The Birds

[Cycling Naturalist]

That then, is different.
One of my 'ethics' in life is to try not to condemn others for behaving in a way i may disagree with...not poking your nose in to others business is one way of putting it.
I dont like people who do it to me...therefore i try not to do it myself.

But, if it's illegal, it's illegal, end of. I assume there are bodies who try to make sure the laws are enforced....with little success i assume.

You are quite right. There have been considerable problems in getting the law enforced especially in Malta despite the endeavours of bird conservation organisations. Not only are the local police often sympathetic to the hunters, but they are reluctant to confront large armed groups.

 

[gbb]

Without wishing to resurrect the issue in a negative sense laurence, i'm surprised at one of the factors in the RSPB artilces re- the decline of songbirds.
It states a study of Songthrush and Skylark.
I'm moderately surprised they picked the Skylark population as a comparison against Magpies.
Skylarks are open ground nesters, rarely ever found near trees (IME)...favouring open ground. (i used to live on aerodromes....many many skylark nests found as a kid .)
Magpies tend ( i assume by my locality) to favour tree belts or woods...not areas you'd expect Skylarks to favour.

Therefor i assume the Magpie isnt really an issue for skylarks...

It would be interesting to know why and under what conditions the RSPB does not oppose the culling of Magpies...'site specific is ok'...what does that mean ?

 

[Danny]

Never mind the magpies, the neighbours cats are decimating the song bird population in my garden.

What can I do to deter them?

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

It would be interesting to know why and under what conditions the RSPB does not oppose the culling of Magpies...'site specific is ok'...what does that mean ?

The RSPB has always been quite toughminded when it comes to predator control on its reserves. It plays it down a lot because the professionals that run it know that a lot of the members are very woolly minded. And its the members who pay their salaries....................

 

[col]

Never mind the magpies, the neighbours cats are decimating the song bird population in my garden.

What can I do to deter them?

This it seems ,is the cause of some loss in numbers of songbirds,since a large number of people now have them,than ever before.And by their very nature,just seem to kill for the sake of it,and not for survival.Iv heard of motion detection,that squirts water at birdfeeding areas,to scare cats off,set to detect cat sized things,but have no experience of them,i dont think much can be done really,as cats are free agents,doing what they like.

 

[gbb]

The RSPB has always been quite toughminded when it comes to predator control on its reserves. It plays it down a lot because the professionals that run it know that a lot of the members are very woolly minded. And its the members who pay their salaries....................

I didnt take it to mean 'their sites' Patrick, rather control of magpies in specific localities (wherever it was specifically deemed that magpies were a problem), as opposed to wholesale killing which would of course threaten the species as a whole.

The point was more...'at which point does 'someone' decide that magpies in any particular location are deemed to be a nuisance'

Reading that same page, i now realise i stumbled on a Larsen trap with a crow in it at one of Rutland Waters reserves a couple of years ago. I was puzzled as to its purpose at the time...but didnt think any more of it.
Obviously the reserve staff deemed crows a problem at that site.
In reality, that seems even more pointless....there are infinatey more crows than magpies. Crows i assumed were opportunistic nest robbers, where if they found one, they certainly would take the young. I have witnessed that once....twenty feet from my house ironically.

I have read Magpies will monitor nests in the locality and attack whenever the opportunity arises. They are far more organised in their methods than crows.
Trying to control crows then seems pointless. They would have to catch millions of them.

 

[laurence]

Without wishing to resurrect the issue in a negative sense laurence, i'm surprised at one of the factors in the RSPB artilces re- the decline of songbirds.
It states a study of Songthrush and Skylark.
I'm moderately surprised they picked the Skylark population as a comparison against Magpies.
Skylarks are open ground nesters, rarely ever found near trees (IME)...favouring open ground. (i used to live on aerodromes....many many skylark nests found as a kid .)
Magpies tend ( i assume by my locality) to favour tree belts or woods...not areas you'd expect Skylarks to favour.

Therefor i assume the Magpie isnt really an issue for skylarks...

