Another sparrow bites the dust

[davelumb]

I didn't see the kill. It was shortly after I'd refilled the bird feeder!

The bird photo was taken through the kitchen window, and is cropped heavily.

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[davelumb]

[Steve Le maitre]

What’s the background noise ? Sounds like cotton flying off bobbins at full whack, you’ll drive those Elves to an early grave.
What is the waiting time on a new rod

[davelumb]

What’s the background noise ? Sounds like cotton flying off bobbins at full whack, you’ll drive those Elves to an early grave.
What is the waiting time on a new rod

Spuds boiling!

[Steve Moore]

I think you need to get rid of your bird feeders Dave.
Poor sparrows, At least they go out on a full stomach

[davelumb]

I think you need to get rid of your bird feeders Dave.
Poor sparrows, At least they go out on a full stomach

[Steve Le maitre]

What’s the background noise ? Sounds like cotton flying off bobbins at full whack, you’ll drive those Elves to an early grave.
What is the waiting time on a new rod

Spuds boiling!

What, you feed them !

[piker al]

I think you need to get rid of your bird feeders Dave.
Poor sparrows, At least they go out on a full stomach

Daves prebaiting for the sparrow hawks

[Steve Dennington]

One thing you have to love about the sparrowhark - zero waste, they have the bloody lot!

I found a dead pigeon in the garden yesterday. Feathers everywhere, body pretty much untouched but missing the head. Prime suspect will be a cat, but why do they like to eat the heads?

[Mike J]

Send me a few Dave, mine seem to have emigrated resulting in dozens of spadges and their offspring.
The 30+ are able to consume 5-6" out of my millet feeder each day and at that rate its going to be a bit expensive come winter.
They like the ginger watering tray though.

[davelumb]

Send me a few Dave, mine seem to have emigrated resulting in dozens of spadges and their offspring.
The 30+ are able to consume 5-6" out of my millet feeder each day and at that rate its going to be a bit expensive come winter.
They like the ginger watering tray though.

With that number of sparrows I'm sure they'll be back.

[Tiercel]

I found a dead pigeon in the garden yesterday. Feathers everywhere, body pretty much untouched but missing the head. Prime suspect will be a cat, but why do they like to eat the heads?

Birds of prey nearly always eat the head first if a bird or rodent is the prey. It's believed they do it to make sure the prey is dead and unable to escape.
Owls like to swallow prey whole, but they aren't true birds of prey.
My bet is on a spar kill which had been disturbed by a nearby human or cat.

[Steve Dennington]

I found a dead pigeon in the garden yesterday. Feathers everywhere, body pretty much untouched but missing the head. Prime suspect will be a cat, but why do they like to eat the heads?

Birds of prey nearly always eat the head first if a bird or rodent is the prey. It's believed they do it to make sure the prey is dead and unable to escape.
Owls like to swallow prey whole, but they aren't true birds of prey.
My bet is on a spar kill which had been disturbed by a nearby human or cat.

Could well be

I was basing my theory on my vet's comments about worming. He said that his cat would kill rabbits and leave them in the garden, then his dogs would go out and polish off what was left after the cat ate just the head. This gave the dogs a type of roundworm that wasn't treated by whatever worming treatment I was using at the time, but apparently it's exclusive to wild rabbit, so unless my dog had raw wild rabbit she wouldn't come into contact with that particular worm.

[Mike J]

Send me a few Dave, mine seem to have emigrated resulting in dozens of spadges and their offspring.
The 30+ are able to consume 5-6" out of my millet feeder each day and at that rate its going to be a bit expensive come winter.
They like the ginger watering tray though.

With that number of sparrows I'm sure they'll be back.

Right on que a hen bird just bombed into the hedge and snatched her breakfast, while I was having mine


.

[davelumb]

Send me a few Dave, mine seem to have emigrated resulting in dozens of spadges and their offspring.
The 30+ are able to consume 5-6" out of my millet feeder each day and at that rate its going to be a bit expensive come winter.
They like the ginger watering tray though.

With that number of sparrows I'm sure they'll be back.

Right on que a hen bird just bombed into the hedge and snatched her breakfast, while I was having mine


.

[Steve Dennington]

Send me a few Dave, mine seem to have emigrated resulting in dozens of spadges and their offspring.
The 30+ are able to consume 5-6" out of my millet feeder each day and at that rate its going to be a bit expensive come winter.
They like the ginger watering tray though.

With that number of sparrows I'm sure they'll be back.

Right on que a hen bird just bombed into the hedge and snatched her breakfast, while I was having mine


.

And no blurry photo, Mike! You're slipping!

[Kev Berry]

Who cut the grass? Last pic of your garden tigers could have hidden in it


And how come your grass is so green....mine is brown

[davelumb]

Who cut the grass? Last pic of your garden tigers could have hidden in it


And how come your grass is so green....mine is brown

I cut the grass once a month. We've had rain up here. Not a lot, but we have had rain.

