I have been intrigued by the behaviour of some of the birds that have been coming into the garden since the cold weather started. There have been several new visitors and I have tried to cater for all diets with a variety of different foods. Some of them are seed eaters, some prefer insects while others like berries.
They all seem to enjoy the suet treats because they have insects, grains and berries mixed in and I also put other foods such as grated cheese on the bird table because the robin, Mr blackbird and the magppies enjoy this.
Now the house sparrows come over in a gang and use the hanging feeders, also clearing anything that falls to the ground and don't usually fight or cause problems with other species.The little dunnocks potter around searching out any tasty morsel, keeping themselves to themselves while the blue tits and great tits announce their arrival with very loud whistles then tuck in to the peanuts and fat filled coconut shell. There has been a thrush recently too and I haven't seen one of those around here for a long time, but this one keeps coming back and is quite secretive, arriving without a fanfare and leaving once he's eaten his fill of mealworm crumble and seed from the bird table.
The most surprising behaviour has been that of Mrs blackbird. I wondered what was chasing a lot of the little birds off the food that I had spread on the ground for the ground feeders and thinking it was the squirrels, I opened the back door to find a very determined Mrs blackbird guarding the food, seeing off any bird that came near and kept her beady eye on me and stood her ground. When a second female blackbird arrived in the garden she was seen off rather aggresively by the first one and this behaviour has been repeated over the last couple of days.
Perhaps this is what they mean when they talk about 'survival of the fittest'.
Hi Grandma!
ReplyDeleteGlad to see the birds looking after their interests too. You have quite a variety in your garden.
We have a determined and crafty cardinal who has refused to give up his home to the cats. So far he has eluded their stalking.
I'm on the verge of running an ad to find homes for all my kitties as it's getting harder and more expensive to care for them.
We have nine cats now and the neighbor's two eat here all the time as well so that's eleven cats. I only wanted one so this year is going to be different.
The neighbor's cat is now in heat and that will mean more kittens here in a few months. I think it's time to clean house. If I don't, it's only going to get worse.
Hi Robin!
ReplyDeleteI can fully understand why you are looking to rehome your cats because they are expensive when you have so many. Couldn't your local vet help because they often know of people looking for a pet to give a home to? Your neighbour should really get his cats neutered or look after and feed their kittens himself.
Hi Grandma,
ReplyDeleteMy local vet has helped in the past with some of the other litters. So we'll see. Thanks for the reminder.
We kept the neighbors cat in our house for a couple of days but her howling got worse until I began howling too. We put her outside and it wasn't long before she was "comforted" by Boo. He wanted inside but Ray told him he was a man now and needed to stay outside. That man's a hoot!
My neighbor is the same one who's dogs I had to get rid of. That man's useless.