Where have all the birds gone?

Wasn't that cheap Basics stuff was it, stewarts?

Maybe try Warburtons next time

No George it was Asda extra Special with Nuts and Seeds!

the parky buggers!

I put crushed peanuts on the bird table and lawn each morning.
Most common visitors are Collared Doves followed by Wood Pigeons ,Jays , Blackbirds and Pigeons.

Stewart hope your well I think if your interested in birds then maybe a little e,w or place bet on BIRD TO LOVE in the ffos las 2.15 may reward you ran well lto at Windsor not got a great body of form to work on butmight well challenge for a place good luck
Cheers

Always wanted a Bird To love RP, fine here hope you're OK and good to hear from you.
Thanks for reply 626.

Stewarts those birds don't migrate,sure you knew that and meant in general.Has the weather been severe there? Not really took much notice other than checking the going.

This morning I have seen golden oriole and a hoopoe hanging around my chicken coop and then the Flamingoes along Poetto,I expect they count as exotic?

Btw stew,sorry got carried away there.Meant to say that at this time of year in UK is the most bountifull time for wild birds,recently harvested grain fields,berries now appearing etc,so probably the most likely explanation?

you should not feed birds bread. its no good for them. seeds and nuts are what they need.

there has been a disastrous decline in bird population because of pesticides, destruction of habitat, and most egregious of all, the number of domestic cats that wreak havoc, killing an estimated 30 million annually. only an idiot would have a cat. sadly there are 10 million in the uk

Was a few on the forum and that weird Andy L bloke scared them away

if you want or like seagulls leiths infested with them ,,, think giant cats are needed , ; jjusst watched nutter in dissability scooter pour seeds over his scooter , cap or is it hat and watched a thousand pidgeons swoop onto his vehicle and his head ,,, alfred hichcock shud av been here  ,  leith has strange people

I spend a grand a year on bird feed suet/nuts/sunflower seeds white and black/mealworms, I stop feeding them in August because August is prime time for bird moulting. Replacing all your feathers is an extremely energy draining experience so birds save it for when they are less stressed – after breeding and before migration. August is also very warm, so the birds don't get too cold and there is still plenty of protein-rich food about.

Grappler is right about the decline in bird popuation some birds are in the very red danger zone and you shouldn't feed them bread.

Ok, thanks for replies, just noticed a lack of bird song in the morning, will stop feeding them bread, just seeds  from now on.

Loss of habitat: people cutting down trees and hedgerows in gardens, getting rid of their lawns and flowers to make their very tidy, soulless parking areas for cars.The resultant loss of soil means all the worms and insects vanish too, a major food source for birds.
We need to arrest the cataclysmic decline in insects but depressingly we're more interested in arguing about brexit.

Think Sparrows migrate Glentoby, certainly don't get those exotics in my garden, maybe an occasional robin or blue tit, where do you live?

Breeding season over so morning chorus pretty much stops.

Im about 7 km s/west from Quartu Sant Elena,15 km from Cagliari..........near the beach at Capitana Due.I believe you are right about some sparrows.

Sounds rather nicer than Brum Glen!

Cat about NAP

Im all over the place today stew,not used to being on my own and on here in the daytime.......South East not SW,on Villasimius road.

stewarts rise 13 Aug 19 11:27 
Through some bread out for the birds yesterday

threw innit?

Are you Frank Mc Avennie?

Seeing this topic I really thought it would be about lack of female presenters or something but was pleasantly surprised it was about our feathered friends . Can`t agree with Grappler, 30 million birds killed by cats as most cats are so lazy now they don`t have the energy to catch birds.

We keep chickens that free range in our garden, loads of birds come to eat their food, as well as the norm we got a couple of woodpeckers, although they don't eat the food, about 5 different pheasants, 2 male 3 female. We were worried last week cos a sparrowhawk flew over and sat in a tree overlooking the garden, thought it might be eyeing up the chickens, they're bantams so I'd imagine it could easily kill one. On the cat thing we don't get a lot but a black one was in the garden 3 days ago, came back from shopping the next day and the remains of a pigeon was there and the chickens were going mad, guess it was the cat.

