Bird Table News

I keep finding dead sparrows underneath my birdfeeder.

Each time I notice dead sparrow has the same injury, the back of the skull and the brain is missing .

We have cats around but this is not a typical way a cat eats a bird.

Can you tell me what is going on here? It seems as if maybe a bird is going it. The wound is very precise like a beak pecked at it. Would other sparrows kill other sparrows like this or perhaps another type of bird?

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I have been asked this question by Loraine, but I just do not know the answer. 

I have never heard anything like it.

Please can anyone help?

Loraine, I will ask my knowledgeable friends and see what they say?

Have you had any more dead sparrows?  I hope not.

Trisha

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I have had a question from Andrew  - 

All advice on how to stop the sparrow hawk entering our garden and attacking my fantail doves welcolme!!!!   Andrew

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I have replied to him.   He has read this article about sparrowhawks

http://birdtablenews.com/2010/03/ways-to-stop-sparrowhawk-attacks-in-gardens/

I think the advice about putting canes at intervals to stop a sparrowhawks line of flight is a good idea.

Any advice welcome as sparrowhawk attacks can decimate a garden

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I’ve just bought a bird feeder from Garden Bird Supplies.

I have been looking for a new caged bird feeder and saw some here -

http://www.gardenbird.co.uk/on/demandware.store/Sites-GBS-Site/default/Search-Show?q=caged+bird+feeder

I looked at  this one

But I decided on this one  because the openings are smaller and the cage space is bigger

Here is the link that gives you information about it -

http://www.gardenbird.co.uk/Caged-Seed-Feeder/Bird-Food/GBCC69,default,pd.html

  I’m sure it will keep the large birds, especially rooks and crows away from the bird seed.  They won’t be able to reach it.  I know this feeder keeps squirrels away because I bought one before

Dear Readers,

If you click on the Garden Bird Supplies image  it will  open the door to a wonderful  Garden Bird Supplies Shop.

You can browse at your leisure

I’ve just ordered a bird feeder, but  Garden Bird Supplies also sell Bird Food that  is recommended by Chris Packam

It is great to have bird food or bird feeders delivered to your door

Why not take a look

I bought this bird feeder about a year ago and it has proved useful

Click the link below to find out more aboout it -

http://birdtablenews.com/2009/03/caged-bird-feeder/

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Happy Bird Feeding!

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Hi Garth, Good to hear from you again and so pleased about your swallow news.

Swallows

Yesterday I called in at my best swallow site, which is a triple stable block and other out buildings and found at least 10 pairs nesting. Three of them already had young, one brood big enough to ring.

They are a communal lot here and in the beams between stables I found three nest within the distance of my outstretched hands containing eggs or chicks. Normally swallow pairs like a space to themselves.
At another site where they nest in a cellar the chicks were large enough to ring and the female, which I caught was the same bird I ringed almost exactly a year ago. It is wonderful to think that this small bird in my hand had been to S. Africa and back to return to the same nesting site!

My conclusions are that in this part of west Worcestershire we have good numbers back but I do still have some sites where individual pairs have not returned yet. Horses have replaced cattle around here so muck heaps still exist and there are always flies around horses.

Swallows could still be wandering around finding mates as nests do start up later in the seasson. Year old birds have to find a site to start nesting, invariable away from where they were hatched, maybe to avoid a genetic problem.

Garth

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Garth replied to this post -

http://birdtablenews.com/2010/05/more-interesting-swallow-observations/

and I’m really pleased he did. 

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I have just seen my first swallow.  It really uplifted my spirits.  It was perching on a lowish telephone wire and was singing a lovely toned song.  I stood and watched and it seemed to me it was joyous to be back here safely. 

I so wished I had my video or my little recorder with me so I could capture the moment.

The lone swallow sang and a sparrow  that was sitting on a nearby branch joined in. 

In my imaginings I thought the sparrow and the swallow were telling each other about their winter.

Sparrow saying it had stayed put here and the winter was so hard many of his family died through starvation and being frozen to death

Swallow telling the sparrow about the dangers he had faced – a widening desert, bats that eat migrating birds ,  being caught in traps.

And both were equally ecstatic to have survived and were now enjoying the British countryside.

I’m sure the cows attract swallows.  I have seen swallows diving nearby cows.  We are going to stop milking cows within the next year.  I think the swallows will miss them – I mean miss the flies that go with a herd of cows.  It is strange to think this is the last summer of turning cows out to grass.

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