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Kenn
12-May-06, 00:55
WAHHHH this morning there was uproar in the garden. I peered out to see 2 Pied Crows and 1 Crow in the Cyprus at the corner of of my property.
I just hope that the blackbirds that are nesting there have managed to defend their eggs from the would be robbers.
I will be sighting different birds to those of you resident in Caithness but would be interested to hear what predates the nests on your properties.

Seabird
13-May-06, 11:40
When i lived in an area where Magpie were common, i found them to be a very intellgent bird, that i loved to watch.
Most people only see the black and white, but they have fantastic blue and green colours also.
When they hunt they always start at the top of a shrub or tree and work their way down, very little chance that a nesting bird could survive.
When their young are about to fledge Magpie become very protective of the surrounding area.
I've seen one swoop on a cat that was taken by surprise and fell sideways off an 8 foot wall.

I've watched the Great Skua hunt.
Now that bird is ruthless, it will rob other bird of their food and kill them to get it.
Where you see Gannets in flight or feeding the Skua is not far away.
They will chase, grab the wing of a Gannet and both will crash into the sea.
If the Gannet does not drop the food then it will kill it.
There is a great Photo at Keith Parks gallery (J O'Groats)of a Skua attacking and killing a gull on the water.
Bird society is so like human society, you always have thoes who rather steal or kill to get what they want rather than work.

kas
14-May-06, 21:59
We have a kesrel that hunts at the front of our house and have had the odd visit from the sparrowhawk.

We also caught glimpse of a weasle, once running out the garden. There is also my cat but she seems to prefer rodents to the birds, thank goodness.

Great skuas are unbelievable to watch. We see them from the house, last week I watched one drown a young Great Black-backed gull. The gull was bigger than the skua. One time it took half an hour for the skua to drown a herring gull, due to the gull fighting back and that was after a 10 min chase. I prefer it when they follow the boats and srounge food.

doyle
15-May-06, 22:27
We had blackies nest in one of our bushes at the bottom of the garden. Unfortunately she made it too visible as even I could see there were 4 eggs she had laid. I was so excited watching them go back and fore (from our porch), building the nest and then laying the eggs - couldn't wait for them to hatch! I even fenced off the bottom of the garden so the dogs would not disturb them. Went out for the day last Friday and when we came back there seemed to be no sign of them so I went to investigate - the eggs were gone and the nest was lying at the bottom of the bush! I was gutted. I dont think it was cats as I never see cats in the garden - we have hoody crows in the woods on the other side of the fence and I am convinced it was them - evil creatures! We also have a songthrush nest in the hedge but she seems to have abandoned it for some reason.