Are jackdaws vermin, or OK for the garden?

unrecordings

We don't see 'our' woodpeckers anymore as the squirrels made a concerted effort to destroy my hanging feeder

Might get around to making a new one tomorrow (out of 3mm wire !)

Gers

unrecordings wrote: »

We don't see 'our' woodpeckers anymore as the squirrels made a concerted effort to destroy my hanging feeder

Might get around to making a new one tomorrow (out of 3mm wire !)

I bought a squirrel feeder box - like the first one here http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/wooden-squirrel-feeder The squirrels soon learnt how to use it - we have red ones here so it was worth it.

Haven't seen any for ages and suspect that the local resident thugs, pine martens, may have got to them.

unrecordings

I fancy making something fiendish to occupy their little minds, in the meantime the old feeder has gone back up with the rope fixed. I found some chain though...

Chris25

We've had jackdaws on the local green for a few years but this is the first one that we've seen them in the garden & with young. I haven't seen them bully any smaller birds but have seen them in some argy bargy with magpies & rooks.

Unfortunately, the wood pigeons don't seem to be frightened of them - I'm so fed up of having to re-wash sheets etc. it's always those they seem to splatter - must be the large expanse of material!

david39

We frequently put out tasty morsels on our garage roof for the local bird population. The usual diners are jackdaws, pigeons, magpies and, if those leave anything at all, sparrows and other small birds pick up the leftovers.
One day recently,the roof had its usual clientele of jacks and mags when, as if from nowhere, two mega-seagulls dropped down and joined in. We live 70 miles from the sea and only see occasional gulls - we had not seen one locally for months.
The magpies decided not to allow these upstarts to knuckle in and en masse rose up and mobbed them. The seagulls took off, with the maggie's in hot pursuit but during the whole time not one jackdaw took any notice of what was going on - they just went on scoffing the grub!
The seagulls returned several times but on each occasion the magpies attacked and wouldn't let them land.
I thought the Maggie's were very plucky considering each was half the size of the gulls but undoubtedly the jackdaws came out best having snaffled most of the food while the magpies kept guard.

unrecordings

We have the odd seagull (in Sheffield) When they fly over our neck of the woods the crows go berzerk.

Hanging feeder lasted until about 9am this morning when one squirrel chewed through the rope while another was hanging off it

Back to the drawing board (I feel like Wile E Coyote...)

Hedgehog99

My parents get jackdaws and they're very timid - they twitch when anything else lands on the lawn.

Beautiful head & eyes if you get to look at them with binoculars.

They don't seem to bother the other birds - if anything, they're scared of them.

Re setting a challenge for squirrels, I set these up where I used to live:

Empty 1L clear juice/lemonade bottle, hole cut in the side (vary the size depending on how difficult you want it to be), part-filled with monkey nuts. Drives them, well, nuts, as they roll it around trying to get them out.

String hanging from washing line with a series of monkeynuts tied on - squirrel will sit on line and haul up the nuts.

unrecordings

I like the bottle puzzle, I might give that a go. In the meantime the coconut fat feeder has been upgraded: 18AWG hook up wire, attached to a chain from the branch, and for added security, the flywheel from an old Sony tape machine - that must weigh over 300g so I'd like to see them trying hauling that up the tree. I would go for Gers' approach but I like to see the various birds especially woodpeckers - and I don't begrudge the squirrels a go, so long as they don't wreck it...