Bird massacre

Fri 20 Jun, 08:19

Here Malcolm

Thu 19 Jun, 16:51 (last edited on Thu 19 Jun, 16:52)

Kitty Collars https://www.kittycollars.co.uk/ are recommended, as they break before strangling your cat.

You need a large supply, though, as most cats learn how to break them off pretty quickly!

Thu 19 Jun, 13:54 (last edited on Thu 19 Jun, 13:56)

Does anyone have an address/source for non-strangulation collars to acquire Bird saving "Scrunchies" with elastic/breaking-point collars etc? For fitting upon  murderous Felines? 

Then, of course there being a proverbial diptera in ointment problem -  one has to persuade the locals to fit such deterrents to their pets ...

We're under siege this summer from cats laying ambush by our pond in the front "garden". That "garden" is being left largely to its own devices as a "mini suburban Nature Reserve", un-mown for wildflowers to go to seed, and for bee and butterfly food, and so forth.

Though it's getting rather overgrown and needs thinning, and some non-natives purged, and the edge of the pond dug out into a shallow "marshy" edge, shelving on one side- though the pond does have stones piled up so any small creature falling in can clamber out.

We could do with advice from someone with knowledge to shape such a mini environment surrounded by tall trees and hedges ...

Fri 13 Jun, 08:59

Helen- absolutely right, these are specially designed for cats and they slide over your cats collar. They are called scrunchies because of the sound they make.

Wed 11 Jun, 13:58

Please never ever use an actual scrunchie headband on your cat. The injuries that can happen to cats when they have collars that can't be released are pretty gruesome. From Katie's post it sounds like you can get collars that look like them though - absolutely fine as long as they are quick-release.

Wed 11 Jun, 10:31

Alice and Harriet I would say are bang on as this 99% looks like a raptor kill, probably a sparrow hawk, which are ubiquitous. If you watch a sparrow hawk having a meal they are quite fastidious with the plucking aspect. They particularly like bird tables and feeders and the ground bait provided.

Wed 11 Jun, 10:07

We have multiple stray/marauding cats here at Wychwood House. It was suggested by one owner to use a water pistol. I rarely hit a cat but it proves effective. Just the sight of me emerging from the patio doors pistol in hand and they turn tail. 

 I had a more exciting encounter with Frelimo in Mozambique once when my son 6yrs old produced his water pistol - but that as they say is another story.

Tue 10 Jun, 18:34

I forgot to mention: a pretty reliable indicator of a Sparrowhawk having dined upon a bird is a rather neatly laid out circle of feathers around a small clear centre.

Tue 10 Jun, 18:29

Think there was a mention on this Town Forum some weeks ago about what were the most effective things to attach to Cats that would best alert Birds to the’’sports hunters’’.

Big Bright Multicoloured “Scrunchie” type Headbands which women and girls wear to keep their hair out of the way were found to be the most effective for alerting birds.

Birds Colour Vision is superior to ours (and do they have 4 colour receptors?) and the very large bright uneven contours of the band around the Cat’s head and eyes makes them stand out whilst stalking or - most importantly- while lying in ambush.

Bells are certainly effective. But the cat has to move to make the bell make noise and being primarily Ambush Predators, it’s too late by then all too often. So no harm in putting both a good tinkling Bell and a large and colourful Scrunchie on The Predator.

Alas discharge of projectile weapons in built up areas is frowned upon in the UK it seems.

Tue 10 Jun, 15:03

The birds can fight back.   Last spring my tuxedo cat Casey (he and Roo have never brought a bird home) was exploring the bushes and trees nearby; I knew that there was a nest of blackbirds high in one of the trees, but before I could call him back he appeared at great pace with two blackbirds chasing him.   The birds reminded me of Cagney and Lacey about to open a room: one standing high, one crouching low, both primed for immediate action, and Casey looked like the bouncing bomb in the Dam Busters - touching the ground about three times in fifteen yards.   The birds received a round of applause from the onlookers.  

