Unusual magpie catch?

[jukel123 6,570]

21 minutes ago, Greyman said:

Lining the cup in the nest mate, longtail tits use a lot of spider web in there nests so they can stretch as the brood grows

I've got a long-tailed tit nest in my man shed. Brilliant architects.

Edited December 11, 2022 by jukel123

[Greyman 25,291]

7 minutes ago, jukel123 said:

Magpies and grey squirrels both arrived in my neck of the woods about ten years ago. There used to be 3 keeper's on the nearest estate, there's none now. I reckon the keepers saw them off as soon as they arrived. But now there's nothing to stop them multiplying.

Funny thing I,ve moved from the city into a big shooting community and the balance in nature is massively different, there are far less squirrels and magpies here because people shoot them but the small song bird population is fantastic we’re as in the city the magpies wiped out every nest in my yard from great tits to swifts, couldn’t seem to make a dent shooting and trapping them

[paulus 26]

2 minutes ago, Greyman said:

Funny thing I,ve moved from the city into a big shooting community and the balance in nature is massively different, there are far less squirrels and magpies here because people shoot them but the small song bird population is fantastic we’re as in the city the magpies wiped out every nest in my yard from great tits to swifts, couldn’t seem to make a dent shooting and trapping them

Every winter i will shoot every squirrel i can that enters my garden, It does make a difference, Just about to put a peanut feeder up as the last of natures autumn bounty has about gone, 

[Greyman 25,291]

25 minutes ago, paulus said:

Every winter i will shoot every squirrel i can that enters my garden, It does make a difference, Just about to put a peanut feeder up as the last of natures autumn bounty has about gone, 

I used to get lots more in town than out here, one shot if your lucky before there gone This was one of my favourite squirrel spots less than a mile from the mall at cribs causeway and the almondsbury m4 m5 interchange very rarely had a a walk there without bagging one or two 

[paulus 26]

I have seen 2 and shot 2 over the last week, the peanut feeder will pull a few in, 

[FOXHUNTER 5,020]

Yep Ive seen a magpie take a song bird from the sky ,floor it and proceed to kill it.

[NEWKID 26,211]

1 hour ago, jukel123 said:

I've got a long-tailed tit nest in my man shed. Brilliant architects.

Being a nature geek as a kid, I took a long tailed tit nest to school when I was 10 or so.. watched the parents raise 2 broods in it in a think gorse Bush a long the river bank, when they'd finished I had it and took it to show and tell...better than an action mam imo lol

[NEWKID 26,211]

Watched a magpie forcing the fledgling blackbirds out of the nests in the hedgerows behind the house last year.. got 2 of them to fly out and then nail them within 20 yards... f***ing things they are!

[NEWKID 26,211]

1 hour ago, Greyman said:

Funny thing I,ve moved from the city into a big shooting community and the balance in nature is massively different, there are far less squirrels and magpies here because people shoot them but the small song bird population is fantastic we’re as in the city the magpies wiped out every nest in my yard from great tits to swifts, couldn’t seem to make a dent shooting and trapping them

Got loads of fieldfare here now, eating the last of the apples in the little orchard, we're only 4 miles or so out of the city but loads more birds visit than where we were, keeping the feeders full now for the winter... 

[paulus 26]

9 minutes ago, NEWKID said:

Watched a magpie forcing the fledgling blackbirds out of the nests in the hedgerows behind the house last year.. got 2 of them to fly out and then nail them within 20 yards... f***ing things they are!

I did the same thing with a peregrine up above a magpie nest. The fuckers would not leave the blackthorn bush they were in, we could literally climb up and catch them but they would not fly out of that bush. 

[jukel123 6,570]

11 minutes ago, NEWKID said:

Being a nature geek as a kid, I took a long tailed tit nest to school when I was 10 or so.. watched the parents raise 2 broods in it in a think gorse Bush a long the river bank, when they'd finished I had it and took it to show and tell...better than an action mam imo lol

One of my lads took in a long tailed tits nest to show his Biology teacher. He had no idea what it was. He was a good teacher, but my lad had to instruct him on the three different species of UK newt and identified a roadkill ferret which had  brought in for identification by the teacher. To be fair, there's a difference between academic biology and being a naturalist/ countryman.

 

[paulus 26]

1 minute ago, jukel123 said:

One of my lads took in a long tailed tits nest to show his Biology teacher. He had no idea what it was. He was a good teacher, but my lad had to instruct him on the three different species of UK newt and identified a roadkill ferret which had  brought in for identification by the teacher. To be fair, there's a difference between academic biology and being a naturalist/ countryman.

 

Well said, And that's where the problems start in organisation who have the responsibility to look after areas, Like the Canal and river Trust, the people they employ have no idea how the decisions they make based on academic work have on the places they are charged with looking after. 

[jukel123 6,570]

Just now, paulus said:

Well said, And that's where the problems start in organisation who have the responsibility to look after areas, Like the Canal and river Trust, the people they employ have no idea how the decisions they make based on academic work have on the places they are charged with looking after. 

Definitely.

[Greyman 25,291]

3 minutes ago, paulus said:

Well said, And that's where the problems start in organisation who have the responsibility to look after areas, Like the Canal and river Trust, the people they employ have no idea how the decisions they make based on academic work have on the places they are charged with looking after. 

Yes but they do open the bridges for me

[paulus 26]

3 minutes ago, Greyman said:

Yes but they do open the bridges for me

f**k me are you telling me they finally found something they can do right?