Birds of prey attack Oxfordshire students

[corydoras]

It's the reason that most small birds have large broods...........

 

..................and it's a drop in the ocean compared to the number killed by domestic cats. (over 25 million per annum in the UK)

And most of them probably wouldn't have made it through the next winter anyhow.

[Steve Walker]

The RSPB says that songbird numbers are "determined by a combination of the abundance and availability of different food resources and availability of suitable breeding habitat", rather than by predation - that the predators are eating a "doomed surplus" which is an inevitable consequence of songbird breeding strategies.

[gozzer]

Thanks again chaps, I assume it was one of our local sparrowhawks then. The feathers were only scattered over an area of about 7ft dia, and no trail leading away.

 

I was hoping that we might have something bigger, (maybe big enough to make a small dent in the local cat population).

 

 

John.

[Tony U]

The last Cuckoo I heard was at Wingham a few weeks ago, there again with the large numbers of Reed and Sedge Warblers at the venue it is hardly surprising that Cuckoos are there.

[poledark]

Cuckoo arrived on 6th April this year...very early, usually about the 18th. Still does his rounds every day at Chartham/Thannington.

 

Re the absense of the Sparrow hawks in my little area, I strongly suspect that they may have starved to death in the cold snap earlier in the year. They probably exhausted/severely reduced the supply of prey during the previous few months. All my neighbors had noticed a severe drop in the small bird population, including (quite noticeably) the collared doves.

 

Natural balance at work?

 

Den

[Worms]

Cuckoo arrived on 6th April this year...very early, usually about the 18th. Still does his rounds every day at Chartham/Thannington.

 

Re the absense of the Sparrow hawks in my little area, I strongly suspect that they may have starved to death in the cold snap earlier in the year. They probably exhausted/severely reduced the supply of prey during the previous few months. All my neighbors had noticed a severe drop in the small bird population, including (quite noticeably) the collared doves.

 

Natural balance at work?

 

Den

It's actually the other way round Den. As the small bird population drops because of weather conditions then so does the predator population....just as dramatically. Small birds that may have two or even three broods during a year will rebuild their numbers much quicker than a raptor that may have only one brood. The success of that brood will rely on the number of prey species available. It's a self limiting survival factor covered by the quaintly named Lotka-Volterra predator/prey relationship.......sounds a bit scientific but it works for just about all predators on the planet except Humans!

 

Predators rely on their prey to a greater extent than the prey are at risk from the predators.

[chesters1]

I expect the cats are responsible for eating all the cuckoos?

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/13559202

 

saw the same on the bbc "britain has lost %xx of its cuckoos" err excuse me its not our cuckoos they are visitors and perhaps the problem is with the numbers reduced coming here thus outside our control

as for red kites we did ok without them shoot them all ,the rspb forget the greater the number of preds the greater number of small birds some eat ,if you swing towards preds as has happened ovber the last decade the more food they eat including our "garden" birds .

generally there's a finite balance (rabbits and foxes) but its far more complicated in birds ,dwindling habitat for small ones (too tidy gardens) and a huge area (road and rail verges) where preds can nest undisturbed where man rarely ventures unlike the past.

then theres the problem with birds that used to be shot country wide (the crow family) but now are free to multiply and along with squirrels actively seek out nests to feed from.

i spotted 20 magpies in the field in one go last year they are not all eating rice crispies at nesting time i'm sure

man is involved and most probably greatly ,is feeding wild birds doing more harm than good ? are babies having whole sun flower seeds or peanuts poked down their necks because wrongly the parents have associated this food with "natural food" which ofcourse at nesting time is rare naturally so live food is (the natural stuff and probably easier to digest?) is ignored ,could our kindness be the reason? i stop feeding the birds from spring to autumn just in case.

could not letting the weak die in the winter (by feeding them) reduce the amount of living food available to the hardier ones thus breed a weaker brood of birds the following spring overall

Edited June 8, 2011 by chesters1

[DavyR]

as for red kites we did ok without them shoot them all ,the rspb forget the greater the number of preds the greater number of small birds some eat ,if you swing towards preds as has happened ovber the last decade the more food they eat including our "garden" birds .

 

Red kites are largely scavengers of carrion - and much of the live prey they go for consists of rodents. They will sometimes take live birds, but it's not that common. There's also been a huge increase in the number of buzzards over the last 20 years and they occupy a similar ecological niche. Neither species is going to have any impact on the number of garden birds.

[chesters1]

Red kites are largely scavengers of carrion - and much of the live prey they go for consists of rodents. They will sometimes take live birds, but it's not that common. There's also been a huge increase in the number of buzzards over the last 20 years and they occupy a similar ecological niche. Neither species is going to have any impact on the number of garden birds.

i didnt say kites were eating our birds but if theres less carrion available the ones that eat both is more likely to catch their own ,good job for cars though at least the carrion head count is high not for the hedgehog lovers though you cant please everyone

as i say theres a finite balance anything and everything effects it even red kites somewhere down the line.as i said though regarding red kites shoot them we did alright without them and no doubt somewhere or other the carrion they eat effects garden birds ,perhaps hungry magpies who like a bit of carrion themselves will try a little harder to catch living "carrion" including garden birds ,magpies are clever i have witnessed them ambushing and actively killing rabbits so birds are easy meat.

not easy to accomplish because the fulcrum is man itself so there can never be a natural balance concerning nature.

remember money is made from birds of all kinds ,some will blame vanishing hedge rows but they were rare until the enclosure acts so thats an excuse ,some will blame forest removal but all birds do not live in forests etc etc the rspb and other charities make a great deal of money out of the decline of birds (or the frenzy to artificial over populate types of selected birds) its in their interest to make it as difficult as possible to put themselves out of a job.

IE my mrs hangs on every word what the dentist says whilst i do the minimum ,my mrs has far more work done in her mouth than mine ,perfect teeth no need for dentists

england is totally unnatural and it changed to more or less what we see now in the bronze age visually so habitat isnt so much of an issue if it was directly habitat related they would have died out in the bronze age yes we now have houses but their gardens are far more poulated with food than the scrub that was there before them i'm sure and birds now actively seek our houses as living and feeding places so small bird wise i guess the harm is small,man is involved but in many ways we know the harm DDT did and i have no doubt somewhere down the line the big chemical makers are up to their old tricks again but far more secretively.

IE some plants have herbicide "destroying" genes which makes them immune to roundup (for example) whilst this is good for the farmer the plants that lived in the fields now are totally removed perhaps plants birds fed from ,its not down to big things but lots of little ones all remediable i'm sure with thought.

the farmers do their bit for wildlife but its the monsanto's of the earth who dont care a fig but for profit who do the harm

if you think about the thousands of tons of food we put out for small birds i'm sure its far more than as if we didnt and birds had to forage for their own on the same spot ,its not black and white unfortunately ,its not food or perhaps habitat related so theres another reason or reasons

Edited June 8, 2011 by chesters1

[Worms]

I know you're our resident contrarian Chesters but even you've excelled yourself with that pile of tosh