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WAYS TO STOP SPARROWHAWK ATTACKS IN GARDENS

Posted on March 21st, 2010 in Bird Feeding Problems by Trish

I’ve received such good ideas from two readers  – and here they are

From Garth –  

If there are too many attacks try -

  • moving the feeders around, regularly
  • if possible, don’t concentrate the feeders,
  • note the general line of attack and break up the line of flight. I have put in vertical bamboo canes a few inches apart and
  • also have individual feeding spots so that an early warning can be given by a solitary feeding bird.

The worst time of the year is when all the young tits are feeding and the hawks have young too, so this is when tactics are important to reduce carnage before your eyes.

I love to see a hawk and it is also a good sign things are right in the bird world as a lack of them means there are problems.

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From Shell -

We stopped using our bird table because of sparrowhawks. We placed some feeders in thick bushes but the birds prefer to eat from the ground now. I had not option because the hawk kept lingering around ready to swoop. I was going to use the birdtable  again but I thought it may attract the hawk again.

I think they can snatch birds off the ground and that’s why I’ve

  • camouflaged the area with various plants and shrubbery so that it would have a hard job getting to the birds. The hawk seems to have gone now that I have done that, I am still wary though.
  • I’ve fed birds under the bushes too, especially when it’s really windy which they seem to appreciate.
  • There are no cats around so we place the food on ground feeders surrounded by large plants. This has helped a lot.

I would love to put the table back up but the hawk used to wait in the trees and if it happens to fly over it will see them hanging around the table.

From  Arlene -  April 2010

My bird table has a roof and has been enclosed by my husband on three sides by the largest plastic mesh I  could find~ the open side nearest the lounge window.

It took  awhile for them to get used to it but they hop through as though it wasn’t there now.
All the little birds hop through the mesh or through the side bits under the roof and the bigger birds such as Blackbirds come round the back.

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This is from Mehr in Sweden and her views are the exact opposite – but things must be different in different countries.  In some ways what she says is true – but I think sparrowhawks do get an unfair advantage when they visit bird tables and gardens.  They can cause so much carnage and a lot of our bird numbers are declining.  You just have to visit the RSPB site to see that. 
From Mehr
  • if you want to worry about something, dont worry about how life and nature does, it has always done it long before we were here, worry about what your living is doing to the environment and extinction of species allover the planet, SH for exemple 30 years ago……….in nature animals only kill for living, we are killing, to extinction, just for lyxius living. let natur be alone if you can not love all of it….
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Please let me know if you try any of these ideas, if you have problems with birds of prey in your garden or if you have any advice, thoughts or opinions.  Thanks.

WORLD HOUSE SPARROW DAY – 20 MARCH 2010

Posted on March 20th, 2010 in Uncategorized by Trish

It is World House Sparrow Day today. 

It is going to be an annual event which will not only celebrate the House Sparrows, but also all the common birds and the diversity we see in nature.

Visit their website  -  http://worldhousesparrowday.org/

Here is a link to the page that tells you how you can participate

http://worldhousesparrowday.org/how.html

World House Sparrow Day is bringing together all individuals  (like me) and also organisations working on conserving House Sparrows.  

It will help with any research work  and will enable links to be formed.

House Sparrows deserve their day.

House Sparrow day is an international idea.  Bombay Natural History Society, Cornell Lab (USA), Eco-Sys Action Foundation (France) and many more organisations have come together to celebrate and learn more about these little house sparrows.

Why not join in?

ROOKS WATCHING ME WHEN I COME OUT OF THE HOUSE!

Posted on March 19th, 2010 in Uncategorized by Trish

These past few days I have been fed up of rooks getting some of the bird food I put out.

To outwit them I put some grated and cheese on the ground in the hedgerow in our garden.  I have seen this part of the hedge bottom being used by blackbirds.  They seem to use it as a ‘hedgeway road’ into our garden as I see them walk into the garden there.  Does that make sense?

I was only there one minute and I quickly threw some birdfood and cheese into the hedgebottom.

Within a minute 6 or 7 rooks descended from the sky to this exact same place and ravenously ate all the bird food!   I have never ever seen rooks in this hedge bottom before.

