I totally agree Dave, I was being a little sarcastic There is only one species threatening the existence of songbirds (and nature in general) and that is humans.
A similar instance of nature's delicate balance being upset by humans involved one of the big national parks in the US. I can't quite remember which one but wolves were persecuted to the point of total absence. As a result, the Caribou had no natural predator to control their numbers,thus they became so numerous that young trees were being grazed to oblivion. This of course had consequences for various forms of insect and plant life.
In short,the action of one species (us) caused a chain reaction right through the park's ecology. So what did they do? Brought the wolf back and everything was restored to its former glory. You can see this scenario repeated across the globe. Whales hunted,oceans polluted,rain forests destroyed and one single species responsible and multiplying like bacteria.
Oh good fishy, I'm not an unreasonable person, but people don't understand that we are here only through nature's good graces, and we mistreat it at our peril. We all, whatever our species, need to respect our place on a planet that is under huge stress by the activity of the dominant species. Much could be done to redress the balance but indifference and self interest dominates. I do not wish to see the future of my children and theirs leave a legacy that may be difficult or impossible to recover from.
We had a sparrow hawk sweep through the garden yesterday, was amazing how everything on the bird table managed to avoid it entirely, they managed to get airborne and peeled away in every direction like a squadron of fighter planes! The sparrow hawk left with no kill. It landed on my neighbour's roof and looked back at me as if to say 'ooops that was embarrassing'.
I'm of the school of thought that a sparrowhawk is just part of nature and they are welcome. I don't like to see the puff of blue and yellow feathers when they take a Blue Tit, but it's just the way it is to me. They suffered horribly due to the effects of pesticides so I feel lucky there are any still around these days at all.
It's fair enough though if you don't want to see one killing in your garden that you might think of manipulating the way you feed the birds. I feel the same way about by neighbour's cats so deter them with automatic water squirters.
Sparrowhawks are birds of open field and hedgerows and they are fast, and need a clean run when they hunt. Hanging your feeders under a tree or under the eves of a shed will cut down its success at hunting in your garden, but only when something like a hedge breaks up the flight path.
Well as I mentioned once before on this subject.....it is a fact that the Sparrowhawk is at the top of the food chain and has no enemies except man. This is why numbers are increasing and so many of you have them in your gardens whether you like it or not. Sparrowhawks killed 45 of my Doves over a 2 year period...it broke my heart and needless to say I gave up keeping them as I felt it just wasn't fair to me or them ! All the advice on siting bird tables in sheltered positions works well in our garden though. Maybe trellis around a bird table would work too small birds would then come through it but larger birds would find this more difficult.I really feel for those of you who are upset .....nature raw in tooth and claw comes to mind.......but it hurts doesn't it .
While recognising and sympathising with your loss butterfly, I can only reiterate my earlier comments regarding predator and prey in the natural world. I once had a fish pond years ago, I had goldfish and quite a number of small koi. One morning I went down the garden and couldn't see a single fish. Next morning I waited indoors until I saw a Heron land. I had my culprit and while being upset over losing my fish, and boy was I upset, I realised that the Heron saw my pond as a little oasis. He must have wondered why someone had laid on such a gorgeous buffet.
Sparrowhawks are beautiful and only catch the weak or stupid birds so are also part of natural selection. Our visitor doesn't get much at my feeding station but when he/she does, often as not it's a collared dove rather than a tit or sparrow.
I have friends who have 4 ponds, one of which is visited by a kingfisher. They actually buy small goldfish to stock it for him. They have bigger specimens in the upper ponds and are philosophical about herons.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I think Mike puts his finger on the real problem we should be complaining about, when he says 'the countryside offers little, but hey ho'. When our gardens have more wildlife and diversity than the countryside, there is a problem somewhere.
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".
There is a big problem out there, two big problems, development and intensive agriculture. Though if it is one problem, to me it boils down to just people and a world run purely on economics rather than any value put on the environment.
I've come to accept as a wildlife gardener that in the process I make a larder for predators. Any native predator is welcome, I take it as a sign that I've done good by providing habitat for a whole host of wildlife in a relatively tiny space, that predators then get attracted.
The only thing that annoys me is cats. That's because the local owners have bare lawns that their own cats don't find in the least bit interesting, so they ended up rather overdoing it in our tiny wildlife garden. I got so discouraged I gave up with it all for several years as it ended up more like a slaughterhouse than a garden.
It is an issue with some depth I think. If we encourage wildlife in our gardens are we doing good on the whole, or are we concentrating animals into an area where they are more easily predated and diseases can spread?
On balance I came to believe there really isn't much else habitat anywhere locally for wildlife to go to these days, so I'm back to getting as much wildlife to use my garden as I possibly can. Whilst doing all that is humanely possible to deter the local cats from entering the garden. (they poop on my veggie plot too if they get a chance, grrrr!)
In all until subsidised arable farming becomes a great folly in the history books there is little else as individuals we can do to keep the wildlife that belongs around us going other than encouraging it into our gardens.