The most recent figures of how many creatures are killed by cats are from the Mammal Society. They estimate that cats in the UK catch up to 275 million prey items a year, of which 27 million are birds. This is the number of prey items which were known to have been caught. We don't know how many more the cats caught, but didn't bring home, or how many escaped but subsequently died. The most frequently caught birds, according to the Mammal Society, are probably: house sparrows, blue tits, blackbirds and starlings.

Mind you, 27 million doesn`t compare with Australia where a staggering 377 millions birds are killed by cats annually.

More than 1 million native Australian birds are killed across the country by cats every day, new research shows. The study, published in the journal Biological Conversation, estimates feral cats kill 316 million birds a year, while pet cats kill 61 million birds annually. More than 99% are native.  “Everyone knows that cats kill birds, but this study shows that, at a national level, the amount of predation is staggering and is likely to be driving the ongoing decline of many species,” said the lead researcher, Prof John Woinarski of Charles Darwin University.

Had no idea it was that many.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SOsm1TzqHII

I do live in a rural area near some wildlife reserves but the birds in my garden get through a kilo of bird food in 24 hours in winter and half that amount in summer when they have more natural food and there are less Starlings about. Visitors to a holiday cottage nearby have identified 48 species in a week from the cottage window and garden. Plenty of birds in Somerset. If you went away for a week they would just move to another garden where there is food and not come back for a while.

Sparrow - you better take cover

If you are walking to the bookies and see a cat - gtf out of there mate

That's one place I won't be walking to, mac.

In Eastbourne we had thousands of starlings coming in every evening doing their aerobatics before roosting on the pier. After the pier went on fire they never came back. Probably went to join their cousins in Brighton.
We have big communal garden at our flats and don't see many birds in now it at apart from a few doves and a couple of magpies.  There is a big bush on the car park side where I regularly used to see a black bird emerge. At one time he had a mate but she has not been there for years now,  A few weeks ago a cat came out from under the bush and since then no sign of the bird. There is also a wren in residence in another bush that we occasionally see.
Very different from when we had a house in Surrey with quite a big garden and had several types nesting as well as daily visitors including two woodpeckers. We used to regularly put out food on a Sunday morning that starlings impatiently waited for. They loved cut up bacon rind.

Massive starling population suddenly become GAY.........bent and move to Brighton!!!!

Sorry oldgit,just could not resist...........would explain declining population though?

Glentoby, that could well be the reason as they roost in places like that they may not nest in pairs :-) A lot come to Britain for the winter.

I get you oldgit,when i lived in Colchester we used to have a black bird who liked bacon rind,married to a corporal from 47 light rgt,had a bush so rumour had it.

Their 2ic was Capt J Hodges,rode Ten UP.

Good one :-)

Murmuration Oldgit - that is what the spectacular flying display by Starlings is called.

A lot of people don`t appreciate Starlings but they are very clever birds and have beautiful plumage if one looks closely.

Loss of their natural habitat, as someone said earlier, is the main reason certain birds are disappearing from certain areas. Up until the late 70s, there were hundreds of Linnets around here but I haven`t seen one in nearly 40 years. One of my favourites. Anybody see them about?

Loss of their natural habitat, as someone said earlier, is the main reason certain birds are disappearing from certain areas. Up until the late 70s, there were hundreds of Linnets around here but I haven`t seen one in nearly 40 years. One of my favourites. Anybody see them about?

Used to be lots of Coal Tits about here too but I haven`t seen one since the Pit closed.

mac the only place I've seen Linnets is outside Bamburgh Castle in fact the first time I'd seen one was there in 2017,absolutely zero up and down the Tyne and definitely non in Urban areas.

Still see the odd Coal Tit,the Starlings I see vary in their plumage so much so a couple of years ago couldn't identify one as it was nearly all Brown speckles and hadn't realised they could be,was alone as well on top of a wire which helped the confusion as they are usually in clusters in the garden.