Tue 10 Jun, 12:39

Cats eat much of what they catch. My last cat hunted mice and nothing else, and ate almost all of them. Many birds kill other birds over territory, mates and access to food. Sibling chicks can kill each other in the next. Robins are one of the most aggressive species in the UK, according to this article "An estimated 10% of all adult male robin deaths and 3% of female deaths are caused by other robins attacking them".

https://www.birdspot.co.uk/bird-brain/do-robins-fight-to-the-death

They are not killing each other for food...it's their natural behaviour. So, there needs to be a balance between avoiding unnecessary predation and allowing all species equally to exhibit their normal behaviour, including cats.

Tue 10 Jun, 12:36

I suppose then, the answer is no.  

Yes, I think about the rearing of 35-40 million game birds to shoot, not for the pot but for the sport.  They get dumped in pits apparently.  

Tue 10 Jun, 12:05

I agree with Katie. Have you thought about all the wildlife killed on our roads each year which includes birds, or all the birds killed during fox hunting and pheasant shoots?

Tue 10 Jun, 10:55

Sparrow hawks kill to eat.  Cats kill to play at hunting.  That's the logic.  Have you not watched them play with prey moving its wriggling body from claw to claw until hopefully, it dies of fright.  It doesn't eat prey, it eats cat food. It is a pet.  I too try to provide the right habitat, I don't feed the birds because they need to have a natural survival population level,  I don't put down slug pellets, I try to provide a sheltered habitat, etc. etc.  

On 25th May over breakfast, my Merlin recorded the bird song of Goldcrest, Chiffchaff, Rook, Jackdaw, Swift, Crow, House Sparrow, Wood-Pigeon, Robin, Wren and Blackbird.  It didn't pick up the Song Thrush a bit further away.   Of those, the House Sparrow and Song Thrush are on the Red Endangered list.  My red list is old and bird populations continue to decline.  We can all do our bit to help them recover and a good start would be to keep your cat indoors and to control their outdoor excursions.  Just like you would do for other pets.  In France I have often seen owners wearing the same colours as their cats walking morning & evening with the cat on a lead.  The cat seems quite happy as long as it's fed.

Tue 10 Jun, 08:31

I understand the points that are being made here about cats killing birds and that we should try to reduce this as much as possible, but there is a lack of logic to say it's no problem if a sparrowhawk kills a bird. Why is it OK for a bird to kill another bird but if a cat does it, it's a killer cat? If you're OK with birds of prey being encouraged to breed and survive, then why not cats. Not all cats attack birds, most don't, they are not the main threat to the UK bird population and the RSPB data is clear as has already been pointed out. If you sit in the nature reserve for a couple of hours, you can see the crows viciously attacking pigeons and doves daily. Should they be kept indoors too?

Tue 10 Jun, 07:41 (last edited on Tue 10 Jun, 07:45)

TBH I doubt there'd much issue with the bird population in Charlbury if people actually thought about what birds wanted. I've said before birds like Victorian style shrubberies, not everything neatly trimmed level with a 6' or lower fence and a neatly manicured handkerchief of grass with a feeder in the middle, or a garden room with paving and plastic grass. 

For those wondering my garden is visited by at least 4 cats and I have seen goldfinch, blackbird, thrushe, sparrow, blackcap, greenfinch, sparrowhawk, blue tit, great tit, coal tit in the past week. I don't feed the birds because they really need to be able to find their own food and feeding them makes them dependent on me (what happens to them if I'm ill; my mother's population of 70 house sparrows crashed when she went into the carehome because they don't move to new territory)

And maybe people could ask what's happened to kestrels now we have so many red kites?

Mon 9 Jun, 23:23

Cat owners tell us to buy gadgets, as if it’s our fault that their cats foul our gardens and kill precious and loved wild birds. I think I’ll invent a gadget or two…… 

Mon 9 Jun, 20:52

A pet is not part of the nature cycle.  There are 11 million cats in the UK.  They only have to kill 5 birds a year each to kill 55 million birds.   Bird breeding  populations continue to fall in the UK and it is not natural.  If 11 million cats were left to fend for themselves, the population size that nature would support would be far lower and then I might accept the argument that a death toll of birds was a part of nature.  And it's not up to the rest of us to buy gadgets to protect nature against uncontrolled pets.  Please help save the bird population of Charlbury.   

Mon 9 Jun, 19:31

Its sad when birds get killed in your garden, but cats do not affect the size of the bird population - this is according to the RSPB. Animals killing each other is just nature,  and if none were killed by cats more would starve to death in the winter. As the main limiting factor on the population is food and habitat.  You can get a cat deterrent that sprays water if you don’t want it happening in your garden.

