Twitchers Revisited

Although presumably sometimes it works is a big step up on if you don’t try?

He explains it in the replies

Quite

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Thought one of them was going to get eaten like in that Springwatch vid from a few years back!

Doesn’t look like Luna would let the male (Bomber) do it, here’s an update

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Really happy to report that the nestbox I made and hung last year now has a pair of blue tits coming and going. Well chuffed!

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Still waiting for the first signs of passage migrants (mid May to Mid June is peak) so making do with Hooded Crows and Wheatears for now.

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@pmac Paul, have noticed a neighbour’s cat trying to get close to the bird box from above. The box has a ridge roof so the cat probably won’t be able to get a paw near the entrance. However, do you think it would be safe for the birds if I stuck some strips of fence spikes on the bird box roof? I don’t want to scare them off and abandon the nest.

Hard to say with any degree of certainty.

You might cause them to abandon the nest (slightly less likely if they’re already on eggs) but the alternative is trusting to luck that the cat can’t get to them.

On balance I would probably give it a try, sticking them on rather than nailing, for obvious reasons
:hammer:

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Thanks. I was thinking of using double-sided sticking tape. Reckon I could stick the spikes on in under 2 minutes and without much disturbance.

What about cutting out a 6mm thick piece of wood the same size as the roof and punching nails through that then putting that wood on top of the roof you could even screw it on if you put screws in before hand?

Possibly, although I really don’t want to freak the birds out too much, so looking for the quietest and quickest solution for this season. I can do something more robust post-fledge.

One of the Aithness breeding Ravens has been to the shop and come back with an egg

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Looks like a Rock Dove egg to me.

Meanwhile the first passage migrant of the Spring in the garden - a Chiffchaff - taken through a rather *mucky kitchen window.

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*note to self - clean the fucking windows.

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Or shitty London pigeon, as we like to call them darn Sarf

No, feral pigeons have been hybridised with domestic/homing pigeons and the like.

These are pure Rock Doves which only remain in a very small handful of locations in Britain.

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I just knew I’d get that wrong. Thought I’d read somewhere that pigeons were Rock Doves :thinking:

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They are “feral” pigeons descended from Rock Doves

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More passage migrants, the garden was jumping with Brambling and Chaffinch this morning. The seeds helped :grinning:

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(Not my pic)
Seeing quite a few of these on the golf course.
Immigrants apparantly introduced on a shooting estate a few miles away, these seem quite happy in their new home.

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Common throughout *most of the UK since their introduction ~ 18th C they’re even present in the Isles of Scilly

*absent from high altitude areas.

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A pretty scarce visitor here, so a distant shot of 2 Barnacle geese is fairly notable

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