Feeding the Birds… and Rats

Seagulls and Rats

A little while ago we started trying to feed the birds on the garden. We’re not really greatly into birds to be honest, but we both generally like nature and animals and figured it was something we could easily do that would help animals. We’re also adding a few bug houses and after some more work with a hammer drill we’ll also allow entry for hedgehogs too!

So, we brought three bird feeders that were basically a glass flower on a stick that you put in the lawn and then fill with bird seed. There were minimally successful, so we did get birds, but not quite the pretty little robins etc we were hoping for. We got seagulls, pigeons, magpies and other large birds all over the place! So, it’s like we got all the big bully kids and school and the geeky kids didn’t get a look in!

We’ve had a few incidents where we thought I’d have to phone someone to rescue a young seagull from the garden to be honest, but so far they’ve all managed to make their escape.

But then we got other wildlife too, which to be honest generally we don’t mind, and B has even said before she’d thought about getting one as a pet. Yes, we got rats, quite a few rats. It wasn’t actually our food that brought them into the garden, I’ve seen them there before. When we took the old asbestos roof off of our kitchen it spent quite a few months leaned against the fence in the garden when I tried to get quotes lower than 1 Arm + 1 Leg to actually get shot of it! When I did finally find a new home for it rats had built a mound behind them and had made themselves quite at home before we even thought about feeding birds. However, they were now enjoying themselves eating the feed that had fallen on the floor, and more impressively, climbing up on the bird feeders themselves to eat it directly! Yes, mission impossible music does start in my head when I see them climbing up there!

We’ve seen some impressive fight scenes too between the rats, and the larger birds too. Watching seagulls and rats chasing each other around the garden can be quite entertaining to be honest. We’ve never really sure who is “winning”, but both sides are certainly up for the fight!

Neither B nor I would feel comfortable killing them in any way, they’ve got just as much right to exist as anything else and we back onto a massive field and open land, so there are likely 100s of them around anyway. However, once we’d seen a fair few at once we figured we should up our game a bit to try and dissuade them a bit from coming into the garden. So, for Christmas we asked for a large flat bird table, and we also brought a large iron hanger for bird feeders to keep everything up off the floor.

We have now had some little robins, and various types of tit which has been quite nice. (Yes, I’m 37 and saying the word tit makes me grin, blame society!) However, it would seem that our rats really are well trained as they made quick work of climbing to the top of both and sit there munching away as if it was put there for them!

We’re currently looking into inverted domes and garlic based things to try and put then off slightly. When looking things up online we do see things like “Oh, get a dog, especially any type if terrier”. It would seem that R isn’t quite up to the challenge and to be honest doesn’t even seem to realise they are scurrying around behind her when she is out there!

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