When I was much younger I had a small selection of window boxes on my balcony. Now being young, and foolish I grew a few "herbs" which were just ready to harvest when the blooming birds ate the lot.
It's not funny when you get a load of pigeons banging on your window at at 6 am asking if you can make bacon butties coz they're starving.
When I was much younger I had a small selection of window boxes on my balcony. Now being young, and foolish I grew a few "herbs" which were just ready to harvest when the blooming birds ate the lot.
It's not funny when you get a load of pigeons banging on your window at at 6 am asking if you can make bacon butties coz they're starving.
I like birds but what you think would win in a fight between a squirrel and a pigeon see I would have taken the pigeon before I saw these fights and many times. Nope squirrel always wins.
One time I saw a seagull chase of two crows, then the crows flew off and a little later they come back with like 15 of them and they chase of the seagull. Which was cool because I have always said why dont small pray animals gang up on the predators because they have number advantage but they never do. In this case they actually did and it worked.
Bit weird to see a sparrow feeding bang next door to a giant wood pigeon which is 20 times it's bulk, & yet showing no fear at all.
They're actually collared doves. I don't know if that makes much difference but they are super chilled out. They just sit around on the fence all day sometimes.
Collared doves are monogamous birds and once they find their mate they will mate for life. Their breeding season begins in March, and they make very simple nests from twigs. While you will usually find their nests in trees, they tend to nest wherever it is convenient for them.
sure ive read before ravens/crows are the most intelligent birds and can speak words, interesting fact "Most corvids can talk just as well as crows can. This includes ravens, blue jays, magpies, choughs, rooks, jackdaws and red-winged blackbirds. All of these birds have the ability to mimic different sounds that they hear including human words."
my granny had a budgie that spoke, mimicing like a parrot.
I have a bird feeding station in my garden. A cheap thing from Argos that isn't very stable, which I hang some feeders full of seed and fat balls on.
One day when I went out there to fill it up I would find one of the feeders on the ground, emptied of its contents. Weird, but I refilled it and carried on with my day. Next day, it's on the floor again.
It mystified me and my wife for about 2 weeks. Until one day we finally caught a crow sat on top of the station, using its weight to bounce up and down on it until it knocked the feeder onto the ground, managed to pop the lid off, and made off with the fat balls inside.
We tie it on with string now and haven't seen any crows for a while.
I nearly missed this thread derail, glad I didn't.
We have quite a bird menagerie at our place. At the moment outside the patio door I can see a collared dove, wood pidgeon, herring gull, a pair of crows, a coot and 8 mallards. Often we have a heron visit and very, very rarely spot a kingfisher, I've even watched one diving from the bridge over my little pond. We have swallows nesting here every year and did have a flock of goldfinches, about 50 birds, like something out of 'The Birds', but much less scary, haven't seen them for a few weeks though.
There are some downsides.....
Watching a heron land on the roof of your freshly cleaned car, look you directly in the eye (I was looking out of the bathroom window), hunker down and release the biggest, evilest, fishiest s**t, I've ever seen. Had I not seen it with my own eyes I would have sworn that the world's largest seagull had eaten a bad fish curry the previous night.
Watching cute little month old ducklings attacking tiny, freshly hatched ducklings from another brood. Quite horrible, we had to rescue the little ones, managed to save two of them. Herring gulls had the other two that got separated from mum.
We also have cats, once one brought a fledgeling in, this happens a fair bit sadly, unfortunately this time it was a baby kingfisher. I'm not a fan of cats, even ours.
Most of the stuff I build in the garden (just finished a floating duck house), look OK when I've just finished them, within days they are covered in bird droppings.
I nearly missed this thread derail, glad I didn't.
We have quite a bird menagerie at our place. At the moment outside the patio door I can see a collared dove, wood pidgeon, herring gull, a pair of crows, a coot and 8 mallards. Often we have a heron visit and very, very rarely spot a kingfisher, I've even watched one diving from the bridge over my little pond. We have swallows nesting here every year and did have a flock of goldfinches, about 50 birds, like something out of 'The Birds', but much less scary, haven't seen them for a few weeks though.
There are some downsides.....
Watching a heron land on the roof of your freshly cleaned car, look you directly in the eye (I was looking out of the bathroom window), hunker down and release the biggest, evilest, fishiest s**t, I've ever seen. Had I not seen it with my own eyes I would have sworn that the world's largest seagull had eaten a bad fish curry the previous night.
