We have always fed birds and had lots of little garden birds.
Now we have next to none. What we do have is jackdaws. I can see 9 from the kitchen window now, and a dozen isn't unusual.
Birds feeders that they can't get into don't deter them, they just knock them about about and pick up the food that falls out. They deter the little birds, and the few that we do see stay in the trees until the jackdaws leave, but the jackdaws are soon back and the tits and finches are off.
This has been going on for months now, but never happened before last year. To begin with it was interesting, jackdaws are very bright, but I miss the variety.
Any ideas for getting rid?
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Catch one and teach it to sit on your shoulder and talk? Perhaps you need a young or adolescent bird to do that.
My wife hangs those things from an old apple tree outside. The blue tits, coal tits and a couple of greenfinches are very cute there. Nor do the green woodpeckers which sometimes come scare the small birds away. However when jays or magpies are present, or grey squirrels, they keep their distance.
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We've had quite a few but not that sort of number.
They're crafty beggars though. Next door have a walnut tree which beard copious but undersized nuts. Id been aware for a while of an occasional sound like something rolling down the roof.
Then I was nearly hit by a walnut when standing on the drive.
The jackdaws are dropping them either from my roof ridge or next door's TV aerial onto my drive in order to break the shells.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Mon 3 Feb 14 at 17:58
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>> Any ideas for getting rid?
www.airrifleshop.co.uk/Guns/BSA/BSAMain.htm
Make a sport out of it
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>> >> Any ideas for getting rid?
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>> www.airrifleshop.co.uk/Guns/BSA/BSAMain.htm
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>> Make a sport out of it
>>
And so Mr Zero, what's your reason for killing jackdaws?
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Because I am a sadistic murderous thug your honour.
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>> Because I am a sadistic murderous thug your honour.
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We know!
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>> Because I am a sadistic murderous thug your honour.
Poor defence.
The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended) states that all wild birds are protected and usually cannot be killed or taken except under licence. As a result, you must not:
•intentionally kill, injure or take any wild bird
•intentionally damage, destroy or take the nest of any wild bird while it is in use or being built - nests of golden eagles, white tailed eagles and ospreys are protected all year round
•intentionally destroy an egg of any wild bird
•intentionally or recklessly disturb certain wild birds or their dependent young while they are at or near to an active nest site
•kill or take huntable birds during the close season for that species
Certain members of the crow family, as well as some gulls and pigeons are recognised as causing persistent problems and it is accepted that in certain situations there is no satisfactory alternative to taking action, such as shooting or cage-trapping, which requires a licence.
Please note that this licence can only be used in circumstances where you have exhausted appropriate non-lethal methods of control such as scaring, and they have been proven either ineffective or impracticable. Failure to comply with the terms and conditions of a general licence may mean that the licence cannot be relied upon and an offence could therefore be committed.
This licence is meant for farmers and other landowners. It's doubtful if a householder would be approved as a licence holder.
Last edited by: Robbie34 on Tue 4 Feb 14 at 15:59
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The RSPB are - for reasons known only to themselves given the damage they do - known to be interested in getting prosecutions against non-farmers destroying corvids. The terms of the general licence are exactly that; it is a licence to kill the corvids - it is not that corvids are generally exempt from the protection extended to all other wild birds.
I would no longer have a Larsen trap, and I am a sadistic murdering thug.
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This is my 'feeding station' setup, the dome defeats even the most determined Rat or Squirrel.
The main problem here is Penguins (as my late brother with dementia used to call them) ... Magpies.
But the black & white tealeaves have mucho difficulty hanging on to the seed tray, and quite quickly sod orf.
imageshack.com/i/09p1000254qj
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Bonus pic, vaguely to do with Aston Martin?
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>>Bonus pic, vaguely to do with Aston Martin?
Erm, y'all wasn't supposed to see a pic of the missus :)
Site has been updated/improved since I last visited it.
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>> >>Bonus pic, vaguely to do with Aston Martin?
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>> Erm, y'all wasn't supposed to see a pic of the missus :)
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>> Site has been updated/improved since I last visited it.
>>
loved the ad
The background :-www.aston-martin.com/2013/02/24/ad-for-used-aston-martins-fake-or-real/
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Those collared doves get everywhere. Hard to believe that they were unknown in the UK until after the war and quite unusual until comparatively recently. One of the mysteries of nature is why they suddenly expanded out of their SW asia homelands and swept across Europe like some avian Ghengis Khan.
www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Eurasian_Collared_Dove#p00by6tw
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Tue 4 Feb 14 at 10:32
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A Norfolk thing? There have been none in my Poole garden for the past 40 years. Maybe they don't like the many resident magpies and wood pigeons.