Posts
Dave, I do agree with your post above about Sparrowhawks...but we are part of nature too. We aren't from another planet
I totally agree Dave, I was being a little sarcastic
There is only one species threatening the existence of songbirds (and nature in general) and that is humans.
A similar instance of nature's delicate balance being upset by humans involved one of the big national parks in the US. I can't quite remember which one but wolves were persecuted to the point of total absence. As a result, the Caribou had no natural predator to control their numbers,thus they became so numerous that young trees were being grazed to oblivion. This of course had consequences for various forms of insect and plant life.
In short,the action of one species (us) caused a chain reaction right through the park's ecology. So what did they do? Brought the wolf back and everything was restored to its former glory. You can see this scenario repeated across the globe. Whales hunted,oceans polluted,rain forests destroyed and one single species responsible and multiplying like bacteria.
Oh good fishy, I'm not an unreasonable person, but people don't understand that we are here only through nature's good graces, and we mistreat it at our peril. We all, whatever our species, need to respect our place on a planet that is under huge stress by the activity of the dominant species. Much could be done to redress the balance but indifference and self interest dominates. I do not wish to see the future of my children and theirs leave a legacy that may be difficult or impossible to recover from.
Amen to that Dave
Well said.
We had a sparrow hawk sweep through the garden yesterday, was amazing how everything on the bird table managed to avoid it entirely, they managed to get airborne and peeled away in every direction like a squadron of fighter planes! The sparrow hawk left with no kill. It landed on my neighbour's roof and looked back at me as if to say 'ooops that was embarrassing'.
I'm of the school of thought that a sparrowhawk is just part of nature and they are welcome. I don't like to see the puff of blue and yellow feathers when they take a Blue Tit, but it's just the way it is to me. They suffered horribly due to the effects of pesticides so I feel lucky there are any still around these days at all.
It's fair enough though if you don't want to see one killing in your garden that you might think of manipulating the way you feed the birds. I feel the same way about by neighbour's cats so deter them with automatic water squirters.
Sparrowhawks are birds of open field and hedgerows and they are fast, and need a clean run when they hunt. Hanging your feeders under a tree or under the eves of a shed will cut down its success at hunting in your garden, but only when something like a hedge breaks up the flight path.
Well as I mentioned once before on this subject.....it is a fact that the Sparrowhawk is at the top of the food chain and has no enemies except man. This is why numbers are increasing and so many of you have them in your gardens whether you like it or not. Sparrowhawks killed 45 of my Doves over a 2 year period...it broke my heart and needless to say I gave up keeping them as I felt it just wasn't fair to me or them ! All the advice on siting bird tables in sheltered positions works well in our garden though. Maybe trellis around a bird table would work too small birds would then come through it but larger birds would find this more difficult.I really feel for those of you who are upset .....nature raw in tooth and claw comes to mind.......but it hurts doesn't it .
While recognising and sympathising with your loss butterfly, I can only reiterate my earlier comments regarding predator and prey in the natural world. I once had a fish pond years ago, I had goldfish and quite a number of small koi. One morning I went down the garden and couldn't see a single fish. Next morning I waited indoors until I saw a Heron land. I had my culprit and while being upset over losing my fish, and boy was I upset, I realised that the Heron saw my pond as a little oasis. He must have wondered why someone had laid on such a gorgeous buffet.
Sparrowhawks are beautiful and only catch the weak or stupid birds so are also part of natural selection. Our visitor doesn't get much at my feeding station but when he/she does, often as not it's a collared dove rather than a tit or sparrow.
I have friends who have 4 ponds, one of which is visited by a kingfisher. They actually buy small goldfish to stock it for him. They have bigger specimens in the upper ponds and are philosophical about herons.
I think Mike puts his finger on the real problem we should be complaining about, when he says 'the countryside offers little, but hey ho'. When our gardens have more wildlife and diversity than the countryside, there is a problem somewhere.
There is a big problem out there, two big problems, development and intensive agriculture. Though if it is one problem, to me it boils down to just people and a world run purely on economics rather than any value put on the environment.
I've come to accept as a wildlife gardener that in the process I make a larder for predators. Any native predator is welcome, I take it as a sign that I've done good by providing habitat for a whole host of wildlife in a relatively tiny space, that predators then get attracted.
The only thing that annoys me is cats. That's because the local owners have bare lawns that their own cats don't find in the least bit interesting, so they ended up rather overdoing it in our tiny wildlife garden. I got so discouraged I gave up with it all for several years as it ended up more like a slaughterhouse than a garden.
It is an issue with some depth I think. If we encourage wildlife in our gardens are we doing good on the whole, or are we concentrating animals into an area where they are more easily predated and diseases can spread?
On balance I came to believe there really isn't much else habitat anywhere locally for wildlife to go to these days, so I'm back to getting as much wildlife to use my garden as I possibly can. Whilst doing all that is humanely possible to deter the local cats from entering the garden. (they poop on my veggie plot too if they get a chance, grrrr!)
In all until subsidised arable farming becomes a great folly in the history books there is little else as individuals we can do to keep the wildlife that belongs around us going other than encouraging it into our gardens.
I