Mon 9 Jun, 17:05

Kittens are now neutered at a much younger age and there is no reason this can't be done before they are old enough to go outside.  Keeping cats in at dusk and dawn and playing games that stimulate their hunting instincts can also help. Our kitten won't wear a bell, but you can also get crinkly collars that look like scrunchies as an alternative. I don't think keeping them in doors is umiversal in Europe, I know many in Italy that come and go freely.

Mon 9 Jun, 09:31

No Alice. It is not acceptable.  

Mon 9 Jun, 08:21

Looking at studies made of numbers of prey animals killed by cats annually in the UK suggests that 275 million prey animals including 55 million birds are killed each year by cats.  Is that acceptable?

I can see that killer black cat is on the loose again stalking in my neighbour's garden.  I would again respectively ask that cats be kept indoors at the very least in the spring when the adult birds are pecking on the ground for a good diet to feed their chicks.  By killing adult birds they kill the young in the nest.  I agree with Stephen - domestic cats on mainland Europe are kept indoors all the year round.

Sun 8 Jun, 07:54 (last edited on Sun 8 Jun, 08:30)

We returned from a few days away to discover two dead mature blue tits on the patio that had been nesting in the front garden. We normally manage to chase away a neighbour’s predatory cat when we hear bird distress calls, but we were not around. What the cat does is in its DNA, but can people think twice about acquiring a sweet kitten? Unless it is kept inside at all times, as is the case with domestic cats in Europe, over its lifetime it will continue to take birds, mice, voles and even bats if they locate a roost. If you have a cat, and have not done so already, please get it neutered.

Tue 3 Jun, 23:12

I have an aviary and have had problems with a cat and a fox - one of which managed to scratch or bite a budgie through the mesh. (Happy ending - the budgie survived!) I got one of these cat scarers and haven't had a problem since 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B004SGC75S/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_plhdr=t&aaxitk=3a1223a29285601752ac1cf4e0305098&hsa_cr_id=6366820890802&qid=1748988610&sr=1-1-e0fa1fdd-d857-4087-adda-5bd576b25987&ref_=sbx_be_s_sparkle_mcd_asin_0_img&pd_rd_w=djxOR&content-id=amzn1.sym.a18126b6-9995-4982-ac44-f6ce57aa9bed%3Aamzn1.sym.a18126b6-9995-4982-ac44-f6ce57aa9bed&pf_rd_p=a18126b6-9995-4982-ac44-f6ce57aa9bed&pf_rd_r=AYYVJZCCFMMJTB5BHRRF&pd_rd_wg=Hi98z&pd_rd_r=1e2bfe89-220f-4232-af74-e707dcaec715&th=1

Sun 1 Jun, 16:33

I too have watched a black cat launch itself at a blackbird in our back garden.  Fortunately I raised the alarm in time and the blackbird got out of the way.  I've also chased a black and white cat away on account of hearing a robin alert call and later found the corpse of a newly fledged robin.

Whilst a bell might help I would be really grateful if you would keep your cats indoors in the spring at least.  As Andrew says, it's really upsetting.

I've watched a sparrow hawk in the back garden eating a pigeon.  It left most of the pigeon behind.  They are messy eaters but I don't begrudge them a pigeon.

Sun 1 Jun, 15:28

Foxes? 

Sun 1 Jun, 14:06

The cat was seen attacking the previous pigeon and is regularly seen hiding in the bushes at the base of the bird feeder, waiting to pounce on the ground feeders. I would love to see a sparrow hawk. 

The remains of this attack were found under a bush, not what a sparrow hawk would do. Hopefully a bell on the cat would help.

Sun 1 Jun, 11:38

TBH that looks like a sparrowhawk. They pluck their prey, cats don't to that extent. So unless you have definitely seen the cat catching a bird, you're just looking at natural predation. And I assume you don't want the sparrowhawk poisoned for killing?

Sun 1 Jun, 10:55

Looks like pigeons.

Sat 31 May, 17:30

Please help save the bird population of Charlbury. If you own an all black cat, or know who does, please ask them to put a bell around its neck. 3 birds have been destroyed in my back garden in the last 2 weeks. Thanks for any help, it’s very upsetting.