[Mike J]

Who cut the grass? Last pic of your garden tigers could have hidden in it


And how come your grass is so green....mine is brown

There is not much grass in there, more like a clover patch with the odd grass stem. Clover returns nitrogen into the soil and its nitrogen that makes plants green up so Dave doesn't need to water it like he would if it was grass.

I dunno about brown, my lawn has died, the dried stems are now breaking off at ground level, I would set fire to it if it wasn't for the fire risk. One bonus is any weeds can now be pulled clean out of the ground, same as we could do in the '76 summer but come next spring everything will be as green as grass

image.jpg

Temps; North wall shade 27C Full sun on the lawn 43C lovererly

.

[davelumb]

Who cut the grass? Last pic of your garden tigers could have hidden in it


And how come your grass is so green....mine is brown

There is not much grass in there, more like a clover patch with the odd grass stem. Clover returns nitrogen into the soil and its nitrogen that makes plants green up so Dave doesn't need to water it like he would if it was grass.

I dunno about brown, my lawn has died, the dried stems are now breaking off at ground level, I would set fire to it if it wasn't for the fire risk. One bonus is any weeds can now be pulled clean out of the ground, same as we could do in the '76 summer but come next spring everything will be as green as grass

image.jpg

Temps; North wall shade 27C Full sun on the lawn 43C lovererly

.

True. My 'lawns' are mostly 'weeds'! I get a good show of Selfheal, front and back.

TBH I only cut the lawn to keep the blackthorn from taking over.

[Mike J]

Who cut the grass? Last pic of your garden tigers could have hidden in it


And how come your grass is so green....mine is brown

There is not much grass in there, more like a clover patch with the odd grass stem. Clover returns nitrogen into the soil and its nitrogen that makes plants green up so Dave doesn't need to water it like he would if it was grass.

I dunno about brown, my lawn has died, the dried stems are now breaking off at ground level, I would set fire to it if it wasn't for the fire risk. One bonus is any weeds can now be pulled clean out of the ground, same as we could do in the '76 summer but come next spring everything will be as green as grass

image.jpg

Temps; North wall shade 27C Full sun on the lawn 43C lovererly

.

True. My 'lawns' are mostly 'weeds'! I get a good show of Selfheal, front and back.

TBH I only cut the lawn to keep the blackthorn from taking over.

You should get a few sheep.



.

[davelumb]

Who cut the grass? Last pic of your garden tigers could have hidden in it


And how come your grass is so green....mine is brown

There is not much grass in there, more like a clover patch with the odd grass stem. Clover returns nitrogen into the soil and its nitrogen that makes plants green up so Dave doesn't need to water it like he would if it was grass.

I dunno about brown, my lawn has died, the dried stems are now breaking off at ground level, I would set fire to it if it wasn't for the fire risk. One bonus is any weeds can now be pulled clean out of the ground, same as we could do in the '76 summer but come next spring everything will be as green as grass

image.jpg

Temps; North wall shade 27C Full sun on the lawn 43C lovererly

.

True. My 'lawns' are mostly 'weeds'! I get a good show of Selfheal, front and back.

TBH I only cut the lawn to keep the blackthorn from taking over.

You should get a few sheep.



.

They'd eat the wildflower patch I cut once a year. A pig round the back of the garage would be useful though. To root out the brambles.

[Mike J]

Who cut the grass? Last pic of your garden tigers could have hidden in it


And how come your grass is so green....mine is brown

There is not much grass in there, more like a clover patch with the odd grass stem. Clover returns nitrogen into the soil and its nitrogen that makes plants green up so Dave doesn't need to water it like he would if it was grass.

I dunno about brown, my lawn has died, the dried stems are now breaking off at ground level, I would set fire to it if it wasn't for the fire risk. One bonus is any weeds can now be pulled clean out of the ground, same as we could do in the '76 summer but come next spring everything will be as green as grass

image.jpg

Temps; North wall shade 27C Full sun on the lawn 43C lovererly

.

True. My 'lawns' are mostly 'weeds'! I get a good show of Selfheal, front and back.

TBH I only cut the lawn to keep the blackthorn from taking over.

You should get a few sheep.



.

They'd eat the wildflower patch I cut once a year. A pig round the back of the garage would be useful though. To root out the brambles.

You dont need a pig, a goat on a tether would sort them out in no time, when a goat eats brambles the whole plant dies, they don't have to consume it all as long as they eat the tips back.
The first setters in NZ used goats to break the land for farming.

.