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Whilst they arrived in Norfolk in the 1950s they have now spread across the whole UK. and are one of the commonest garden visitors.
Even if you don't see them you must surely hear their mid numbing call! In their bid for world domination they have now arrived in the USA where they are spreading rapidly.
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Certainly widespread round here though not to same extent as Wood Pigeons. OTOH we very rarely see the feral variety although there are plenty of them five miles away in town.
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The pesky Jackdaws here do nothing for the Barn Owl population. Might give them some lead this year.
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About 30 wood pigeons and 20 collared doves in the next door field. Not many jackdaws . And the number of magpies has collapsed after next door neighbour installed his Larsen trap :-)
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I very much doubt that Jackdaws have any effect whatsoever on the Barn Owl population. They occupy different ecological niches. Cars on the other hand kill a large number of Barn owls, who have the habit of flying low over road verges at dusk and are frequently struck by vehicles. If you must shoot something go for the motorists.
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Unless the 'daws are stealing eggs??
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>> Even if you don't see them you must surely hear their mid numbing call!
you need to be in Surrey. The ruddy ring neck parquets make the most awful ruddy raquet, to steal our comrades phrase "fingers down blackboard" is most apt.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 4 Feb 14 at 13:46
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>>The ruddy ring neck parquets
They certainly can floor you.
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I suppose a parakeet floor would be nice and colourful.
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>> I suppose a parakeet floor would be nice and colourful.
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And you would screech along the floor...
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>> you need to be in Surrey. The ruddy ring neck parquets make the most awful ruddy raquet,
>> to steal our comrades phrase "fingers down blackboard" is most apt.
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+1
They are spreading fast so the rest of the country can soon share our love of them.
Yet to see bird feeders that deter them. Unfortunately we are surrounded by gardens with "normal " bird feeders.
We have very few small birds in our garden now. It is all very sad.
Wood pigeons, Magpies aplenty. Some jackdaws, again at bird feeders.
I miss the bird song. In thirty odd years things have steadily got worse.
We used to have two types of thrushes but not seen any for years.
Used to enjoy blackbird singing for the chimneys now luck to see one.
Loads of woodland etc near bye so not sure what all the reasons are.
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Haven't seen more than the odd magpie in the garden since the jackdaw plague took hold.
I might have to plug them or just stop feeding. They are getting me down. Next thing they will be building a nest in the chimbley.
The trouble is my pal with the pellet gun has moved to Northumberland. Those that Zero linked were a bit too dear for me. I might have a catapult somewhere.
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We still have lots of blackbirds and there have been a couple of song thrushes which I hope are still there. One of them or a blackbird put on a couple of solo concerts last year at dusk, great stuff when you're in the mood.
Songbirds, larks included, are less common than they were. I suspect there are fewer gamekeepers who used to cull magpies, jays and other predators to preserve the pheasant chicks, and indiscriminate use of insecticides and herbicides by farmers has poisoned their food sources.
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I put a cage out, to allow the smaller birds access but keep out the larger ones from the ground feeder. Then, remove it late afternoon to allow the jackdaws, woodies et al to clean up.
Last edited by: NIL on Tue 4 Feb 14 at 16:31
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A silenced .22 rifle using short-cartridge hollow-point rounds, with a well-adjusted scope sight, will deal with anything in the squirrel, rabbit or rat line. But it's a thing that has to be used intelligently. A rifle bullet can go a long way and cause injury. I've seen people being surprisingly insouciant with rifles a couple of times. Everyone here is cool though.
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Needs a frangible round. Assuming the shooter can hit the target, it avoids shooting the neighbours.
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>> A silenced .22 rifle using short-cartridge hollow-point rounds, with a well-adjusted scope sight, will deal
>> with anything in the squirrel, rabbit or rat line. But it's a thing that has
>> to be used intelligently. A rifle bullet can go a long way and cause injury.
>> I've seen people being surprisingly insouciant with rifles a couple of times. Everyone here is
>> cool though.
>>
A .22rf is not the calibre of choice for the job mentioned here. Although it is a very formidable and cheap round for close quarter work out to about 60yds it tends (all to often) to ricochet and they can be very worrying indeed. A decent accurate air rifle will suffice out to 25yds, but for those that intend to embark along this line then please do your homework first and ensure that YOU are capable of clean kills at all times. It is the Calibre of the Man that counts, not the rifle.
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>> It is the Calibre of the Man that counts, not the rifle.
That is so. All firearms including serious air rifles (especially of .22 bore) are proper machines demanding disciplined maintenance and use.
