Bird Table News

Hi Trish
My last baby swallow left yesterday June 22nd./11 They arrived last week in April/11. I was so happy to see them again.

My last sight was 2008 on Northern Ontario where I used to live. Their little house was tacked onto our house so close I would talk to them and watch their goings on.

We now live in Eastern Ont. ( Ottawa ) since 2009. None last year but in a brand new little house and again tacked close to the patio doors thay arrived in late April and just left yesterday.

What a pleasure it was. There were five babies in all and to watch the parents feed and care for them was delightful. Our neighbors came over to see, it was quite a show.

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Ontario!  I think of swallows as only nesting in England which I know is wrong.

How wonderful that people all over the world are interested in swallows.

You’re lucky that you can get so close.  The swallows we’ve had nesting have so many old buildings to choose from we never really know where their nests are.

You must go to the trouble of putting up a swallow nest box. And you’ve reaped the reward by getting so close to them.

Trisha

I wonder what migratory path they will take.

This was a comment on an article   http://birdtablenews.com/2009/05/migration-of-swallows/

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Tomorrow I am going to be trying to sell a poetry booklet called LEST WE FORGET.

I am going to the Armed Forces Day.  This poetry  booklet has been put

together as a way to raise funds for The Royal British Legion.

Wish me luck.

 By raising money for  the RBL this booklet will help our Servicemen

The Royal British Legion have been really helpful

All the poems have been written by Yorkshire people. 

One of them was written by my father.

All of them, in some way or another, are about war.

I know this is nothing to do with birds and bird feeding, but in some ways it has.

If we had lost the Second World War things would have been completely different. 

Every soldier, sailor and airman would risk his life for this country.

They should be looked after if they are injured

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You’re  marvelous, spending the time to think of solutions to help all us birdlovers,

Keep doing it !
xx

This was in reply to these notes of mine

http://birdtablenews.com/2009/02/how-to-keep-pigeons-off-a-bird-table/#comments

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I was lucky enough to receive this comment from a lady -

I put out whole apples (golden delicious and royal gala) and conference pears and the birds love them. They peck away and the pears are finished in no time at all. Amazing to see

Trish said,

You put out whole apples! The birds in my garden can’t cope with whole unpeeled apples. You must peel them first do you?

I bet it’s interesting to watch.

Here’s a short video of a garden bird trying to eat an unpeeled apple

http://birdtablenews.com/2009/06/robin-trying-to-peel-an-apple/

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She must put the apples and pears out unpeeled.

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Bird Eating Bird

Carol has written in to tell me she has seen a crow eat a swift.  I wonder if that is another reason for a decline in swift numbers – a rise in the number of Crow numbers.

i have seen a crow attack a swift and then eat it alive ,i always thought crows lived on road kill now i know better. Carol

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Here are some more comments on the subject -

I didn’t know crows ate larger birds. I knew they could go after chicks and eggs and also eat off carcasses, but I never imagined they would kill a Blackbird or Dove. This is so very sad because songbirds need to exist too.

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I think once the Swallows are here the garden birds will become more vigilant to what’s around as the Swallow give off a very audible alarm and seem to be very alert most if not all of the time.

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Trish said,

I never thought about crows eating blackbirds until I saw it with my own eyes.

I have heard that swallows warn other birds about danger,but never really thought about it. We always get swallows here so maybe swallows have been warning the garden birds for years

Shell said,

The Swallows usually give off a persistent alarm call which is separate from their twittering. The call seems high pitched and sounds quite alarming. Sometimes you may see them dive bombing/swooping making that sound.

Some birds may also make the alarm call if they are hungry.

If I hear any bird and in particular Swallows make an alarm call I usually go and investigate. Swallows seem to be extremely good at alerting other birds to danger.

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Carol wrote to me because of an article I’d written on Bird Table News in 2009.  I really sometimes think it is amazing how all this works.  

Carol, it must have  been upsetting for you but it is an amazing thing you have seen.  It must have happened in flight did it?

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Carol wrote because she read this article

http://birdtablenews.com/2009/08/crow-eating-a-blackbird/comment-page-1/#comment-1071

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Can we say for certain this is a dunnock?

We have a bird nesting in our garden that we couldnt easily identify should be a Dunnock but the hen is almost a light Kaki coulour on her lower body uder her wings and back towards her tail.

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Rose has just read an article I wrote in October 2009!  It’s about a world without any flowers, or birds.

Great song to help school children feel grateful for the world around them. Should be sung in all schools!!!

If you would like to read  please click the link below

http://birdtablenews.com/2009/10/think-of-a-world-without-any-flowers/

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It’s strange to think that something I wrote in 2009 is still being read and still floating about in cyberspace!

Happy reading.

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Andy has given this plausible explanation

I can tell you that Blue Tits are not “attacking” their reflections or trying to fly to a point they believe to be beyond the glass.

Watch closely and you will notice the window will have spiders, flies and other titbits nestling in corners and crevices (some crossing the glass). The Tits will ‘hover’, like humming birds and dart in to snatch the tasty morsel for the youngsters.

I have a climbing rose to one side of the window and a hanging basket at the other, they use these as launching points and rarely ‘crash’ into the glass.

Occasionally a young bird may get too enthusiastic to grab his/her first snack but soon learns to take the more measured method of snacking.
If you want to help your Tit family picnics, provide a climber or other ‘perching point’ and get the joy of watching their antics from the comfort of your armchair.

We have three families in our boxes this year, with no mishaps.
Happy  watching.
Andy.

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This explanation gives a course of action that we could take to stop it happening.  .  We could put a hanging basket near the window, or put some sort of perch near the window.  This would stop the bird having to fly at the window from a long way off.

So this explanation means the birds just see the insect and not the glass window and fly toward the insect to catch a meal and hit glass.

Hope this helps someone in the future.  I know that people find it distressing when birds continuously fly at windows.  Let me know if it helps you.

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