[davelumb]

Who cut the grass? Last pic of your garden tigers could have hidden in it


And how come your grass is so green....mine is brown

There is not much grass in there, more like a clover patch with the odd grass stem. Clover returns nitrogen into the soil and its nitrogen that makes plants green up so Dave doesn't need to water it like he would if it was grass.

I dunno about brown, my lawn has died, the dried stems are now breaking off at ground level, I would set fire to it if it wasn't for the fire risk. One bonus is any weeds can now be pulled clean out of the ground, same as we could do in the '76 summer but come next spring everything will be as green as grass

image.jpg

Temps; North wall shade 27C Full sun on the lawn 43C lovererly

.

True. My 'lawns' are mostly 'weeds'! I get a good show of Selfheal, front and back.

TBH I only cut the lawn to keep the blackthorn from taking over.

You should get a few sheep.



.

They'd eat the wildflower patch I cut once a year. A pig round the back of the garage would be useful though. To root out the brambles.

You dont need a pig, a goat on a tether would sort them out in no time, when a goat eats brambles the whole plant dies, they don't have to consume it all as long as they eat the tips back.
The first setters in NZ used goats to break the land for farming.

.

A pig would get the roots out.

[Mike J]

Who cut the grass? Last pic of your garden tigers could have hidden in it


And how come your grass is so green....mine is brown

There is not much grass in there, more like a clover patch with the odd grass stem. Clover returns nitrogen into the soil and its nitrogen that makes plants green up so Dave doesn't need to water it like he would if it was grass.

I dunno about brown, my lawn has died, the dried stems are now breaking off at ground level, I would set fire to it if it wasn't for the fire risk. One bonus is any weeds can now be pulled clean out of the ground, same as we could do in the '76 summer but come next spring everything will be as green as grass

image.jpg

Temps; North wall shade 27C Full sun on the lawn 43C lovererly

.

True. My 'lawns' are mostly 'weeds'! I get a good show of Selfheal, front and back.

TBH I only cut the lawn to keep the blackthorn from taking over.

You should get a few sheep.



.

They'd eat the wildflower patch I cut once a year. A pig round the back of the garage would be useful though. To root out the brambles.

You dont need a pig, a goat on a tether would sort them out in no time, when a goat eats brambles the whole plant dies, they don't have to consume it all as long as they eat the tips back.
The first setters in NZ used goats to break the land for farming.

.

A pig would get the roots out.

The whole plant dies once a goat starts on it, the roots you don't need to worry about they will just rot away in a few years.
Besides its at the back of your garage, not a place your going to be using that much.

Something to consider before you do destroy your bramble patch, brambles are the food plant of the Holly Blue, its the tiny blue butterfly that closes its wings as soon as it lands, Holly Blues have very small territories, in some cases just a single bramble bush.

I actually cultivate brambles in my garden, so far Ive picked over 3kgs, all frozen for adding to my homemade musli through the winter.

.

[davelumb]

Who cut the grass? Last pic of your garden tigers could have hidden in it


And how come your grass is so green....mine is brown

There is not much grass in there, more like a clover patch with the odd grass stem. Clover returns nitrogen into the soil and its nitrogen that makes plants green up so Dave doesn't need to water it like he would if it was grass.

I dunno about brown, my lawn has died, the dried stems are now breaking off at ground level, I would set fire to it if it wasn't for the fire risk. One bonus is any weeds can now be pulled clean out of the ground, same as we could do in the '76 summer but come next spring everything will be as green as grass

image.jpg

Temps; North wall shade 27C Full sun on the lawn 43C lovererly

.

True. My 'lawns' are mostly 'weeds'! I get a good show of Selfheal, front and back.

TBH I only cut the lawn to keep the blackthorn from taking over.

You should get a few sheep.



.

They'd eat the wildflower patch I cut once a year. A pig round the back of the garage would be useful though. To root out the brambles.

You dont need a pig, a goat on a tether would sort them out in no time, when a goat eats brambles the whole plant dies, they don't have to consume it all as long as they eat the tips back.
The first setters in NZ used goats to break the land for farming.

.

A pig would get the roots out.

The whole plant dies once a goat starts on it, the roots you don't need to worry about they will just rot away in a few years.
Besides its at the back of your garage, not a place your going to be using that much.

Something to consider before you do destroy your bramble patch, brambles are the food plant of the Holly Blue, its the tiny blue butterfly that closes its wings as soon as it lands, Holly Blues have very small territories, in some cases just a single bramble bush.

I actually cultivate brambles in my garden, so far Ive picked over 3kgs, all frozen for adding to my homemade musli through the winter.

.

There are plenty of brambles over the fence. That's where they've come from. I'd like to get the bit that's out of sight behind the garage seeded with a wild flower mix and cut it once a year like the other patch I have. And put a nest box or two up along the end fence which I can't get at because of the brambles!

[Kev Berry]

Donkeys will eat stuff the goats wont touch