They must have been watching me from their treetop perches.  They must connect me with birdfood!

BLACKBIRD FACT SHEET

Posted on March 17th, 2010 in Fact Sheet for individual birds by Trish

THE BLACKBIRD  -  Latin Name:  Turdus merula

Blackbird in summer

Feeding - Mostly insect eaters.  Also eat worms, nuts, berries,  birdfood, cheese, kitchen scraps.  Blackbirds also eat newts and shrews.

The blackbird has a very varied diet and this must be one of the reasons it is so successful. 

Blackbirds catch worms on any grassland that is ‘soft’ enough for them to ‘dig’ their beaks into.

Blackbirds eyes are at the side of their heads and a bird’s eye cannot move in its socket – so a blackbird has to cock its head to look for worms in the ground.

Description: 
Male is jet black with an orange beak. 
The female is dark brown with a blackish colour at the tail.  Has dark breast with pale spots.   The female / hen bird has a brown beak
Blackbirds with some white feathers have been seen.  Click the link below to see some of the reasons why blackbirds sometimes have white feathers.Below is a link to some information about white feathered blackbirds

SOME REASONS FOR BLACKBIRDS WITH WHITE FEATHERS

HABITAT – General and very varied.  Woodland, fields, gardens, towns, cities, countryside.

Originally the blackbird was a woodland bird

SONG: tchook, tchook, tchook  -  the alarm call of the blackbird  It also sings a mellow song.

BREEDING - May to July.  Up to three broods can be hatched in one year.

EGGS: 3-6  Bluish green colour andspotted with brown 

INCUBATION: 11-17 days

FLEDGLING: 12- 19 days

NEST:  In bushes, trees, creepers, shrubs.  Uses grass, horsehair, fine roots to build the nest .  It is bound together with mud.  The inside of the nest usually is lined with grass.

Birds nest in a variety of hedges and trees.  Here is one hedge that is good for birds. 

A PROTECTIVE  HEDGE FOR MANY BIRDS

SIZE:  24 – 27 cm ( 9  1/2 to 11 inches)

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If  you have any blackbird facts or stories or information let me know and we can add it to this fact sheet.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-14

Posted on March 14th, 2010 in Uncategorized by Trish

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PESKY SPARROWS EATING PANSY PETALS

Posted on March 14th, 2010 in Bird Friendly Plants by Trish

‘Don’t put that plant  outside because all those pesky sparrows always eat the pansy petals.  What a nuisance they are. Pesky sparrows – why are there so many of them?’

It’s Mothers Day and  for the first time in ages I went to a Mothers Day Service at the village Church.  It was a happy affair with children singing and clapping a song.  There were also hymns and prayers.  There were candles that people lighted in memory of mothers or any special person who were no longer here on Earth

At the end of the service we were all given a pansy plant in a pot.

One pal of mine said to me ‘Don’t put that plant  outside because all those pesky sparrows always eat the pansy petals.  What a nuisance they are. Pesky sparrows – why are there so many of them?’

Sparrows eating pansy flower petals?  I was curious and have been reading. I’ve found out that although the pansy is a relatively trouble free plant sparrows sometimes do eat pansies.  I will let you know what happens to mine.

CONTROLLING FOXES AND CROWS SAVES BIRDS

Posted on March 14th, 2010 in Chat about the decline in bird numbers by Trish

A 9 year study suggests that controlling predators such as crows and foxes on moorland increased the breeding success of some birds.  These birds includes the lapwing, curlew and golden plover.

The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust found that controlling carrion crows and foxes increase ground feeding birds breeding succest by more than 3 times.

In Northumberland moorland and marginal farmland were studied.  One area that was managed by a gamekeeper was compared with one which had not got a gamekeeper and two plots that removed predators and then stopped controling predator numbers.

Controlling predators doubled the numbers of meadow pipitsand increased the breeding numbers of red grouse

In some ways, it is obvious to me that if you control predators then more prey will live. 

I have heard some people say that the field margins around fields are a haven for rats and are bad for ground nesting birds.  The rats easily prey on many ground feeding birds nests.   So this could be another reason some ground nesting birds are declining.