Watching cute little month old ducklings attacking tiny, freshly hatched ducklings from another brood. Quite horrible, we had to rescue the little ones, managed to save two of them. Herring gulls had the other two that got separated from mum.
We also have cats, once one brought a fledgeling in, this happens a fair bit sadly, unfortunately this time it was a baby kingfisher. I'm not a fan of cats, even ours.
Most of the stuff I build in the garden (just finished a floating duck house), look OK when I've just finished them, within days they are covered in bird droppings.
Just curious @Enut ..do you have swallows or house martins? Just asking as 20 years ago we had circa 30/40 housemartin nests at ours...this year..5/6.
'Just curious @Enut ..do you have swallows or house martins? Just asking as 20 years ago we had circa 30/40 housemartin nests at ours...this year..5/6.'
Definitely swallows, they nest in the stables, I even had to install fans to stop the babies overheating in the summer, God I'm a soft touch!
Comments
But
Can we get back to talking about birds please
When I was much younger I had a small selection of window boxes on my balcony. Now being young, and foolish I grew a few "herbs" which were just ready to harvest when the blooming birds ate the lot.
It's not funny when you get a load of pigeons banging on your window at at 6 am asking if you can make bacon butties coz they're starving.
One time I saw a seagull chase of two crows, then the crows flew off and a little later they come back with like 15 of them and they chase of the seagull. Which was cool because I have always said why dont small pray animals gang up on the predators because they have number advantage but they never do. In this case they actually did and it worked.
Collared doves are monogamous birds and once they find their mate they will mate for life. Their breeding season begins in March, and they make very simple nests from twigs. While you will usually find their nests in trees, they tend to nest wherever it is convenient for them.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotland-now/gallery/scottish-hiker-issues-beware-raven-29836980
my granny had a budgie that spoke, mimicing like a parrot.
One day when I went out there to fill it up I would find one of the feeders on the ground, emptied of its contents. Weird, but I refilled it and carried on with my day. Next day, it's on the floor again.
It mystified me and my wife for about 2 weeks. Until one day we finally caught a crow sat on top of the station, using its weight to bounce up and down on it until it knocked the feeder onto the ground, managed to pop the lid off, and made off with the fat balls inside.
We tie it on with string now and haven't seen any crows for a while.
Ha. Crows are incred, and as @Glenelg mentioned the Corvid family are all much the same.
Never be nasty to a crow. Apparently they can remember human faces for years.
Here they are after learning how to crack open nuts with traffic.
We have quite a bird menagerie at our place. At the moment outside the patio door I can see a collared dove, wood pidgeon, herring gull, a pair of crows, a coot and 8 mallards. Often we have a heron visit and very, very rarely spot a kingfisher, I've even watched one diving from the bridge over my little pond. We have swallows nesting here every year and did have a flock of goldfinches, about 50 birds, like something out of 'The Birds', but much less scary, haven't seen them for a few weeks though.
There are some downsides.....
Watching a heron land on the roof of your freshly cleaned car, look you directly in the eye (I was looking out of the bathroom window), hunker down and release the biggest, evilest, fishiest s**t, I've ever seen. Had I not seen it with my own eyes I would have sworn that the world's largest seagull had eaten a bad fish curry the previous night.
Watching cute little month old ducklings attacking tiny, freshly hatched ducklings from another brood. Quite horrible, we had to rescue the little ones, managed to save two of them. Herring gulls had the other two that got separated from mum.
We also have cats, once one brought a fledgeling in, this happens a fair bit sadly, unfortunately this time it was a baby kingfisher. I'm not a fan of cats, even ours.
Most of the stuff I build in the garden (just finished a floating duck house), look OK when I've just finished them, within days they are covered in bird droppings.
You are a lucky man @Enut
'Just curious @Enut ..do you have swallows or house martins? Just asking as 20 years ago we had circa 30/40 housemartin nests at ours...this year..5/6.'
Definitely swallows, they nest in the stables, I even had to install fans to stop the babies overheating in the summer, God I'm a soft touch!
@Enut
The stables. The lake with a bridge over it. Floating duck house.
Just saying.
Actually, I seem to recall you posted a photo of that bridge some tears ago.