The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: Lesley Silvester on June 13, 2014, 09:28:58 pm
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I saw something today that I've never seen before. There is a pigeon who regularly visits to steal from the hanging bird feeder. Today while he was here, the local magpie also arrived. The pigeon puffed himself up to his full size and looked very worried while the magpie hopped around him and over the top of him. I know magpie go for small birds but I would hardly class a pigeon as small! I swear the magpie was teasing him.
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I bet it was too 8)
My pigeon tale for today was to do with a buzzard. This was flying over when there was a sudden thwump - a pigeon had dive-bombed the buzzard. I think it was out of sorts because something (very unlikely to have been the buzzard) had predated its squab from the nest and ripped it to shreds under the hedge. I've never seen a pigeon attack another bird before; I thought they raced away.
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Mine is a magpie tale.
OH saw a fox in the next field earlier this week. He was chased away by the magpies :thumbsup:
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I have seen crows, a lot, fighting buzzards and red kites too, the kites and buzzards just fly away not havng a care in the world. ;D
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something (very unlikely to have been the buzzard) had predated its squab from the nest and ripped it to shreds under the hedge.
Why unlikely to be the buzzard? They do rob corvid nests, don't they? Which, I have always assumed, is why the jackdaws and rooks chase them as they do?
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Not exactly contretemps - or maybe it was?
About 2300 last night I was sitting in the barn, I mean watching my flock, and there was a bang and clatter from the far end, near the owl box (see previous posts). I could see a young owl standing on the ledge around the box. He stared back, bobbed about a bit, then turned around and hopped back into the box.
A minute later I could heard something moving around on the floor of the barn. It was another young barn owl, and it went behind a massive stack of wood.
I went to try and find it, to no avail. This morning I tried again (having read up on rescuing baby barn owls) and spent over an hour looking for it amongst all the junk/really useful stuff in the barn. Not a sign ??? .
I hope he made it back to his parents, as apparently they only feed their young at the nest site. Or maybe it was just time for him to move on?
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During the weeks I was shutting up my chicks about 9:00pm and heard a cock in the shed making a strange noise...
I looked up to see a barn owl swooping out, did a lap of the house as sent my hens scattering before heading back passed me, seeing me and deciding to go back into the shed. It was brilliant to see!
I don't think it was after the hens -knowing that most of their diet consists of small mammals, but the hens certainly sensed danger.
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something (very unlikely to have been the buzzard) had predated its squab from the nest and ripped it to shreds under the hedge.
Why unlikely to be the buzzard? They do rob corvid nests, don't they? Which, I have always assumed, is why the jackdaws and rooks chase them as they do?
The pigeon's nest was deep in a dense part of the hedge, all spikey and hard to see the squab. The buzzards round here seem to be quite lazy and eat carrion and earthworms. One did eat a hen though - don't know if it was dead already.
But this was far more likely to be the stoat - feathers left but nothing else, and they climb up inside the hedges.