Nature yes, but unpleasant to see.

NfkDumpling Mon 15-May-17 14:05:52

Don't kites generally live mostly on carrion? Something to do with their talons being weak.

joannapiano Mon 15-May-17 13:00:32

The crows fly very high to attack the red kite that regularly fly over here. They make a terrific noise.

NfkDumpling Mon 15-May-17 12:38:21

We have occasional visits from a sparrowhawk after the large sparrow colony in our hedge. It's a thick dense mixed hedge so a successful attack is fairly rare. It really is a case of the quick or the dead. We also have magpies nesting in our pine tree but they rarely succeed in attacking 'our' birds as there's plenty of cover in our garden. Our feeders are also next to bushes so birds aren't in the open and vulnerable when feeding. It helps.