Bird Table News

In response to the article below I received an interesting point of view  -

http://birdtablenews.com/2010/03/sparrowhawks-and-their-prey/http://birdtablenews.com/2010/03/sparrowhawks-and-their-prey/

Here is the point of view -

I agree with most of the above items ,but my thought is that by putting feeding stations ,of whatever sort out for wild birds are we then not morally responsible,if these feeding stations become a target .

Is it possible that the birds would fair better if we had not fed them,a point which I would like to put to the RSPB as a member .They reckon that they are far too busy to answer emails ,

It is sad when you would like an answer to a question that is important to you ,that an organisation you have supported for years has not time for their members Nigel

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This raises a few points.  Sadness that the RSPB do not answer member’s emails.  I remember emailing them and not getting a reply.  I thought the email must have not been received.  Now I wonder.

The RSPB are a charity.  But do they support garden birds at all.

A friend said that if they are a charity then why don’t they give away a certain amount of bird food – in the way that other charities give shelter and food to the homeless..  I think I follow her logic

I believe we become morally responsible for the birds we feed.  In some way their lives are in our hands.   We attract them in large and small numbers to certain areas of our gardens.  We save their lives in winter but we also attract birds of prey.

Perhaps the sparrowhawk would never have visited my garden and killed blackbirds if I had not put bird food out.  YetI know in the freezing cold of last winter I saved birds lives by putting bird food out.

You may be interested in SONGBIRD SURVIVAL 

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We have had so few swallows this year.

I’ve been waiting to see if any late swallows arrived but they haven’t

Each year for a few years we have had less and less swallows.   Each year I thought that swallow numbers would increase.  They haven’t

How can swallow numbers increase –  when each year fewer and fewer swallows are leaving here each year?

http://birdtablenews.com/2009/08/one-possible-reason-why-swallow-numbers-may-be-in-decline/

We can feed garden birds and help them survive, but swallows are a much more complicated problem

Swallows travel the globe so any global problem could be a swallow’s problem.

It seems so odd with hardly any swallows about

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There is no getting away from the fact that we have never had so few swallows here as we have this year.

I so hope that they are late arriving.  At this rate next year there won’t be any swallows at all.

All my life I have seen swallows come and go.  It’s part of life and marks the seasons in a small way.

Yes in another part of the country Swallow Lady says that  last year she had  more swallows than ever.

I wonder if it depends on which migratory path the swallows took.  Wouldn’t it be fascinating and helpful if we knew that.

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It is really nice to get some interesting facts about swallows and house martins.  I never thought about the difference between swallow and house martin nests.

It is worrying that not so many swallows seem to be here this year. 

From Garth  –

On  looking back to some of the reports on the breeding of these species I wonder if the nests are being identified correctly?

It is swallows that build a cup nest and usually use the interior of a building, whereas house martins is an enclosed mud structure on the outside of buildings, such as eaves or the apex of a house.

Over the twelve years I have been ringing swallows as a BTO project I have only had one occasion where a swallow nested under the eaves using the usual cup nest. This was at a site one year when there was pressure for finding a site, as there were a dozen or so pairs setting up home.

The sad fact is over all those years it is only about 30% of adults that manage to return and breed, but they regularly come back to where they first nested. The young birds have a greater failure rate and tend to not breed where they were hatched but do turn up within a 2-3 mile radius.

At the end of this month May I have one swallow nest where the eggs have hatched, and are also bit later this year in Worcestershire.

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One thing is certain – less swallows means more flies

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Garth replied in reply to this articlce -  http://birdtablenews.com/2009/09/recording-swallow-numbers/

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I read a really interesting article by Louis de Bernieres about village life and the countryside of yesterday .  In it he says

‘I miss the towering verges, dotted with wild flowers and bright with crimson rosehips, which used to flank every country lane.

Now the hedges are vigoursly clipped and pruned often at the wrong time of year, so the birds don’t have a chance to snaffle the berries that grow in them before they are cut back. 