It would be interesting to know why and under what conditions the RSPB does not oppose the culling of Magpies...'site specific is ok'...what does that mean ?

to be honest, i've no idea why they chose skylarks - maybe they were just in the groups marked 'songbirds'. they do nest in the open, although, i suppose, you could say that to be 'open' it needs to be near trees at some point. the nest site i know of is Richmond park and that site is very near trees, so much so that it's practically surrounded. i know magpies breed nearby as i saw a young one being fed by parents last year. i also know that the main problems for them are humans, dogs and birds of prey (you're not allowed to fly kites in these areas as it spooks the skylarks). despite there being quite a big magpie population (as well as crow and jackdaw) in the area the skylarks have increased in population - seemingly because the area is marked and people are asked to keep dogs under control and only use existing paths.

i had a chat with some people at wetlands today as we watched a Jay and they agreed that the Jay is as bad, if not worse than the magpie for nest raiding, probably because the magpie is used to urban scavenging, so will eat other things whereas a jay will go for the eggs/young. as the jay is nicely coloured it gets away with it!

"site specific" would relate to a nature reserve, etc. the wetlands centre uses crow traps to reduce that population, although they are powerless to stop the biggest killer - the heron. is an area was seen to be sensitive to predatory birds killing a rare species, then it'd be ok to classify the magpie as a pest. i know of a case where a magpie nested in a factory and was therefore a pest.

i don't know how many magpies are killed in this way. the birds being protected would have to be quite rare or sensitive to population change and also quite small - i saw this as i've seen lapwings see off crows, so magpies wouldn't have a chance.

as for cats - yes, they do have a big impact on birds - and i'm a cat lover. still, the biggest worry does seem to be suitable nesting sites with modern buildings being designed to not have any little nooks and holes for them to get into. i know of several people who've seen birds nesting in their houses and then blocked the gaps to stop it happening again. councils lopping branches off trees doesn't help (see any local council!) and most local authorities decide that hedges and bushes need trimming just before spring.

if birds can't nest safely, then they'll be subject to more predation. that's a much larger issue and while households are being urged to be more energy efficient it will be a hard one to resolve as walls and rooves (sic) are sealed.

L

 

[gbb]

It is depressing sometimes...My factory HAVE to systematicaly remove pigeons (and any other sizeable birds) before they nest...Tesco's woudnt be impressed with poo infested fruit. Harsh, but understandable.

Much more depressing is the building of developments on brown field sites. The disused brickpits surrounding Peterborough are a wildlife haven of thousands of acres. But they are being built on like there's no tomorrow. The Debenhams monster sized distribution depot was built SMACK on the fields that Lapwings used to nest on. It probably covers 4 or 5 acres at a guess, maybe more. Breeding land gone forever.

Why do people rant about developments on green field sites. The wildife is INFINATELY more varied and diverse on brown field sites. (assuming that the brickpits are actually considered brown field sites)

 

[wafflycat]

I did a survey, one summer, of what the felines of Chateau Unfit Family preyed upon, by collecting what they brought into the house and making notes of species, weight, dead, alive, that sort of thing. The felines all wear collars with bells & ID tags on and they make a *noise* when they walk or pounce. This seems to help give the local birds an advantage.

The number of small rodents caught far outnumbered the number of birds caught. Indeed over the summer, the number of birds the three felines caught in total could be counted on one hand. The number of small rodents needed many hands & feet to count. By far and away the most popular prey were small voles (not water voles) shrews and mice. Then there was the odd large rodent in the form of rats, and the odd bunny. Amphibians seemed to be considered as toys rather than prey.

We had water voles in the stream at the end of the garden - until the mink took up residence. The cats & water voles pretty much ignored each other. The mink have decimated the stream of fish large & small, water fowl and they will take birds too. I feed the birds year round, with feeding stations in the willow at the end of the garden. This afternoon, one of the felines was taking a stroll in the garden and the pheasants completely ignored him, and he ignored them. The pheasants are semi-tame as they won't run off when I put food out for them. Indeed one of the female pheasants will run toward me if she sees me. She won't come right up to me, but stays a couple of metres away.

I do, however, have a rescue box and a rescue cage for any wildlife brought in alive. I also know that thrush sh*t can peel the paint off your walls.