Hollow point rounds do shred when they hit bone and the like. But however capable one is of hitting a target, live targets have a habit of moving at the wrong moment or presenting nothing but flesh to the projectile which may then continue at almost undiminished speed... especially if it is Long Rifle (ball) which is not recommended for this sort of stuff although it is best for target shooting.
Best thing for birds is a shotgun really. They have small brains so soon come back and you can blast another.
I haven't shot anything at all for at least a couple of years, maybe more. Since a coup has taken place here which officially bans shooting, I feel a crazed serial killer phase coming on. Apparently no one who might want to shoot something was at the meeting. As if one was going to get ratted and blast one's grandnippers I ask you...
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Hollow points are to some extent a bit old hat and combined with the .22 rimfire, although the most populous firearm in the world, is not the safest by far due to the previously mentioned propensity to skip or ricochet. I sold mine in favour of something far safer.
Rifle shooting is something of an art to get right and right is has to be. There's no chasing after the round after it's left you. If one isn't very sure then leave well alone.
Jackdaws do, by the way cause barn Owls considerable grief. Although Jackdaws are intelligent birds and quite fun to observe they can be a huge pest.
Enough of killing for now. Cup of Tea and then the Land of Nod.
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Frangible rounds don't ricochet. At least, they only do so in fine granule form. That is why .22 fairground ranges had them.
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Good Evening NIL,
And just what is your experience with .22 rimfire rounds? Frangible or otherwise?
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Fatal accident investigation. That's when I heard of the things. Other than that: nothing except military uses of firearms. Dad was soldier and showed me how to load and fire a .303. Faint chance, but if ambushed in emergency Malaya, every little helps:)
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>> Fatal accident investigation. That's when I heard of the things. Other than that: nothing except
>> military uses of firearms. Dad was soldier and showed me how to load and fire
>> a .303. Faint chance, but if ambushed in emergency Malaya, every little helps:)
>>
CCI, a company that produces various ammunition also produces a 'Segmental' .22 which is designed to break up and not ricochet. Trust me, it does NOT do what it says on the box. .22 is not the favoured round of Firearms licensing Officers.
Cheers my Dears.......
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Is the "frangible" still produced? It seemed unlikely to me to withstand the shock of firing, but firearms officers were familiar.
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>> Jackdaws do, by the way cause barn Owls considerable grief.
In what way?
I'm not looking for a nark, just interested.
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Where a Barn Owl is nesting or trying to nest in a barn (as here for example) Jackdaws will literally swamp them by sheer numbers and can be quite aggressive. Of course it is survival of the fittest for sure.
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>> .22 rimfire, although the most populous firearm in the world, is not the safest by far due to the previously mentioned propensity to skip or ricochet. I sold mine in favour of something far safer.
I was taught to shoot with those, single shot and five shot bolt action of course, from age 8, at school and at home. Too young really and there was one occasion when I traversed the rifle, cocked, across my father... he forgave me but I've never forgotten it.
Of course later I became aware of how the military disciplne themselves, and sometimes don't, with firearms. No way will I accidentally shoot anyone now.
What's your 'something much safer' MD? Weihrauch/Airsporter .22? They can kill a human you know, with bad luck.
I've always liked firearms. I know they are wicked things whose raison d'être says little for us as a species. But they have real functional beauty.
Usually that is. Night guards in Lagos in my day were often people from the far North armed with 'Dane guns' so called, primitive horrible looking muzzle-loading muskets with a bore of about an inch, percussion-cap fired. Hideous things probably loaded with nuts, bolts and small stones.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Wed 5 Feb 14 at 00:48
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>> What's your 'something much safer' MD? Weihrauch/Airsporter .22? They can kill a human you know, with bad luck.
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All firearms are safe unless faulty of course. Any potential danger comes from the handler (or a pesky ricochet).
A safer choice for a rimfire rifle is the relatively new calibre of .17hmr although this is considerably more powerful than the .22 rf. A ricochet from the .17 is almost unheard of and the round usually never exits the quarry, but it is deadly in its expansion. Head shots are required to say a Rabbit if one wishes to retain the meat. A body shot renders it usable for Ferrets only.
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>Best thing for birds is a shotgun really.
It's probably the only humane thing. The feathers on something the size of a jackdaw or pigeon are remarkably tough and, unless you hit them from behind to get under the feathers, all you are likely to do is injure the bird with an air rifle.
>They have small brains so soon come back and you can blast another.
Corvids are pretty intelligent as far as birds go - see the experiment by UoW researcher John Marzluff about half way down this page:
tinyurl.com/ocorc63
Although why they didn't identify Dick Cheney as dangerous might need further study. Maybe they're all republicans?
> I feel a crazed serial killer phase coming on.
