Bird numbers

[PLUMPUDDING]

I've always been sceptical about the RSPB's stance on magpies.

They've taken every egg and chick that the Song Thrushes have had in my garden for several years running until they stopped nesting here at all. This year is the first for ages that the thrushes have come back, and their nest does seem to be in a less accessible part of the hedge this time, so fingers crossed.

[Johnboy]

Hi Plumpudding,
I have pursued a policy of shooting any Magpie that dares to come into range and at present their numbers are well under control and the breeding of songbirds is the largest I have known in over 30 years.
I have a part of the old nursery that has become really overgrown due entirely to my neglect but it is an absolute haven for nesting birds. I have yet to attempt a count but will leave in a little longer before doing so.
The enormous apple tree in my garden, which has been a favourite day roost for Buzzards suffered a lot of damage in the recent high winds we had and I fear that it may well have to be felled. It is covered in Ivy because although I cut every scrap of Ivy around the tree from 4ft to the ground the tree is hollow and the Ivy is fed from within the tree and this is one of the reasons for the damage. If I have to fell it there is quite a large Field Maple behind it and I am hoping that will become the new day roost for the Buzzards.
For the very first time I have a pair of Ravens nesting on the plot. They used to nest in the trees on the embankments of the old Ancient British Fort and later Roman Camp behind the plot but English Heritage, in their wisdom, had all the trees felled on the embankment and left the Ravens nowhere to nest and there were a dozen or so pairs which dispersed and now one pair have returned!
JB.

[snooky]

Evening J.B.
You are not wrong about there not being many songbirds on our site which is a shame because the brambles and the hedging around the site make a good habitat for them and with 300 plus allotments there would be good feeding for them too.Feral and domestic cats are also a problem along with foxes,which some plot-holders feed,even when asked not to.
Only joking about the shotgun J.B. guns are banned on the site but it is said that a couple of lads do sit in their sheds or cars with a .22 air rifle now and then having a pot at the Wood Pigeons.
The Songbird Survival Trust was the people which you were trying to recall.They are wanting to cull Magpies,Crows and raptors such as Peregrine Falcons,Buzzards and Sparrowhawks.The Magpies and Crows,yes,the raptors,I"m not sure about.
We also have several dozen nesting boxes around the site but they are hardly used.It may be that they are wrongly sited(?)or the problem is that the Magpies etc have taken over the site and are frightening the smaller birds away.

[Johnboy]

Hi Snooky,
I guessed Shotguns would be a no no!
I thank you for the correct name of the trust I was trying to remember.
I do not think for one moment that birds of prey apart from the Sparrow Hawk, Merlin the Hobby who specifically target small birds will make that much difference to song bird populations. However Magpies are an evil bunch and target every nest built in a given area and that area can be very large. Magpies, Jays and Crows are the bane of Game Keepers lives and they keep them down in their locality. There will come a year when the Magpies will disperse from an are like yours because there is insufficient food to feed them then they will move in on another area and begin all over again.
There are Magpie Traps but on a large allotment there would be somebody who would complain at their use and go crying to the committee so it looks like that you are left with them.
JB.

[PLUMPUDDING]

Hi Johnboy, Sorry about your lovely old tree, it sounds to have been a wonderful habitat in it's time.

I was so furious about the magpie taking the chicks that I was very tempted to take a few pot shots at it while it was beating them to death on the house gutters across the road, but as you say that would have been highly illegal and dangerous.

[Johnboy]

Hi Plumpudding,
There are many things that I cannot understand about the RSPB's stance on Magpies but somehow instead of caring for birds in this country they seem to have become a political animal and totally dictatorial.
I am convinced that the culling of Magpies, sufficient to keep nature in check, is surely the way to go.
When the RSPB want to protect such birds as the Avocet and Little Terns they control Black Headed Gulls breeding. They roll the nests.
I have proved, if only to myself, that by checking the numbers of Magpies
the amount of songbirds in my little neck of the woods have increased by an enormous amount.
Yesterday on the plot was the turn of the Goldfinches, Linnets and Redpoll they were flying across the plot all day. The Chiffchaff then came in in quite large numbers and were calling from all over the place.
As you will have realised that I am on a migration route and although most of the birds are British birds they move up and down the country with the seasons and the fine weather seems to have prompted the move northwards for the breeding season. It was quite a remarkable day.
Very soon there will be a day when there will be literally hundreds of Yellow Wagtails and all the Warblers yet to come. When the Willow Warbler, my favourite Warbler, reaches me I know that the Swallows will be about very soon. We still have the occasional sightings of Fieldfare that are dawdling on their way back to Scandinavia.
This is a wonderful time of the year here.
JB.

[glallotments]

We have set up a nest box camera - and are finding it really interesting wtaching a pairs attempts to nest build.