Birds nesting?

[Onelife]

Do you have any birds nesting in your garden? I’ve just spotted a blackbird sitting on her nest. Last year we had a Song thrush which had nested in our wisteria...sadly none of the chick survived due to a trespassing stoat...or something similar.

[JenniC]

Do you have any birds nesting in your garden? I’ve just spotted a blackbird sitting on her nest. Last year we had a Song thrush which had nested in our wisteria...sadly none of the chick survived due to a trespassing stoat...or something similar.

We have a blackbird who normally nests in the conifer hedge between us and next door and come to think of it have not seen her this year... Maybe she had enough of Toffee (my cat) standing guard under the nest.. Although TBH she is too slow to catch anything these days.... Will keep an eye out now...

[GillD46]

There are lots of small birds in our garden, but I haven't noticed nests. We do have dozens of young lambs in the field behind us though, they are such fun to watch.

[Dancing Queen]

We have nesting boxes scattered around the garden and never had any success with them but a few weeks ago we noticed a blue tit was flitting in/out of one so fingers crossed it will nest in there, I have banned my husband from looking as I don't want it to be frightened off.

[Capt Black]

Years ago when I was teenager, a pair of robins nested and had chicks in my parent's garden shed.

[Delboy]

We have a lot of birds visit our garden, including a lot of pigeons

We used to have a blackbird regularly visit our bird bath, we knew it was the same one, due to a streak of white in his tail.

However we have another one this year who has replaced the other one, next door have a large rhododendron bush, which over hangs our garden and shed, lots of birds nest in it.

We also have a Bird feeder hanging in a tree along our front drive, which is very close to our kitchen window, have seen sparrows, blue tits, robins and today a pigeon, trying to get food out the small feeding holes.

[Holiday Planner]

One year I spotted 4 really young chicks in a hollow in our fence post. It was only at about chest height, and I could see their open beaks as I peered through the small gap. Sadly I found their bodies strewn along the path the next day - doubtless got at by one of the local cats. I look every Spring, but not surprisingly, it hasn't been used as a nest again.

[Kendhni]

We get a lot of rooks, magpies, robins, sparrows and various other birds ... and the one thing I have elarend is that birds are vicious.
There is also a bird of prey living nearby and often you would hear the nearby birds making an awful din and when you look you see the bird of prey flying high ... the magpies and rooks seem to send one of their kind on a suicide mission after it to which you see it spiralling upwards to the same level and then a quick fight before the magpie/rook plummets back down to earth.

[Manoverboard]

Living out in the rurals we have lots of birds but the darn things are making a right din and pooping all over the place ... sadly there's not a cat to be seen anywhere

[The Tinker]

I'll send my two round MOB - they are in seventh heaven since we moved to the countryside and the mouse population is definitely getting smaller!
We have a pair of blackbirds and one of them smashed into the conservatory last week - luckily it was only stunned and after 30mins being protected from the furballs it flew off

[Dark Knight]

we have 3 dogs, mad Jack Russels, a cat and there are several urban foxes close to us, so there are very few nesting birds in the locale
they have much more sense and nest elsewhere

[Manoverboard]

Thanks Tinks

This Topic has reminded me of a racing pigeon we once ' acquired '.

It just arrived one day, was ringed but Dutch so nobody was interested in adopting it or even eating it presumably. It followed me absolutely everywhere just like I was Mummy Pidge ... yeah right, have I got news for you sunshine

The advice given was " Do not feed it and be unfriendly towards it " ... no problem ... SHOOO !!! but it thought it was some sort of game and just kept toddling back again so I clearly had to out smart it. After several failed attempts I eventually enticed it into a poorly disguised, even to a pigeon, trap that looked just like a cardboard box.

Flushed with success I drove it miles and miles away to the depths of Darzet and beyond to let it fly away.

Guess what

Spot on, I drew the curtains back first thing the following morning and there sitting on the wall, smirking I do declare, was you know who. After several days of chasing it up and down the road shooing and squawking like a demented fool it did eventually fly off ... so let that be a warning to all you bird fanciers out there.

[jay-ell71]

We have a pair of Jays nesting in the tall trees growing on the boundary with next door. They are beautiful birds, and I am looking forward to seeing the young. Jay



PS. You could have sent his number to the Pigeon Fanciers Organisation???? Someone might have been missing him. J

[Delboy]

The front of our bungalow is block paved as is next doors, with a low walls separating them from the pavement.