What goes "Clip-clop.., clip-clop.., clip-clop.., BANG!" ?
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An Amish drive-by ;-)
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I've got 8-10 magpies, 4 Jays, a few pairs of blue tits and about 20 sparrows. And two of those dove/pigeon type things just like on Dog's photo, they're inseparable. And a pheasant who visits in the cold weather.
I feed them all and each breed stays away from the others. I hang a tube of seeds for the sparrows and a tube of peanuts for the blue tits. I sprinkle a few handfuls of peanuts which the Jays go for and I dice strips of fat or pig skin which the magpies go for. I also hang a few balls of fat/seeds and there's a woodpecker who likes to hammer at that.
I don't care which breed, colour or size who visits my garden, that's just what I get a kick out of. I'm back from the school run by 8.15, feed the birds around the garden, then half an hour lying on the sofa just watching them. It's utterly absorbing. Jays are my favourite, they are so confident, they'll hop along the patio right up to the glass. They'll sit on a branch just 2 or 3 metres from me when I sit outside. I can tell them apart from each other.
We've got a lot of mice around the borders, they scamper around looking for what the birds drop. I had two rats over last winter who used to run across the patio, stealing the peanuts, but they moved in Spring when I started digging the borders. I'm happy for them to share my garden, it's an 'open-door' policy on my territory.
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You would enjoy watching this program Bad Dave, maybe:
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/tv/bbc_two_england/watchlive
Birds are amazingly intelligent ... as you know ;)
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"You would enjoy watching this program Bad Dave,"
Cheers Dog, I'll have to watch it through a proxy server. Damned miserable BBC doesn't let us expats watch their programmes.
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Here's the link for the iPlayer in case anyone else is interested in the prog, I found it amazing just how intelligent birds are.
Mayhap it's us who are the dumb ones.
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03tt7jm/Inside_the_Animal_Mind_The_Problem_Solvers/
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For anyone not familiar with their endearing call. To me they are the sound of Croydon.
www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Rose-ringed_Parakeet
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Are these the same things that inhabit Richmond Park - flight profile like a cuckoo or small raptor?
Wring necked would be better.
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>> Are these the same things that inhabit Richmond Park - flight profile like a cuckoo or small raptor?
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>> Wring necked would be better.
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Certainly they are in the park.
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>> Are these the same things that inhabit Richmond Park - flight profile like a cuckoo
>> or small raptor?
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>> Wring necked would be better.
thats them, but not in such large numbers as other parts of surrey.
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Hordes of the damn things all over Richmond and Kew.
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>> >>The ruddy ring neck parquets
Where have they come from?
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>> >> >>The ruddy ring neck parquets
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>> Where have they come from?
Escapes/releases either of pets or from collections.
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www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/oct/12/ring-necked-parakeet-cull
Glad I haven't got those yet. Perhaps it's only a matter of time.
They are obviously very successful and must be a threat to native species, some of which will already have smaller populations than the parquets.
Is that racism?
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"They are obviously very successful and must be a threat to native species."
They are successful in a fairly limited area but seem unlikely to spread out of the London suburbs. RSPB estimate of population is 8,500 pairs. They are to a large degree dependant on fruit and berries found in suburban gardens supplemented by bird table hand outs and I guess are at the limit of their climatic range.
No real evidence that they pose any threat to native species other than some competition for food.
Quite like them myself - add a touch of the tropics to dull suburbia but their screeching sound is certainly distinctive!
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Good old RSPB.
They seem to be unaware that these pests eat and destroy fruit off trees at an alarming rate. I know because they attacked our apple tree each year ( before it got blown down.
I covered part of the tree with chicken wire so we could at least have a few apples.
I would wake up to see a carpet of bits of apple on the lawn. They peck lumps out of all the apples so the crop is no more.
Friends nearby also suffer with them raiding their fruit trees.
To date they do not seem to attack my Victoria plums.
Cull the lot!!
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Even if a cull was possible or indeed desirable I doubt it would be successful. The current population presumably originated from a just few pairs released into the wild. I suspect that unless every bird was killed, which would be impossible, the population would soon re-establish itself.
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STOP PRESS!
I saw a Yellow Hammer 2 hours ago just below where my feeder is.
I was on the phone to BT at the time, they phoned to advise me of a £141 refund coming to a letter box near me.
I'm feeling on top of the world, slightly.
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If I had a Hammer...........
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I reckon you should parquet floor the parakeets!
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They like sandwiches Dog! - with "little bit of bread and no cheese".
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Hammer sandwich?
Got some nice cheese ike, from up your way ... 'award winning' Dewlay Lancashire, Mmmm.
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Plague of jackdaws - Armel Coussine
