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That'll be tits you've seen in your garden Jim. I shouldn't leave bread out, as you say it attracts other,unwanted vermin. I'd recommend coconut- tits like coconuts. ( or was that a description of a Latin Lass from Valparaiso). GillyQuote:
Originally Posted by Jim Brady
In my garden we have 28 varieties of birds calling in for feeds.
We have the wire bird food feeders hanging off the trees, some have nuts, some have seed and some have the fatballs in.
There is a female Blackbird who is now so very tame I whistle and she comes out of the tree and lands at my feet and takes pieces of bread from my hand. We also have a lot of Squirrels, who try to get into the nut feeders, quite funny watching them doing somersaults trying to get into them. Then the Magpies and Squirrels do a lot of fighting in the trees, The magpies have there nests there and the Squirrels try to get in and steal their eggs. or just wreck the nests.
Last week we were sat watching Squirrel going up to the nest and a Magpie was chattering quite loud, Another Magpie flew in then another more chattering then more and eventually 12 Magpies were attacking the Squrril. It was just like an alarm call, for all to go to the help of another, After the Squirril had gone defeated, they all flew away then back to their own trees. Very interesting to watch.
We dont feed the Squirrils, they are a menace, They got ito my loft once, cutting six holes through the bargeboards, they did a lot of damage, chewing through electric cables etc.
We also have four foxes that come round at 11pm every night. We give them the chicken bones and carcass or the bones from a leg of lamb when finished with, and any other left over. Apart from getting rid of kitchen waste it also saves the lives of the ducks and water hens by the lake at the side of my house. Every feed they have is one duck less to eat..
They are also interesting to watch. When I throw out the chicken carcass a cat will be first on the scene and the fox will just sit near the cat while he eats, then as he walks away the fox starts to eat, then the cat will come back and the fox will sit by and let the cat have another go then the fox will take over again. Very polite they are.
Cheers
Brian.
Brian with all those magpies I'm surprised you've got so many other species in your garden,magies attack and kill many of the smaller birds.If it was my garden and the squirrel's didn't wreck the magpies nest I would,since the magpies are on the increase the other species are on the way out.
Regards.
Jim.B.
Hi Jim
the Magpies dont seem to bother the other birds, Lots of varieties of Tits, they dont land on the garden , in the mornings for breakfast just fly in, land in the apple trees and then drop down into the Nut cages, peck away, then into the fatball cages for desert and then they disapear for the day and then repeat it again at 4pm and then they disapear, until the following day,
The Robins just hide in the conifers until the coast is clear and then go on the ground and pick up the seeds the other birds ghave dropped, The two types of wood peckers , lesser spotted and greater spotted just fly in and peck away at the apple trees until a branch falls off after a few weeks od pecking, The Eurasian Jays, beautiful coloured birds are quite big and just land on the lawn pecking for insects, just once a day.The blackbirds and magpies eat from the lawn together quite happily, The magpies seem only to attack the squirrils, I havent seen in 51 years here any agro between the birds, only an occaisional dispute over a piece of bread they both want. I am surrounded by woods, that is why my avenue is called Woodland Avenue. so it is full of birds of all kinds, I also get in spring and summer lots of Canadian wild geese, big ones with big families they wander in and out of the garden.
Veriy interesting.
Cheers
Brian
Check this out Brian,I have heard many saying with the increase of magpies other species are on the decline.
Regards.
jim.B.
MAGPIES RAIDING EVERY NEST IN THE GARDEN AND KILLING EVERY CHICK | Bird Table News
I can only say what I see Jim.
But what goes on inside the trees I dont know, only see what is in the open,
Cheers
Brian,
Here in Oz we have the 'Companion animal Act'. That means all cats, dogs and other pets must be confined to the premises during the hours of night. The catchers do the rounds to see who is not following the rules. All CATS and dogs have to be registered and microchiped.
We have three cats and the birds take no notice of them, they still come to the feeders or the table on the patio where we sometimes put scraps for them. The gov ask residents to put water out during the very hot weather for the birds to drink. All wild native animals are protected species here in Oz. you cannot even kill a snake unless it has you in a life threatening situation.
I have a camera covering the back garden, not for intruders , but what goes on after dark, it is triggered by movement and records on the computer. We get a huge amount of foxes, and badgers, very interesting to watch. Its about this time of the year that the female fox kicks last Februarys cubs out, you will hear them yelping as she drives them out, then come February March time we see the new cubs coming into the garden, very cute they are too. One of the pleasures we did not have at sea, but i can recall the rats on board when sweeping hatches after discharging grain, always had my trousers tucked into my seaboots on that job, KT
It's been a while since I visited the site.
The title of this thread caught my attention as it brought back a memory of what must have been a lifeboat drill on board the Athenic while alongside somewhere in New Zealand.
It was never established who was responsible or if the incident was deliberate, but while we were dangling on the ropes somebody flushed a bog, the outlet for which was directly above us.
Interesting how the subject of some threads change. This one has touched on a matter which I believe to be rather more serious than many (most?) people think. That of responsibility being bred out of our culture.
On another site there is an interesting thread the title of which is something like "How do we make a better world?" (I can't find it just now, and I contributed to it only a day ago!)
As is to be expected, there were may comments about what is happening in the world and why, what we are doing to the planet, etc. But none suggesting remedies.
I can't suggest an acceptable way accomplishing it, and I don't suppose any of you could either, but the answer to the question "How do we make a better world?" is make better people.
How do you make better people ? Well perhaps a return to what I suppose when I was a child, was called values. How do we determine values, well such things as behavior, honesty and integrity. I find that people have become much more selfish and dare I say it, greedy. They want everything now, without working for it or earning it and then they want more of it and given the chance will trample all over somebody to get it by unfair means or foul, which they call initiative. Who ever heard of pensioners being beaten up in the street or robbed at home for their pensions, young children taken and subjected to unspeakable crimes, incidents of such are in the paper and on the TV every day these days.
The experience of people trying to get off a cruise ship by pushing, punching and shoving is what is faced today by many passengers and that is not in an emergency, its just impatience with a total disregard for the disabled, elderly and anybody else who gets in the way. Then there is the attitude of people driving and parking. Could someone please tell me what happened to the rule about vehicles entering a motorway on a slip road, giving way to vehicles already on and using the motorway, give way lines are still painted there, but it has now changed to vehicles on the motorway having to give way to the vehicles on the slip road, which have no intention whatsoever of giving way to anyone and drive blindly and determinedly onwards with no thought to anyone else except themselves. The zig zag lines before and after a pedestrian crossing are there to protect the people on the crossing, giving good line of sight or they were. They are now fair game for parking, together with double yellow lines with the excuse, ' well I needed to go to the shop '. Public disobedience to rules for safety, just ignored for selfish reasons. Who is there to uphold these rules, nobody, why, because the government has by reduction of funding,decimated the Police Forces and Councils of this country. Until values of fairness and decency are introduced back into society there will be no trace I am afraid of hope of a better world and making better people. What we have now and I suggest for the foreseeable future is, 'first come, first served and the survival of the fittest and strongest, everybody else are the losers, no kindness and no consideration is and will be the watchwords.
It would be nice to think that we could return to what I remember as the more gentler times of my life when people were in the main, kind, considerate and caring of others but I cannot ever see that happening, not in my lifetime anyway. Life was by no means perfect, but people did appear to care for others and it appeared a much more kinder society. There are still the few who do care and I am sure we all must know some, but in the main, they are by far the minority and a dying breed. Disruption, aggression and greed, the every day happenings in our so called world of today. Sorry to be so down but that is the way I feel and you did ask David.
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