Birds...

I have mentioned on more than one occasion that I enjoy the fact I have access to a garden and hope that will always be so. I get much pleasure from watching or knowing that the birds that visit during the day for food and water(some making their homes in the trees or eaves of the house)

All are welcome in theory but I cannot help being upset if a Sparrow Hawk decides to invade this safe and sheltered area to take one because although more survive than are lost and their knowing that there is food and water helps them, you do kind of feel responsible for those on your patch because to some extent they are here because of me.

That is why I am unhappy with the changes neighbours have made that has made the area more vulnerable. I know this goes on all over the world every day and it's nature. In a way it is a privilege to see nature in the raw and on my doorstep too. I have a friend in the States who is fortunate to have Hummingbirds visit her garden and her own bird too and just as here a Hawk isn't too far away.

I have to confess I like most birds that visit but I have a love/hate relationship with one spices in particular. Mainly, because of the numbers they arrive and their behaviour compared to others. They always appear in a flock, do whatever they have to and move on. The garden can be covered. Of course all living creatures have a right to feed and water but the trouble is that when they arrive no other bird stands a chance and they cannot get near. It disappears too quickly and to be honest I could not afford to put any more out than I do. Blackbirds, doves, sparrows, finches and so on can make the food last hours possibly a day and they will make many visits.

So I am seriously having to think of changing the feeders I am putting out as if they are left full at bed time, come the morning the Starlings have found a way to hang on them and they stick their beak into the opening and manage to gobble the contents down very quickly or throw it everywhere so when I eventually look, there is nothing there for all the other birds. So I may have to consider buying feeders that have a kind of cage around them which allow smaller birds access but keep larger birds out. I wish I did not have to but I suppose you have to adapt to the situation.

One thing that happens every year since I can remember is that every year throughout Summer we have either Swallows or Swifts that move into the eaves of the house and at various times of the day and especially early evening until virtually it is dark they fly around doing wonderful acrobatic stunts and chasing after each other, going very high in the sky and almost to ground level and yet when they fly into their homes, I have yet to see one get it wrong, no matter how small the opening.

I have mentioned about how I saved a dove some years ago and brought her(I think it was female)back to health and all her feathers returned after being attacked by a bird of prey. Sometime later I found a sparrow in the passage that runs alongside the house and tried to save it initially by keeping it warm and safe over night(and to make a decision the following day what to do)but through shock as much as anything it did not survive.

Well, I think I lost another sparrow yesterday. Throughout, the afternoon in the front garden was a tiny and obviously new sparrow, how it got there I'm not sure(I suspect it probably had followed it's mother out of the eaves of the house)most of it's feathers were there but still some down were evident and it was wasn't strong enough to lift itself and fly. But it's mother kept feeding it all day. I had made a decision(rightly or wrongly)that if it was still there as darkness came I'd try and put it somewhere safe and warm and decide what to do the following day.
I found it had disappeared so I hoped that was good news. Then before bed I found even though doors had not been opened it had managed to get into the passage through a hole in a door that has rotted and needs replacing.

I attempted to put it into a small container but there was no way it was going to stay put so reluctantly I opened the door and allowed it to go into the back garden and have kept my fingers crossed its found a place to survive and maybe be found by it's parent again as daybreaks but it's doubtful it would've survived if I'd kept it indoors anyhow.

You can only do your best and this will go on all the time with birds who fly the nest too soon. It looked healthy enough just had decided to leave too soon and wasn't ready.