Really Annoyed, We Have Tall Trees At The End Of Our Garden,

[askyourgran]

Home to all kinds of birds, greenfinch, tits, blackbird woodpigeon and collared doves. The Jackdaws have been casing the joint and I think they have raided the collard doves' nest. The doves are flying in and out of the trees. It's usually the magpies who wait around. Wish I could stop them.

[rockyracoon]

I had something similar at the weekend, our resident blackbirds were screaming like billio in the garden on friday, I went out to see what was up and a great bloody magpie came flying out of the honeysuckle where the blackbirds are nesting :( I know it's nature but I still don't like it, plus I feel like I own the blackbirds as they seem to have adopted my garden.

[askyourgran]

I know it's daft but I've been watching them picking twigs in my garden for their nest, eating scraps from the bird table and sitting on the roof cooing (drives me mad after a while) but I felt responsible for them. I suppose the blackbirds are safe for now though.

[divegirl]

Would it make any difference if you left food for the Jackdaws somewhere else in the garden? Maybe if they are well fed they will be less likely to attack :0/

Not much help I know... Like Rocky says.. it is nature however much we don't lie it.

Lisa x

[divegirl]

like*

[hc4361]

Collared doves have only been in the UK since the 1950s and are doing very well - some say too well.

Taking eggs and chicks is nature - let it run its course.

[Chipchopper]

I know just what you mean gran, it can be very distressing to see that going on!
It makes you feel like running out there banging pots and pans.
I have lots of birds nesting around my patch and so far they seem to be safe.
A crow sits up in a tree and waits for me every morning, to give him his daily monkey nuts, I always think, as long as I keep feeding him, maybe he wont bother the smaller nesting birds.

[hammerman]

All part of nature...survival of the fittest etc. Didn't realise that Woodpeckers raided nests and ate the eggs and chicks.

I have a similar dilemma when i put food out for the birds. I want the tits, finches, thrushes etc to eat it....but then down come the jackdaws, crows and herring gulls and the smaller birds don't get a look in.

But who am i to play god and decide who feeds or not. If the big birds get there first and eat it all, then so be it, it's not my descision to stop them eating it.

[askyourgran]

Nature is so cruel, I've been watching the birds flying in and out of the trees with beakfuls of worms etc. This morning a blackbird fledgling was sitting on the shed roof warming it's back in the sunshine the parent birds no-where to be seen. I went in to tell MrAsk but it had gone when I got back, just hope the Jackdaws or the Magpies didn't get it. Have to admit the collared doves we are getting more every year. Now we have Woodpigeons too, new to the trees.

[boxtops]

It's horrid, gran, but nothing we can do about it. I don't know how wildlife photographers cope - those pics of the whales chasing the seals, last weekend wildlife prog showed a snake stealing a baby bird. It's life, I know, but I'd find it hard not to want to intervene.

[pusskin]

My next door neighbour was looking out of his kitchen window watching a sparrow being fed by his mother, and whoops, a magpie appeared from no where and snatched the baby sparrow.
I was filled with tears at the thought of the poor bird seeing this happen.
Cant help being an ole softie.

[boxtops]

I don't know how something like that affects the mother bird, we can't assume they'd feel the same as we would. That would have made me fill up too.

[pusskin]

We can imagine that they would feel so upset, but you never know, they may forget about it almost instantly and carry on regardless searching to find their next feed to feed themselves and their babies?

[askyourgran]

It's awful to see that pusskin. A few years ago I watched blackbirds flying backwards and forwards for days and suddenly a magpie appeared and waited then it raided the nest. The parents were making a real racket and the magpie flew off with the chick in it's beak. I was upset for them. A couple of days later the Jackdaws raided the Magpies nest they made a real din. I felt so pleased about that.

[Chipchopper]

I remember when I was growing up, in my innocence of youth I could never understand the laws of the jungle, big birds killing little birds etc, and when I asked my dad about it, he would say "well son, nature in the raw is seldom mild" and I've always remembered that, even though at times it seems so unfair.

[boxtops]

Quite possibly...... I remember when my cat went missing two years ago, I was trying to give him human emotions, he'd be missing us and so on - the vet said he'd gone straight into survival mode and wouldn't be thinking about us at all. Birds might be like that, too....