Blimey ....!

[Outlaw Pete 2,224]

Just ringed a male chaffie. And this little f**ker was bloody Murder!

 

He was like one of those 'flying birds' we used to get. Wind the shit out of their rubber band and off they'd go. Flapping like mad.

 

Little bugger just wouldn't stop thrashing about and struggling. Frankly? I was glad to just get him weighed and let him go.

 

It was only then, coming back in the back door that it dawned on me! Let's rewind here .....

 

I said to the Dogs; " Wait here. I need to check my traps. " And went into the kitchen. There I approached the back door. Clear glass in the top half.

 

I saw I had a bird in one of my traps ~ just as something light brown and a fair size shot past the f**king door at chest height!

 

Of course, f**king door Had To Be locked, didn't it! Losing me vital seconds as I tried to rip it open and catch a glimpse of .....

 

All I managed to see were three starlings, doing a Red Arrows, for a second or two. Then I was focusing on the bird in the trap.

 

Ye see? Obvious, isn't it? The brown flash was a f**king sparrowhawk. Probably hot onto those starlings.

 

And, my poor little mate, the chaffinch, already finding himself unable to get to where he wants to be, has now realised there's vile and agonising death in the vicinity!

 

No f**king wonder he was struggling!

 

Just goes to show the absolutely abject f**king fear the sight of a sparrowhawk causes in these birds.

 

Thought of some massive f**ker ripping my chest open and eating out my still beating heart would probably get the old rear blinker going too!

 

[Mr Wilkes 3,163]

i love all our british birds but my favourite has to be the sparrowhawk. the wife says our bird table is the ulitmate spar breakfast bar

[gnipper 6,837]

4 sparrowhawks were flying above my house last week, looked like 2 pairs and the b*****ds have taken a shine to mine and my neighbours rollers. I can tell when there's one coming from the noise the sheppies make and so can my pigeons. Flying stoats zoom through our gardens every day and I stopped putting canaries in my aviary because of them scaring the life out of them.

[fireman 11,423]

Good catch with the chaffie Pete and maybe a teepee of glass sheets around your traps to help keep the spar off the trapped birds, .I've not had a visit from the local male spar for a while now ,maybe something happened to him ,it did the pair of magpies that USED to fly over my aviaries every day

[fireman 11,423]

Spoke to bloody soon there ,spar attack today has seen off my old goldie cock and i have a roughed up bully cock who don't want to come out of cover.I have caught him and checked him over and can't see any wounds but it's the cock who's been treading his hen all week and she's just peeping for him all the time.Just thank god i saved a few spare birds back and feck knows what i'd do without them...

[Outlaw Pete 2,224]

Ahgh, jesus christ, Fires!!! I just don't know what to say around these bloody things, mate. And I mean that.

 

No bullshit about me having to 'say the right thing' in public. As a known ringer. Sit beside me out on the land here and I Still wouldn't have an answer.

 

I f**king despise the c***s who try to wipe out every last hook beak, just in the name of f**king profit from their artificially nurtured cash crops.

 

But, it's a simple fact; The spars are back. And they're loving it. Fine, if they're taking wild birds from our feeders. That's what they evolved to do and wild birds have always got along with that.

 

But, attacking one mans aviary? The damage they can inflict there rises exponentially, compared to the marginal 'stock shrinkage' Lord Goodshot has to have his accountant tweak the tax returns to pay for.

 

And we've really simply no earthly way of stopping them either! F**king CD's and plastic owls? FFS!

 

Dunno, mate. I really don't know

 

 

[Outlaw Pete 2,224]

Gnipper; Sorry, mate. Wasn't ignoring your post. I was amongst the stout when I saw it and tried to formulate a reply, last night. Read my response to Fires as for you too.

 

This is an emotive issue, what ever our core thoughts. Not one to be thrashed out over five pints.

 

Oh, and I must profess a vested interest too: While I intend to keep and breed my colour canaries safely inside their room and their cages there? I really, Really would like to get a singer or two, just to hang out of a sunny day. Fill the air with song.

 

I'd put him in a cage within a cage, of course. But, what f**king use would that be, once a spar found him and dedicated its own days to hanging off that outer cage ....?

 

How many of our simple pleasures must we give up?

[fireman 11,423]

Been on my mind all day Pete what to do and i know things like double wire and fishing line all over the fronts does work a bit but it looks shit and i don't want my set up to look shit as whats the point of the whole thing?,i know it's to keep birds safe in but i want to see my birds as well without having to peer through lots of wire and the hooked beaked bugger has the whole of the rest of the world to hunt in so like you say ffs,dunno and what are we to do?.I am going to make a guy,dummy type thing and sit it on the chair outside my flights to see if that helps but i will be pulling the covers down over the front of the aviary every night now and open it up first thing when i get up,but saying that it attacked once i'd checked them over and was in making the morning cuppa so again feck knows but the bully cock is out and about and i've seen him feeding so apart from feeling a bit sore as he lost a few feathers he seems ok.

[gnipper 6,837]

I had to cover my aviary with the green windbreak netting they use round garden centres etc couldnt see the birds and it looked shit so was a waste of time having them in it. Their safer in the shed. I had a mule knocked off the wall and then snatched from above my head as his cage smashed open on the floor by a male spar last summer.

[taz2010 1,297]

artificial eagle owl works well fireman don't seem to come anywhere near and birds soon get use to it

[gnasher16 31,602]

artificial eagle owl works well fireman don't seem to come anywhere near and birds soon get use to it

 

I tried one of them......with the head that moves about in the wind...................might as well of stuck a Barbie doll out there the fuckers didnt pay a blind bit of notice !.....................I dont know their habits or whether its the same one/s that return day after day but i did manage to get reasonably close to one a few months back .......when i say close,nothing more than running shouting and screaming throwing a handful of shingle at the c**t.......after doing a few commando roles of course ......probably just coincidence but i havent seen one since !

[fireman 11,423]

I had to cover my aviary with the green windbreak netting they use round garden centres etc couldnt see the birds and it looked shit so was a waste of time having them in it. Their safer in the shed. I had a mule knocked off the wall and then snatched from above my head as his cage smashed open on the floor by a male spar last summer.

That's what i use as a wind break and that's what i'm covering it at night now,with any luck the bugger will get his talons tagged up in it an learn once and for all it's not a good idea to hassle my birds ,a local pigeon fella has a dummy sat out in front of his pegeon flights and i will be stopping and asking hiim if it's for keeping spars off or just to get the pigoens used to someone sitting out and waiting for ther return type thing.I may even try my rabbit long net hung out to put it off as i'm due a nest full to fledge soon and i need to do something legal sharpish..