Wildlife in the garden - Spring and what is this bird?

simond

Western Thunderer
We have a vacancy for a sparrowhawk (m/f) or similar, nice area, plenty of suitable accommodation, and all the bloody pigeons it can eat...

The cat tries, but he only gets the stupid ones!
 

Arun Sharma

Western Thunderer
One of the many delights of attending the Reading O gauge trade show is the adjacent Caversham bridge over the Thames where several of these may be seen. This one was photographed in June/July - I don't know if they can be found there in December.
21-black swan-1.jpgThe slightly bald looking Egyptian Goose can also be found there.
 

richard carr

Western Thunderer
We have a vacancy for a sparrowhawk (m/f) or similar, nice area, plenty of suitable accommodation, and all the bloody pigeons it can eat...

The cat tries, but he only gets the stupid ones!


Simon

What you need is one of these

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I believe there may even be a hawk version £16.99 on Amazon

I don't know if it works as it only arrived this morning, but I am sick of the crows crowing at 5am in the morning, I'll let you know if it works.

Richard
 

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
We have a pair of collared doves who are delightful. The other day they were seen seeing off a magpie, nasty cannibal of the bird world. Why is that doves are good, cousin pigeons are totally bad!
 

simond

Western Thunderer
Max

thanks, I’ll let you know.

Paul,

I love the magpies, we have a family of them, aerial clowns, jokers, they’re great.

and they don’t make stupid “woo woo” noises at five in the morning.

We do have a local crow, who hates our cat with a deep vitriolic loathing, and from time to time shouts loudly about it. I’ve taken to telling him/her very firmly to shut up, which, to my great surprise, seems to work…. The cat dozes throughout on the patio table with a visible “don’t care” attitude.

Richard,

My experience of seagull-scaring plastic owls on boats is that they perch (and poo) on them. You’d be better buying earplugs. Cheaper. More effective. I’m guessing the same is true for pigeons, who, though annoying, are too damn smart.

cheers
Simon
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
One of the many delights of attending the Reading O gauge trade show is the adjacent Caversham bridge over the Thames where several of these may be seen. This one was photographed in June/July - I don't know if they can be found there in December.
View attachment 145814The slightly bald looking Egyptian Goose can also be found there.

Like the Egyptian Geese the black Swans are introduced exotics and are year round residents: there’s a flock on the Itchen in Southampton which contrast nicely with the Mute Swans.

Adam
 

Eastsidepilot

Western Thunderer
Simon

What you need is one of these

View attachment 145817

I believe there may even be a hawk version £16.99 on Amazon

I don't know if it works as it only arrived this morning, but I am sick of the crows crowing at 5am in the morning, I'll let you know if it works.

Richard

Hope it works for you Richard, we have Jackdaws at dawn, although we have been woken by Owl's hooting in a tree in our garden at 1.30 am on a winters night :D

Col.
 

richard carr

Western Thunderer
The owl experiment is still ongoing, it does seem to have some effect but not a complete scaring away of the crows.

These have been turning up this summer and eating all the apples on the apple tree.

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There must be about 20 locally and they can make an awful racket, but thankfully not at dawn.
They are also too heavy for our squirrel proof bird feeder so they can't get the nuts !

Richard
 

Wagonman

Western Thunderer
Hope it works for you Richard, we have Jackdaws at dawn, although we have been woken by Owl's hooting in a tree in our garden at 1.30 am on a winters night :D

Col.

We have Jackdaws nesting some 12 yards from the bedroom window. an't say they bother me much but our new cat is very interested...

Richard
 

Max M

Western Thunderer
A couple of days ago Mrs M was woken by a tapping on the bedroom window.
She came to the conclusion that it probably wasn't the postman as he would have needed a ladder and how would be have got it round the back of the house with the side gate locked?
When she pulled back the curtain a Magpie flew off.
No idea what it wanted.
 

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
When I opened the curtains yesterday morning we had a visitor in the form of a female Sparrow hawk on the back fence.

She obligingly sat there while I went into the dining room and grabbed a camera.

In this shot I think she had noticed Chris look out of our bedroom window.
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After sitting for a good five minutes or more, she spotted something on the embankment and flew off for a look.
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By coincidence she showed up the day after I had been looking on the web to see if Sparrow hawk's would tackle wood pigeons (after listening to a particularly disagreeable grumbling from one on the roof above the bedroom). It seem that while male Sparrow Hawks only take small birds, females will indeed tackle prey as big as wood pigeons
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Hi Graham,

my money is on a field mouse.

There has been a nest on and off in the corner of the garden for quite a few years and we quite often entice them out with cheese tit bits.

cheers

Mike
 

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
For years both here and in Wakefield we have heard Tawny Owls hooting at night and have never actually seen one.

Last night around 6pm we managed to end that torment.

Not the best photos because the fence that that it's sat on is at the far side of the field which is at the other side of the embankment.

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It proved to be quite an interesting night on the wild life front. While out watching a pair of hedgehogs that have become resident in the garden we also heard (for the first time) Barn Owl chicks screeching.

More on the Hedgehogs in another post.
 

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
In my last post on this thread I mentioned Hedgehogs.

You may recall earlier this year that I posted some photos of a hedgehog wandering on what will be the lawn?

Chris who has always loved hedgehogs laughingly suggested that she would like to kidnap one and make it a home. To this end she started putting food out which was being eaten but we couldn't be sure that it wasn't our neighbour's cat.

She moved the dish from the front of the house to the back and put it under our balcony.

a couple of days later she found this little bundle.

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From there we decided to build a hedgehog house and make a cat proof feeding station
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This is our balcony overlooking the railway.

We built the house under it at the end nearest the dining roomIMG_1594.JPG

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We now have two permanent residents and one that pops by for a bit of nosh if the other leave anything.

This is the bigger male.

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This is the smaller female, she makes loads of noise if the male wanders too close to her. We now know why they are called hedgehogs! She makes a noise just like a miniature pig.

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They go out under the gate and back in at will and we now watch them most evenings sometimes for an hour at a time. I have a few short videos that I plan to edit into one at some point.
 
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