Knapweed for Birds

Posted on March 12th, 2010 in Bird Friendly Plants by Trish

Greater knapweed - seeds for birds

Knapweed grows wild in the countryside  and many birds including goldfinches and other finches feed on the seeds.

Why not try this colourful wildflower in your garden.   They flower year after year and so provide seeds for wild birds year after year.

SPARROWHAWKS AND THEIR PREY

Posted on March 10th, 2010 in Bird Eating Bird by Trish

A while ago I wrote about the time when I saw a

SPARROWHAWK WITH ITS TALONS ROUND A BLACKBIRD

I have had two different opinions and have put them below.  What do you think?  Let me know

Mehr says -

it’s amazing that so many people like birds, but not sparrowhawks!!! they are birds to, and amazing ones, and since i have worked all my life with birds, and studied hawks, I can tell you that they play an importent part in the ecosystem, otherwise they wouldn’t be there.

god/nature created the birds, and also the hawk for a purpose, and we are not the ones to judge or interfere.

i can asure you it is a highly natural and expected death for the samll birds to die by a hawk, but to get hit by a car, shot, poisoned or overfedd to death is a humilating one.

what you did, trying to scare the hawk away is not nice, how can you want to save one and kill the other?? respect and love nature, as a entire system, not just the part that is cute and accpetable for your personal gain in feelings….

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A reply from Shell to the same article -

I just wish life was fairer on the smaller birds. Now, if it was a cat prowling around and attacking a Sparrowhawk are you saying we should just let nature take its course? It’s natural for cats to hunt birds and other small animals as they are also natural born hunters but it isn’t nice to see anything being killed.

A Sparrowhawk hunts to survive but when it visits someone’s garden and feeds off the birds time and again, day in day out how can that make a bird lover feel? How many birds does a SH eat in a day? If they eat several then that’s several garden birds down, over a space of a week we are probably talking in our tens or even twenties, or more.

I have seen other animals attacked by big birds and then left half eaten, even if that.

I heard a SH kill a Starling and it was the most horrendous sound, the frightening cries of the Starling and its desperation to get away so you can’t blame people feeling sad about losing smaller birds.

We have also had a Buzzard visit and it was by no means as persistent as the SH. I think the Buzzard might have took over the territory of the SH because it has not been here for a while. The Buzzard did not stop by and goes hunting elsewhere.

 just read a news article about 75 Starlings crash landing and they assumed the birds had been chased by a predator like a Sparrowhawk.

I posted a comment earlier but it has disappeared

Shell

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My reply -

Songbirds are declining in number.  Sparrowhawks are rising in number.  Sparrowhawks do not have any natural predators.  Songbirds have a lot of natural predators.  I agree nature created birds and hawks – but in any situation it is bad to have an inbalance – too many predators to too few prey.

I have heard so many first hand experiences of sparrowhawks decimating hedges with birds in and attacking any birds that landed on bird tables – causing blood to be all over the bird table.

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Do you have any opinions or thoughts on this?

 

THE EARLY BIRD IS GETTING THE CHEESE

Posted on March 8th, 2010 in Birdy Ramblings on my daily dawdle by Trish

It’s 6am and have just put some grated cheese out on the ground and on the ground feeder.  I’ve found if I put the cheese and a bit of bird food out early then the only birds that appear are the blackbirds followed by thrushes.

If I put the cheese out later in a morning we get  quite a few pigeons, starlings and crows getting the cheese. 

I find the cheese goes nearly as soon as I put it out.  The blackbirds appear from all over the place.  They usually hop swftly towards the food as soon as I put it in the garden., with the thrushes joining in.

The blackbirds often come quite close to me as they perch on the fence – I think the prospect of a bit of cheese makes them brave.  I can see the brightness of the feathers as we look at each other for a second.

A robin has just hopped onto the empty birdtable.

There isn’t any activity as the nest boxes yet.  There is still a quietness in the garden.

There  is frost about this morning.  The grass is covered with f rost and the water bowl is frozen but I think the sun will soon be out and the frost will disappear. 

Time for breakfast before I fill up the birdtable

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