Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

GDB2222

silvercar wrote: »

dqwd

............

It's interesting that you know him personally. We had a really impressive Labour candidate at the last election, but unfortunately she is not standing again.

chris_m

Pyxis wrote: »

The trouble with predatory birds is that they have to feed their chicks too. I know,it's horrible, and I don't like to think of chicks being taken by magpies/crows, etc.

It's a difficult problem.

Nature can be a bummer sometimes, as well as glorious.

Yeah, the bu99ers got two out of the three Osprey chicks at Bassenthwaite last year :mad:

Conrad

OMG....

I went back out for a quick scout before I set off for work. The large tall bush it was in was moving, like before, it must be jumping from branch to branch. As before I cannot really make anything out easily.

Bush moving, there, no there, no there, I think I will just pull trigger in general area, scare it off, no I won't, let's be a bit more patient, bound to get clear sight any moment......

OMG! That's not right, what is that, am I seeing things?

Now my eyes suddenly make sense of all these inputs as a BT engineer in high vis vest emmerges seemingly out of the bush!!!

He was climbing the telegraph pole just outside my fence which goes up through the big bush. Morning mate, he says, I don't think he saw the rifle at my side through the greenery he's emerging from.

Jeeze, close call

Pyxis

GDB2222 wrote: »

There are lots of Magpies round here. Particularly from my point of view, as it's one of the few birds I can recognise. Very pretty. I had no idea they have such a black soul.

Logically, no blacker than us eating lamb, or chicken, or any meat really.

They have to eat, too.

I know. I know; it's hard to reconcile.

We don't mind them eating baby mice or baby rats or baby grey squirrels, or insects.

And look at what cuckoo chicks do! You could say they are evil, and psychopathic, but they are just doing what they have evolved to do.

It's why I can't watch wildlife programmes. Too many conflicting emotions.

ivyleaf

Last night on Springwatch a woodpecker was thinking about taking a bluetit chick! I was astonished - I thought woodpeckers only ate insects :eek:

PasturesNew

I have several birds that visit my garden daily. Some are large and sit on top of the shed (peeing if the stains I can see glinting in some lights is anything to go by) - and why I wanted to try bird scaring tape. Some small.

I have daily magpies.... maybe 2-4 of them. They pop down then strut about, picking at things. I have other/smallish/brown ones that peck at the grass - I think they're after some slug thing that lives in the ground as they seem to do it a lot and the lawn has some perfectly round holes.

I also have little robins.

Pigeons and huge seagulls are the ones I despise mostly. They are really what the tape is for. Tape hasn't got rid of them entirely, but there's a definite 80-90% less perching on top of the shed. They also like to perch on top of the fences and poo on whatever's leaning against the fence or growing against it - this is annoying as it limits what "pretty things" one could hang there.... I'll put some more tape up I think. The tape roll expects you to stake out an entire garden. My trial consisted of one 2' length and one handy small nail, which I banged onto the shed

Conrad

You can just make out the BT engineer I almost hit, seen here near top of the telegraph pole. The Magpies jump all around these bushes shown here.




Here's my little wildlife pond in case of interest to anyone. I've used mainly native oxygenator plants and some with broad aquatic leaves to attract newts. Have frogs already, and some say frogs and newts don't use same pond, but as ever this expert advice does not reflect what I've seen with my own eyes - you can actually see on Youtube UK ponds with frogs and newts sharing.

chris_m

PasturesNew wrote: »

I have other/smallish/brown ones that peck at the grass - I think they're after some slug thing that lives in the ground as they seem to do it a lot and the lawn has some perfectly round holes.

That sounds like they may be young starlings. Their diet includes insect lavae from under grassy areas. I have loads of those around but they haven't started on the lawns yet - at the moment they are still following Mum/Dad around and screeching to be fed.

As well as those in/around my garden I have 2 and 2 half collared doves (I think, can't see into the nest but it's usually 2 in there) loooads of house sparrows, a few blackbirds, two or three families of chaffinches, a few goldfinches, great tits and bluetits and a very musical song thrush. Haven't seen any robins lately, nor the siskins or wrens of which I saw some last year. We've also got swallows and house martins around. There are herring gulls around here but they rarely bother with the gardens.
We do have a sparrowhawk (or two more likely) in the area - one of them got a collared dove on my lawn a few weeks back.

The water fowl have gone elsewhere to breed, we had lots of pink-foots around on the fields across the road over the winter and quite a few oystercatchers and curlew too but they've all gone now, the geese north and the others inland.

Pyxis

Conrad wrote: »

OMG....

I went back out for a quick scout before I set off for work. The large tall bush it was in was moving, like before, it must be jumping from branch to branch. As before I cannot really make anything out easily.

Bush moving, there, no there, no there, I think I will just pull trigger in general area, scare it off, no I won't, let's be a bit more patient, bound to get clear sight any moment......

OMG! That's not right, what is that, am I seeing things?

Now my eyes suddenly make sense of all these inputs as a BT engineer in high vis vest emmerges seemingly out of the bush!!!

He was climbing the telegraph pole just outside my fence which goes up through the big bush. Morning mate, he says, I don't think he saw the rifle at my side through the greenery he's emerging from.

Jeeze, close call

Cripes! Conrad! :eek:
Is it wise to contemplate shooting when you can't see what the thing is that you're shooting at?
As well as a BT engineer, it could have been a child, or a cat, or a :eek: blackbird! (shudder)

PasturesNew

You'd be in less trouble shooting a BT engineer than a magpie, which has protected status.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/bird-and-wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/m/magpie/legal_status.aspx

Magpies, like all other species, are protected under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 .... illegal to intentionally ... take, injure or kill a magpie....