grumpy birds

[erastes]

I have a very aggressive little robin in the front garden this morning.  I bought a packet of "song bird mix" which is probably like caviare to birdies, and he's been guarding the bird table all morning!  Every time the sparrows try and get some he charges at them. I knew that they were territorial with other robins, but I'd never seen them chase other types before.  I'll have to put some up in a different spot so the sparrows have a chance - and hang some peanuts up.  It's nasty weather now, so they need the help.

I've been trying to do more editing--I say "trying" because the furry monsters are driving me mad. everytime i sit down at the table one or other of them joins me, sits on the warm pile of paper and then flops onto their side and bats their eyelids at me.  Severus was patently BORED this afternoon and kept biting my free hand as if to say, Don't keep doing that, tickle me!!!

I wish I had a camcorder so I could record it for you lot, like that chap did with the cat on his shoulders when he was trying to write.

Most amusing line found in the editing so far: He left the kitchen to see to the livestock. Now while this makes sense in a literal way, if you read it the other way it's hilarious. I doubt the kitchen will be any help with the livestock at all. When Jonathan comes back he's going to find the cows unmilked and the chicken unfed. Kitchens can't do animal husbandry!  No thumbs!

Comments

[aunty_marion]

Insert a comma after 'kitchen'.

I don't know what's happened to my robin(s), I haven't seen them for ages! Maybe they come at a different time from the sparrows?

I want a cat lapwarmer.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I hope your robin is ok!

As for the furries, I'll shove them in a jiffy bag for you.

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

We get a lot of collared doves which, once they'd worked how to perch on the seed feeders, proceed to fill the garden with their feathers as its quite hard work for large birds. I could fill a pillow with their cast-offs! The magpies are so comical too...the way they 'gallop' over the lawn in pursuit of the odd onion bhaji (which we probably shouldn't be putting out there). We even had 6 goldcrests this morning 'peeping' away over the niger seed! :) \o/ for birdies.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I have two collared doves who are real bullies ... TO ME!!!

When there's nothing on the bird table they sit on it for ages just glaring into the house. HELLO???????? DID YOU KNOW THIS WAS EMPTY????

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, that's usually the starlings' trick. They jump on to the little step at the French windows and look in the lounge.

Our collared doves are all called Colin. Collared...yeah, Colin *cough*

Norty doves! Erastes needs food too!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

My aunt had a squirrel who used to come and knock on the french doors.

:)

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

Edit: Goldfinches, lol!

[sinick.livejournal.com]

...and here I was imagining him giving the livestock a good 'seeing-to'.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Oh trust you! Now I have Kitchen/Livestock porn!!!

[sinick.livejournal.com]

*passes you the Goggles* 8D

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

Our robins go south for the winter. We've got chickadees, juncos, and sparrows. The dees are the brave ones--I was out pouring hot water in the birdbath (melts the ice for awhile, anyway) and heard DEEDEEDEE two feet from my ear.. the little guy wasn't waiting for me to get out of his way.

On the side porch, it's one territorial squirrel who monopolizes the other feeder, so the smaller ones go for the stuff he spills. The chipmunks are mostly staying underground. And when all of the small fry vanish, I know the hawk is out hunting. Only a few stay up north in the winter.

Last year hardly anyone came to the feeders -- this summer they discovered 'em and it's like a drive-through by a high school.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

the "experts" say that one should provide food all year round and that makes sense, specially in the spring as long as you mince up the peanuts so the babies don't choke - and it's struck true - as I haven't put food out for a year, the birds have stopped checking the table to see if there was anything there, and so I thought they had all buggered off.

But they are back now! Whee! Although i still need to deflect the aggressive robin! Our robins are different to yours, they come into their best colour in winter - hence the winter icon of the robin on our christmas cards etc.

[reya-starck.livejournal.com]

I have a pair of conniving wood pigeons in my garden. The bird table has a roof, and neither pigeon has yet worked out how to get under it to the goodies strewn on the table below. However, that doesn't stop them from sidling along the fence, flapping onto the bird table roof, sliding down said roof, then flapping across to the shed to examine the bird table from a distance. They take it in turns, like a police recce. I swear I can see the little plotting thought bubbles over their heads.

