General Chat

Think i am blaming the cats Shirley, last summer i kept finding dead wood pigeons spread right across my lawn, i took a photo of 2 offending cats and asked the neighbour concerned to come and clear up the mess.. which he did very sheepishly.
but since he aquired 2 cats which keep breeding the bird population has gone down and more Toms are coming in to befriend his cats.

:-( :-( :-(

Not seen any in my garden but then again have caught a new cat coming in and peeing on the bushes so maybe that's why

Nearly caught it once about to pee up the back door don't know who was the more surprised as I opened the door .Must be an unneutered Tom as he was aiming backwards with his tail up

Must know we don't have our old cat anymore so is scent marking

We still have lots of birds in the garden, the other side of the hedge is a big field where there are loads of gulls every day. We have blackbirds, robins, doves and sparrows, as well as lots of starlings, and a huge flock of some kind of finches. They are the ones who storm the feeders so o.h. is refilling them daily. The doves are crafty tho they and some pigeons sit below the feeders and hoover up the dropped seeds and a couple of them were even sitting on a branch near the feeders and nudging them so that some seeds fell out. Too flippin' clever!

The blackbirds were happy yesterday when I tossed out some overripe bananas. The bread I throw out disappears in a flash!

Lizx

Amongst all the usual visitors, we now have two pheasants (think they are male) who visit daily several times. They are weird, plod around pecking the ground now and then. So much bigger than the rest of the birds who busily vie for any food available and completely ignore the larger featherd species.

Aw jane,

i must be doing something wrong, mine have almost all deserted my garden :-(

I have so many Garden birds here I can't count them .I have a window feeder and have to fill it 2 to 3 times a day.It's costing me a fortune :-S.It's bedlam when they all come to feed at the same time,and battles. :-S..But I do love them all :-D

Joan, i also buy fatballs in a big tub a much better way to buy and store them.. :-)

Hahaha..well you certainly knew something i didn't...lol
:-D :-D

Awwww ya don't need Google when ya got me...

I`m a mine of useless information.









Ps... I got it all off Google, or was it Bing? :-D :-D :-D

I was just reading about that on Google Budgie.. :-)

That's what I was always led to believe the 14th "St Valentines Day", the birds wedding day. :-D

i think February is the start of the mating season for most birds...

Budgie.. :-D :-D :-D

Quite often doves will stat to nest in February, unless the weather is too severe.

There seems to be the usual number of birds in my garden - with the exception of greenfinches, and goldfinches. Haven't seen them all winter, and I usually do.

I buy a sack of wild bird food at a time for the feeders, and niger seed especially for the goldfinches, but no sign of them. The tits are eating it instead.

Tec :-)

I`ll let "her Indoors" know about that Stella . :-D :-D :-D

Think the Turtle Doves must have been practicing ready for spring...lol

Practice makes perfect! :-D

I put stuff out for the birds, like left over bread etc but don't make a special effort .

Last week I found hiding at the back of the fridge a "loaf", of stuffing mixed with sausage meat that I had baked (in a small bread tin) for Christmas. its easier that way to slice up.

Rather than binning it I cut it into quarters and put at the bottom of the garden my thinking was if the birds wont touch it the fox`s might fancy it for the sausage meat content
Anyway, looks like old foxy never got a lookin the birds loved it.
I saw Magpies, Blackbirds, Sparrows, Starlings and a Robin attacking the pieces, but was surprised to see our local Woodpigeons having a taste for it though.

Talking about surprises just before Christmas and during last week on 2 separate occasions I espied on next doors fence a pair of Turtle Doves, Mating! :-0
weird at this time of year.
Has anyone else come across this ? not particularly the right time of year to be laying eggs I would have thought.

Joy, please ask your cats to refrain from catching birds..

Maybe they are going elsewhere then,

i still have my faithful robin, he feeds from a feeder stuck to my kitchen window ( that is where the mealworms are.. he isn't daft lol)

Not so many in this area this year, hardly eating the food at all. over the road has about 6 cats and next to her has 3 :-( :-(but they rarely come in our back garden.

i think my cats have ate them all :-( :-(