They need those berries to get through the winter’

How right he is.  I remember hedgerows full of berries.  We still have them in some scrubland near us.  BUT most of the hedges are cut back before winter by mechanical cutters.

Also often now the grass is cut right back to the hedgerow – with no wild, unruly parts at all in the grass verges.

I have emailed the Council asking about the cutting of hedges which also cuts berries off.  I have not yet got a reply.  Thinking about it - it is a serious issue as it must be happening all over the Country.

I have also just this minute asked Song Bird Survival what they think of hedgerows being cut back and so birds Song Bird survival   http://www.songbird-survival.org.uk/

Anything that helps the decline in bird numbers must be bad.

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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.

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Grey squirrels are vermin.  They eat baby birds and eggs.  They kill trees by gnawing through the bark and making them susceptible to infection and fungus, so in conservation areas they are often killed.

Red squirrel numbers have reduced because the grey squirrel is out-competing them.  They are larger and stronger than the red squirrel

At the moment I daily see grey squirrels in among the trees near our garden.

They are coming onto the birdtable again and roaming round the garden.   They don’t seem to show any fear and leisurely leave the garden if I appear.

It is estimated that there are three million grey squirrels in Britain.  They must cause so much damage  to the bird population – and what good do they do?

Surely if they are left to grow unchecked they will do more damage – as well as eating more bird food they will eat more bird’s eggs and kill more young birds.

Grey squirrels must reduce the number of songbirds in Britain. By killing young birds and eating eggs they must reduce the number of birds.  I have been watching a squirrel leap from branch to branch, run down a tree, run up a tree.  They do this with such ease.  How can a small songbird escape. They can’t.

If we say that one squirrel only eats one bird’s egg a year – that is 3 million birds eggs that have been destroyed.  Three million birds that will not live.

It is perfectly legal to kill grey squirels.  I believe the only law about killing grey squirrels is that if they are caught in a live trap they must be killed humanely and not released

Mmmm.  I will give it some thought

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I’ve been lucky enough to receive the comment below.  It’s great they enjoy watching birds and the natural world. 

One of the things I wondered was why only two swallows nested. Each year more and more swallows return but only two swallows nest.  Can anyone give an answer or help with this puzzle.

I wondered if it was lack of nesting sites.

For the past 4 years we’ve had a pair of swallows make their nest on our front porch.

One year they had 8 young in 2 different hatchings.

Last year they appeared on March 18 I can’t wait to see how close they come to that date this year.

Also I notice that each year we have more and more birds returning I’m assuming its the babies but they all fly about and sit on the lines but only one pair build a nest. Although at night I’ll find 6-10 sleeping around the nest.

One year one baby was not getting fed we fed it wet dog food on a stick with toothpick and it made it to maturity. My little girl thinks their her pets. God has given us so many treasures to enjoy.

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I live in East Yorkshire, which borders with North Yorkshire.

There are forests in North Yorkshire which are home to many birds and animals.

As they have had snow for almost a month Wildlife Officers are worried about how wildlife is surviving in the forests this winter

Birds like the goldcrest and dunnock which are insect eating birds find it hard to find food as their food is frozen under snow and ice.  To add to the worry small birds lose heat quickly and need to keep high levels of energy to see them through the winter nights.

Nocturnal birds have been seen hunting in daylight so they get enough food.  It only needs snow for a short time for birds of prey such as barn owls to find it hard to get enough food. 

Forests such as Dalby, Pickering and Wykeham forests are good for birds usually.  Inside the wood is a little warmer than outside.  The trees usually shelter birds and animals but this cold spell and all the snow has caused problems and lack of food for many birds and animals.  I live on the Yorkshire Wolds which is the opposite of the Forests.  Yorkshire Wolds has wide open spaces without any shelter for miles – yet there is a lot of bird feeding goes on.  The Forests of NorthYorkshire do usually give shelter and protection from the weather – but this cold spell has been really bad for many birds

Wildlife Officers have  a barn owl project in Dalby Forest.  They believe that many barn owls may starve –  but will have to wait to see how many of the barn owls make it through the winter.

Here’s hoping we have seen the last of the really bad weather.

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