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[Taz2]

It's like a laugh isn't it - more of a cackle than a stutter I always think. Yes, the magpies do that here too. Always soften the bread or whatever else when they have young in the nest. Mine put some to soak while taking the already soaked pieces away - on a rotating basis.

Very clever birds. Shame they get such a bad press. Everyone seems to love Jays but they are just as bad as magpies.

Taz x

[Elizabethrose]

You're right Taz, it is a bit like a cackle. Very recognisable. I don't know the life span of green woodpeckers but we always seem to have a pair here, I don't know where they nest though.

I wonder whether the magpies have young in the nest, I've seen them eating it here and I have to clean out the baths daily because the water gets left with dissolved bread and becomes yucky. They do have a bad press and I've watched them go after young birds. Hubby and I watched the robins protecting their young from a magpie attack one year. The robins attacked ferociously they were amazingly brave little things given the size difference. I've noticed that the magpies are at their most aggressive when they have their young with them. They will see off every bird in the garden. We once watched them attacking a fox that was sunbathing on one of our sheds. Amazing stuff!

We haven't had Jays for a while, we used to get a lot. x

[Taz2]

I think they live for four to five years. We have a pair which nests in an old oak tree fairly near us. I only found it due to a scuffling noise when walking past it. One of them was sort of scurrying around the trunk in the ivy before disappearing into a hole in the trunk. That was last year though. I haven't checked this year. I always wonder what they eat in the winter when there are no ants?

Taz x

[CLKD]

Have watched last night's video - we have a hedgehog/s visiting the feeder that I put live meal worms into; after the birds have gone to bed.  Can't see what time of night though because the programme has changed during the computer up-date, we can either see the date/time or the picture, not both  .  There's also a Bengal cat with a collar - not seen that about in the day time, so wonder how far she/he has wandered!  Then there are 2 in the day-time of sparrows and a blackbird, plus robin flying in and out of shot.

[babyjane]

Is there such a thing as a truly squirrel proof bird feeder?

[Elizabethrose]

We have an assault course in our garden babyjane, to try to prevent the squirrels. Whilst I find the little things highly entertaining we are overwhelmed with them.

We use a company called Jacobi Jayne / Living with birds for all of our supplies of feeds, feeders, baths, boxes, insect homes etc etc but more importantly squirrel deterrents!

Every feeder is covered with a cage which the critters find difficult to feed through. The cages are all green the same colour as our feeders so blend in with the garden. However, most of our squirrels are like Wile e Coyote and will not give in without a fight. So all of the feeders are on poles with a spring around the pole that springs down whenever they start to climb. They cannot get past them. We do have one hanging feeder which is very long so the squirrels can't hang from the top and if they try to climb onto the feeding station at the base it flips them off.

We used to have a feeder that spun and flicked them. That was hilarious because they just kept on trying and puzzling out how to master the thing.

We have stick on the window feeders that the little birds use and one is placed very close to a site where the robins always nest and I fill that with I Love Robins feed which is designed for soft bills. The squirrels are unable to cross the glass to get to the feeders though it doesn't stop them from trying. One day a squirrel leapt from a fence at a window to land on the feeder but it's attached by little rubber suction cups and couldn't possibly support the weight. The squirrel hit the glass and fell with an explosion of seed and tray. It had the shock of it's life and never tried that again.

As I type this I'm watching five parakeets completely empty three feeders. They are our biggest problem especially as the noise they make could wake the dead. x

[CLKD]

Borrow a Jack Russell or air-rifle?    Grey squirrels are vermin! as as parakeets in Australia

About an hour ago we were watching a very large hog feeding on live meal worms 

[Wrensong]

On raising back bedroom blind this morning, Wrensong baffled to note, sitting on lowest horizontal, still-bare branch of giant Ash in neighbour's garden - an aubergine coloured pigeon!  Calls to hubby: "is it me or is there a purple pigeon in that tree?"  Mr Wrensong comes rushing upstairs, peers through window and announces with some authority "I think it's a pheasant!"

Wrensong goes about business of setting up bathroom for ablutions, only to be called back to bedroom a few minutes later, where Mr Wrensong is peering through large binoculars at "pheasant" still sitting in tree.  Hands binoculars to Wrensong with patronising look that clearly says "what kind of idiot are you?"  Stark-naked & irritated to be delayed from getting into shower, Wrensong takes heavy binoculars ready to balance on nose, but eyes by now less blurry, send clearer message to tiny fluffy brain, which realises before making use of binoculars, that the aubergine pigeon-pheasant is in fact . . .

. . . a lilac blossom poking up from smaller tree beneath Ash.  Should have gone to Specsavers.

[babyjane]

 

oh thank you I love it (but Mr wrensong did initially think it was a pheasant  )

[CLKD]

 

Cold.  Birds busy on the feeders which I have re-filled this morning. 

[Hurdity]

  Wrensong!

The birds have almost completely disappeared from our feeders! We did go away for two weeks but neighbour was feeding them. However in the intervening time the hollyhocks which grow next to them (and whose long stems the birds queue up to feed from during fledging season!) sprouted hugely leaving wonderful hiding places for our cat to leap up at unsuspecting birds - so this could possibly be the reason - or else coinciding with a time when more food is available around and the birds are finding food near their nest sites. I know they will soon be busy again once the sparrows, tits and chaffinches have fledged.... I have severely trimmed the hollyhocks leaving only a few leaves and the growing flower spikes - but I fear my HH show will be meagre this year! Time to dig up this flower bed (it's only 2m x 2 m approx) where the feeders are and plant something else maybe? (A question for the gardening thread!).

Hurdity x

[babyjane]

flipping squirrel is stealing all the birds' food 

[CLKD]

Borrow a Jack Russell bj?  or learn to use a catapult?  You can trap grey squirrels but they have to be killed after - can you move the feeders? 

[Cazikins]

Borrow a Jack Russell bj? 

I've got one - right little rascal she is.

[CLKD]

Does she chase squirrels?  Could you hire her out .........  - I spotted a grey squirrel with a whole biscuit in it's mouth yesterday  .  It never even flinched when I shouted at it  .  I threw a full bottle of hair shampoo but it never even glanced at it !