Lots of Linnets but you need to know the right habitats. Hills and heather moors are their favourite breeding areas but in winter they move to coasts and to low moorlands such as the Somerset Levels. They rarely come to garden feeders.

Mightymac- one of the seriously declines think they 70% down in last 40 years Redpoll another 90% down

I’m in Nth East London

I put a 9” earthenware dish outside the back door, at different times of the day, filled with cheap bird seed, suet pellets, and mealworms. Also the odd slice of bread.

Most of the time there are 20 to 30 Sparrows feeding at once including young being fed.

I sho the pidgeons away as they would eat it all.

wood pigeons are a real pain for cleaning up all the food. we have fairly tame robin who is totally recognisable as he/she is very battle scarred. also have a thrush every day in the winter but rarely seen in the summer and blackbirds are always in residence on the patio including young. not in our garden but in close-by playing fields there are now plenty of crows/jackdaw..with so many new houses in surrey think theyve lost their natural habitat

From the Guardian.
A grassroots uprising is forcing builders and councils to remove netting over trees and hedgerows installed to prevent birds nesting and hindering their developments.

Environmentalists have condemned the practice and say it has exploded in scale this spring. The use of netting to prevent birds nesting in hedgerows and trees allows developers to get around the law that prevents the removal and damage of birds nests, and avoid delays to development caused by the nesting season.

The apparent rise in the use of netting this year has been partly fuelled – experts say – by a 78% increase in housebuilding over the last five years as developers respond to government pressure to build homes as quickly as possible.

But the sight of trees and hedges covered in netting has sparked protests and direct action across the country, with campaigners filming birds and mammals trapped within netting and reporting offences to the police.

no point in telling plod. they are more interested in policing er..twitter.

unless its a blackbird, then they might show up. any robin will be ignored.

A few things that I have noted this year,
Fewer starlings
Increased number of magpies and jays
The late arrival and fewer numbers this year of swift and swallows
The increase in numbers of buzzards along the m6/56 corridor and m6/62 towards Liverpool.
Saw my first ever red kite a few weeks ago near Chester, maybe the rspb are reintroducing them.

My sister lives in Aylesbury and any leftover food she throws out into her large garden, I have counted over 20 kites cruising around before some of them descending on the food.

They have been on the increase around Hertfordshire over the last 5 years and quite often see them way up in the sky.

Denzil, young starlings are brown with speckles and develop there colourful plumage when they moult in the Autumn. The base of the male`s yellow beak is blue and the female pink.

Anyone interested in sea birds and going to Musselburgh should go along the shore there for an abundance of different sea birds all year round. There can be up to 20,000 oyster catchers in residence along with other types and frequent migrant visitors.
When arriving the Oyster catchers come in continuous groups of about 250 in wave after wave.   

https://www.birdguides.com/sites/europe/britain-ireland/britain/scotland/lothian/musselburgh-lagoons/

Best place we went to in Scotland was difficult to get to Fair Isle. We went one May and stayed in the Bird Observatory ( recently burnt down but may have been rebuilt )
Brilliant for Puffins as well as cliffs loaded with all types of sea birds and unlike the Isle of May you could wander around close to their burrows while they socialised and watch parents flying back with their mouthfuls of sand eels but often mugged of their catch by Artic Scuas and Gulls. Although we kept well away from the Scua’s ground nesting area they still attack anyone in sight. We kept umbrellas up when they were around. We were warned by the pilot of the Islander that he often has to take prompt action to avoid them as they try to attack the plane and he had to several times on the flight back. The team at the observatory would dash round the island picking guests up when any migrating rarity put in an appearance.
They have Heligoland nets set up that birds fly into and are taken to be ringed and recorded.   
It is also a good place for Sea Otters and a French TV were filming when we were there.

We went to Grenada not long after they had a massive hurricane (around 2005) and there was not a bird around. They had evidently sensed the hurricane and departed.
When we moved on to Tobago and Little Tobago that more than made up for it