Wednesday 28 October 2009

A Sparrow Hawk ate my pigeon

My wife has always fed the birds in our garden and as such we have a lot of feathered visitors. Some years there is a preponderance of one species and later years others are predominant. A year or two ago Magpies were by far the largest number and what a nuisance they were. They are perhaps one of the noisiest birds with that warning rattle they have. We rarely see a Magpie these days but Wood Pigeons have taken their place. These birds are an absolute nuisance. This year they bred extremely well. We have designed and built a small bird feeder from an old hamster cage fitted to the top of an old bird table. Small birds can get in, Pigeons can’t. These however are smart birds and they are persistent until some of the seed is worked outwards.
One afternoon last week I came home to see a Sparrow Hawk eating his lunch of Pigeon on our back lawn. He saw me but ignored me. I stood still watching him strip the flesh off the bird. I called the misses who arrived a little too enthusiastically and the Hawk took off leaving very little of the Pigeon. No tears shed for helping to redress the bird balance in our garden. Birds have no gratitude for the food left; they nosh away and poop wherever it takes them. I forever have to clean the patio table and chairs.
This week end we got a new bird table and modified it for small birds only. See picture.
I hope it works. Wada ya think?

2 comments:

margaret macklin said...

our bird table like this has squirrels on it.neighbours cut down the nesting ivy.

Bob the Black Country Brummie said...

Squirrels haven't found it yet but the pigeons have. Very interesting behaviour on their part. Your neighbours seem a miserable lot.