On the pavement next to the wall is a telegraph pole, with telegraph wires going to a lot of the other properties. The pigeons, as do the seagulls find these wires a great place to sit during the day.

As a result our blocked paving gets covered in bird mess, it often needs a good rain fall to wash it off.

I would not mind but the telegraph pole sits on the boundary between us and next door, but it is our block paving which seems to get covered and not theirs.

[Manoverboard]

Jay ... I did that and that is how we knew he was Dutch, they were not interested in foreign birds

Delboy ... they sit on the wires cos they're warm due to the 45 volts going through them, it is said.

[gfwgfw]

Just a pair of cheeky Robins seem to have made home in our back garden

My wife feeds them most days with chopped raisins

.

[Onelife]

I could tell you about many experiences I’ve had with birds over the years but some of them are best not mentioned however the one that I like recalling happened when I was about 10 years old. I was doing my paper round early one morning and found this bird fluttering around in the gutter...it was clearly badly injured as its leg was dangling off. I picked it up and put it into my paper bag then after finishing my round took it home. On my return from school later that day I was surprised to see it still alive so put on my nurses uniform and started to care for it. A day or so past and the Robin was still alive so I came to the dession it was time to amputate its leg... it clearly only had one leg to stand on. This wasn’t a difficult task as I could see it was only congealed blood that was holding it together...well it survived a nip and a tuck and never looked back from that day on...after about a week I was told that I needed to let it go...reluctantly I did so even though I’d become rather attached to my pet Robin...anyway for the next few days it stuck around our garden (you couldn’t miss it as it kept hoping around) then I never saw it again.

P.s The night that I let the Robin go I went to our village bingo hall and won two of the major prizes which I like to think were a little thank you from my pet Robin.

Regards

OL

[jay-ell71]

Oh MOB, how mean of the society not to care for a bird because it was foreign. Jay

[Manoverboard]

Jay ...

I think the problem is that they do not keep them as pets but purely to race, my little chum was a sat nav short of a perch whch means he was of no use in the flying and then returning home stakes.

They have to be trained from young birds, as I understand things, and to start with short distances and then to build up to the longer distances ... my pigeon had got lost so is of no use nor value to anybody including his owner.

It's a tough old world being a pigeon or so it seems

[AngieT]

We live near woods & a golf course so we are inundated with birds including collared doves, magpies, jays, a pair of woodpeckers, thrushes, sparrows, different types of tits & finches, robins & generations of a family of blackbirds that nest in our back garden hedge, clematis & the front garden fuschia. When the young blackbirds start to fly we always get one who flies into the lounge window before it knows to aim a foot higher to reach the bay window flat roof! Our family of blackbirds are quite tame - the parents are happy to come within a foot of us to get the mealy worms we put on the lawn for them. Who needs a TV when you can watch them all feeding in your garden?

[Ray B]

We have a Blue tit which has been building a nest in a box on the side of the garage for three weeks now, it is now fitting it out with feathers and sleeps in it at night, so waiting to see if it is going to start laying eggs.
We watch the goings on on the TV via a link from the box.


Ray

[Onelife]

Ray B

I’ve had three nest boxes up for the past 16 years... we’ve had an a few visits but never had any take up lodgings.

Interesting fact about blue tits is that when threatened they can emit a long loud hissing noise which they use as a deterrent against uninvited visitors.

Regards

OL

[Capt Black]

Not a bird, but Captainesse Black discovered a cat living in our garden shed this morning. We'd suspected something was living there, thought it may have been fox. I like cats.

[Boris+]

Where we spend most of our time we've tried hanging out bird food - and no takers! However, things are 'on the up' - we've have bunny rabbits in our front garden, and have a flock of pigeons staring at us from the top of one particular stretch of fencing.

Maybe we should buy different bird food?

Em

[Ray B]

Hi Onelife, 16 years and no takers for your nest boxes is a long time, are they maybe in the wrong position. My boxes face just south of west and just west of north with bushes and trees a 2mt hop when the young leave the nest. We get at least one nest a year sometimes two.
The good news is our blue tit is laying an egg each day, can not see how many as she cover them with feathers during the day, just the odd egg or two on view so she will start to sit soon.


Ray