BTW, I think this is the first time I've commented here, so hello, fellow Norfolk-dweller! (Or should that be, "Awright, bor?")

[aunty_marion]

Ha, you should worry. MY pigeons have discovered that if they hang by two toes from the perch of the bird feeders, flapping madly to keep their balance, they can contort themselves downwards to get at the food! Bastards. That's one reason I don't have a bird *table*. When I did, I had to wrap the sides in clematis wire - the two-inch plastic-coated wire mesh stuff - to keep them out.

My Big Christmas Present from Mum (I ordered it from Coopers of Stortford, she's going to reimburse me!) is a pair of theoretically 'squirrel-proof' bird feeders, one for seed and one for peanuts - the kind with the feeder as a tube down the middle and a wider mesh enclosure round it. Should keep the *%**^!* pigeons off as well. I hope.

[reya-starck.livejournal.com]

You have intelligent pigeons. My two wouldn't be able to piece together a brain between them, even if they found 80% of one knocking around behind the shed somewhere.

The squirrel-proof feeders are awesome. I don't live anywhere near squirrels (although I'm in a well-forested region, the little grey buggers stay in the trees and don't venture into the urban areas) but my mum has a couple of the squirrel-proof feeders in her garden. She, like me, is a bird-lover and has also invested in one of those crazy-looking plastic spheres that hold niger seed. She insists that the wild bird food I buy from my local Jollyes store isn't good enough, and always brings me a large sack of the RSPB stuff whenever she comes to see me.

[aunty_marion]

Well, I think it's only one or two of the pigeons. I just hope they don't breed and pass on their tricks to the next generation! Mostly they just sit on the shelf attached to the feeder pole and peck hopefully at anything that falls on it (which is why I don't actually use it for 'feeding' birds, the pigeons would just scoff it all!), or patrol the undergrowth.

I have a plastic tube thingy for the niger seed; can't say I've ever bothered to buy the RSPB stuff, it's far too expensive! (Have you *seen* what they charge for postage??) I go to a garden centre and get Gardman or Chapelwood stuff usually.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Good god, there's another person in Norfolk with a computer?? *dies*

My bird table had a roof, and my collared doves could get in with a bit of hummingbird flapping, but the woodpigeons can't - I'm surprised they can even get off the ground they are so fat.

[reya-starck.livejournal.com]

Aye. The aethernet has wound its way 'round the loke, as t'were ;)

The wood pigeons are horrendously fat. Little wonder they're supposed to make for good eating (not that I've tried pigeon) but then all they do is eat. Mine have taken to patrolling the floor beneath the bird table when the other birds that do have access are up there. The blackbirds, especially, tend to chuck their food about, so it always rains bits of seed and bacon rind and other goodies down on the pigeons.

I don't mind the collared doves. For me, since a childhood in Fakenham with a lot of trees alongside our bungalow, their cu-coo-cu-ing always reminds me of summer.

[angelabenedetti.livejournal.com]

I think it depends how automated the kitchen is and whether the livestock have access to it. [grin/ponder]

And I'd rewrite it, "He left the kitchen and saw to the livestock."

Angie

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Yes - definitely rewritten!

[zipcity.livejournal.com]

I'd love to put out food for birds, but I don't dare - I'm afraid they would be in danger from pets if they were on a table or something. A few weeks ago there was a young magpie who kept sitting on the veranda (I'm not sure why, no bird has done that before) squawking for his parents to bring food to him there, and that was worrying enough with the dogs and cats right there.

I've noticed my cats are much worse with sitting on papers/demanding attention if you're doing something important. Sometimes people are allowed to read the paper, or write a letter if it isn't urgent, but important papers? Forget it!

Kitchens can do animal husbandry if a horse walks into one and helps himself. (Leaving the back door open when there is a horse in the yard is NOT a sensible idea - but you'd think the stairs would stop them!)