Feeding the birds

[thirdcrank]

Perhaps part of the reason I don't see any part-eaten dead pigeons is we don't see many live ones in our garden. We did once have a homing pigeon which must have been stopping for a rest. At one point we had a couple of collared doves, which were very keen on the niger seed I put out for goldfinches, but none recently. I've just looked out and there are four blackbirds rooting about under the bird table so perhaps they have signed a peace treaty.

[Norman H]

Hi,
Never tried it, any hazards with eating pigeon or any other wild bird, I suppose as long as it looks ok health wise?
Not a big game bird eater whats its like?

Oops, we seem to have drifted from feeding the birds to them feeding us. Just to be clear we're talking Wood Pigeons here and not the feral pigeons more commonly found in Trafalgar Square.

I have a friend who occasionally shoots Pigeons for local farmers. You can cook a whole bird but in my view its a lot of work and feathers for very little return and only worth doing if it comes oven ready. Some Butchers do sell oven ready birds. The breast meat cooked rare rivals prime beef steak. Alternatively cook it long and slow in a casserole. The only hazard with shot birds is lead poisoning.

[kwackers]

My bird feeders have been ignored during the cold spell, I assume the birds have simply hunkered down.

This morning there were a couple of tits feeding and a few pigeons, doves, blackbirds and sparrows walking back and forth underneath hoping for some overspill (tits seem to throw half of what they consume) and a couple of jackdaws watching proceedings.
Been quiet in general, usually on an evening we get hundreds of bluetits in the trees at the back of the garden twittering madly to each other but nothing now since the weather took a turn for the worst.

I've got some more digging to do shortly, extending the hard standing around my potting shed so I'm expecting robins and blackbirds.

[Mistik-ka]

The only hazard with shot birds is lead poisoning.

Or, now that lead shot has been replaced with steel here in Canada, a broken tooth.

One of the oddest abdominal X-rays I've even seen was that of an elderly northern fur-trapper. I took the film to a senior radiologist in search of an explanation for the little metallic circles on the right side. He laughed and said the finding used to be quite common in the days when many people relied on wildfowl and small game as a major part of their diet: the X-ray opacities were a collection of shotgun pellets sequestered in the man's appendix. (No history of lead poisoning in humans, but lead shot is outlawed because it poisons bottom-feeding waterfowl.)

"We now return you to our regular programming…………………"

[pwa]

Fieldfare picking berries off the bushes in the front garden yesterday. Seemed still to have food options.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Black bird only today.
Went out to clear front gate so posty can get in................they have been absent for last three days despite the thaw today, they must still be off work.

Shuffled the feeders and had to walk across the snow on garden, noted that there was a small 1 & 1/4" hole in snow near the rat hole, we had a rat for three years at least that used to scoff with pigeons in garden, a domestic rat not the big black variety.
My left foot dropped about a foot and I remembered the hole covered by a rotting pallet A drainage hole for the garage, must remember to cover it properly.

[Vorpal]

It seems that pesticides aren't just killing insects...

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-28216810

The original pubblication is Declines in insectivorous birds are associated with high neonicotinoid concentrations

[661-Pete]

Whilst cycling earlier this week, passed a redwing standing on the verge. This is a fairly uncommon sight in our part of the country. I don't know what it was up to, it didn't seem bothered by my close approach. Possibly preparing to fly north, but put off by the bad weather...

In our garden, a magpie has been busy trying (without much success) to pull twigs off a tree, presumably to build its nest. Ironically, this morning we were out doing a bit of pruning, and there are plenty of loose twigs on the ground, which it could have had for free. So why didn't it go for those?

[colin54]

I've had this solo bird feeding with a gang of chaffinches recently, a brambling(?),

It's been around on it's own a while but always lands with the chaffinches.

Pictures taken through the kitchen window, so not the greatest.


I also saw a nut hatch upside down at the feeder this morning, a lovely little bird.

[thirdcrank]

Isn't that a female chaffinch?

[colin54]

It looks different to the female chaffinches,less brown I identified it from this page, item 6.

I'll see if I can get a picture of it next to a female chaffinch.

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2 ... ion-guide/

[Vorpal]

I think colin54 is right. I thought that Bramblings were Chaffinches when I moved to Norway (there are lots here), but I found out that they were all Bramblings. They're called bjørkefink (birch finch) in Norwegian.

[kwackers]

I was watching the magpies on the feeder earlier. They can't actually get on it so what they do is fly up and 'kick' it dislodging seed then walk around it on the floor hoovering them up.
Never seen them do that before, that (for me) is a new behaviour.

I hope the squirrels aren't watching, so far those feeders have resisted them...

[thirdcrank]

Recently, our starling numbers have increased to three. Only half a million to go and we may have a murmuration.

[anniesboy]

It is a Brambling
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildl ... brambling/