I have two cats and I, too, love to encourage and feed the birds in my garden. I keep the cats in at night, both for their own safety and that of the birds, who feed mainly at dawn and dusk. Normally we get presents of individual feathers which they find lying on the ground, so it seems that they satisfy their "gift-giving" instincts in this way!
We have also had occasion to deter other cats from our garden and the best way to do this, we find, is to get one of those water bottles with a sports cap, fill it with tap water and spray the intruder with water when you see it in your garden - it'll soon learn not to go there again!
We have had the honour of a visiting sparrow hawk in our garden. So far it seems to have a taste for the local pidgeon population. It is not afraid of humans either as I was able to observe it resting in a tree at the bottom of the garden for a good half hour before it decided to lazily fly into the garden next door.
We live next to a conservation area with a large lake and lots wildlife including various rodents, snakes, migrating water birds etc. Our neighbours have two cats that are left to run wild 24/7 with no bells, killing this wildlife (and stalking my chickens). We have brought up the subject of putting bells on them on a couple of occasions - to at least give the 'locals' a chance - we were told "It's dangerous, no-one knows just how many cats are strangled by their own bell collars every year" Oh, that's alright then - as long as your overfed cat's are ok! Should we persue this? Since moving here, we have taught our hunting dog to "leave" anything that comes into our garden - this includes ducks, foxes, rabbits, pheasants, doves, snakes. Everything that is except CATS!
We too have had a sparrow hawk in the garden this year, we regularly feed the birds and have sited our bird table next to a large bamboo so as to give some protection for the birds. I have regularly found piles of feathers and whilst I find this upsetting, it is nature and the hawk has to eat as well, however last week it was chasing a blackbird which managed to fly in through the open window of my neighbours conservatory, the hawk was not so lucky and flew into the window killing itself.
i dont hate cats, but i do chase them out of my garden, theres really only one persistent one, we also have a sparrowhawk, seen it sat in a tree at the front, but about a week ago i witnessed it fly in for a starling, whilst it was awful to think of the poor starling, to witness the speed and prowess of the hawk, was just amazing.
I have two cats, which I took in when they were found in a neighbour's coalshed as tiny kittens, almost dead. I am a dog person really, but the cats needed a home, so... They catch mice all the time, but don't seem very interested in birds. All of the killing upsets me, but it is what cats do. I read somewhere that cats can catch only the weak birds which might be likely to perish anyway. Where there are bird feeders, make sure that there is enough clear space around them, that a cat would have room to make three leaps before reaching it. Seemingly, this is enough time for birds to see the cat and flee.
I know collars with bells are recommended, but as I would hate to have a bell ringing round my neck constantly, I don't like to inflict it on another living creature. By the way, my cats are terrified of the visiting pheasants, and it is very funny to see them running into the house when they hear one approaching.
We have had cats (indoor only)and had a dog. Neighbour's cats do get our birds but never bury anything, however the dog would catch, kill and partially bury a squirrel or starling.
Do your best to get along with your neighbors by discouraging the cats using your yard as a litter box. We have this problem too. Look where they are going and why. I have found they usually use the dry soil patches under the eaves of the house. I put a thick layer of hazelnut shells a foot or so from the house foundation under the eaves looks beautiful and the cats don't like the sharpish but not harmful edges of the shells underfoot. I have also used twigs from our trees and scattered them in areas cats would use. These two methods have eliminated the problem for us. Just remember cats aren't trying to annoy you on purpose, they just gotta go!
I doubt if cats were responsible for the swift's death unless it was old or sickly. As I understand they do not land except to feed their young in the nest and sleep in their roost.
I have always had cats and yet my sparrow and tit populations have increased from a handful to hundreds in the years since we have been here. Many nest in the eaves of the house or in an old barn and we get visitors from the nearby woods as well as seasonal invasions.
I feed the birds all year, up high out of feline leaping reach and the ground feeders are fed in the open out of pouncing reach with no cover for felines. I lose a few to the local sparrowhawk but even fewer to the cats.
We too have had problems with cats killing birds and ruining our flower beds & seedlings,the first problem we simply took the bird feeder down as the birds didn't stand a chance with the high concentration of cats we seem to have round here,(a lot without bells on!!).The second problem we solved to complete satisfaction, this involved turning our patch into a gravel garden & deterring any cats who were still intent on using my garden as their local toilet with a spray on the old garden hose.With these two methods i can give a 98% guarantee that you will never have a cat use your garden again as a toilet,the problem with cats hunting wildlife however cannot be solved,the only way to limit it is to put bells on them to give the wildlife a head start.
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We have also had occasion to deter other cats from our garden and the best way to do this, we find, is to get one of those water bottles with a sports cap, fill it with tap water and spray the intruder with water when you see it in your garden - it'll soon learn not to go there again!
I know collars with bells are recommended, but as I would hate to have a bell ringing round my neck constantly, I don't like to inflict it on another living creature. By the way, my cats are terrified of the visiting pheasants, and it is very funny to see them running into the house when they hear one approaching.
Do your best to get along with your neighbors by discouraging the cats using your yard as a litter box. We have this problem too. Look where they are going and why. I have found they usually use the dry soil patches under the eaves of the house. I put a thick layer of hazelnut shells a foot or so from the house foundation under the eaves looks beautiful and the cats don't like the sharpish but not harmful edges of the shells underfoot. I have also used twigs from our trees and scattered them in areas cats would use. These two methods have eliminated the problem for us. Just remember cats aren't trying to annoy you on purpose, they just gotta go!
I have always had cats and yet my sparrow and tit populations have increased from a handful to hundreds in the years since we have been here. Many nest in the eaves of the house or in an old barn and we get visitors from the nearby woods as well as seasonal invasions.
I feed the birds all year, up high out of feline leaping reach and the ground feeders are fed in the open out of pouncing reach with no cover for felines. I lose a few to the local sparrowhawk but even fewer to the cats.