Good Samaritan

pretty much yes, and cats weren't responsible for the UK wolf and bear populations reducing either. Most is down to humans and farming and perhaps now global warming or climate change whatever you want to call it.

That;s why most birds have more than 2 off-spring per year and why spiders lay more than 2 eggs too. Animals each and kill each other it;s been going on since the beginning of time.

and that has always been the case, do you watch springwatch and the like. They have cameras out and I;ve yet to see a cat kill a bird, plenty of other birds killing birds, and the rise of pinemartins have killed birds. Most dometsic cats have bells on their collars, sure not all, and some will kill a bird or two but no where near the numbers you seem think.

The major reason for the decline in most bird populations is habite reduction, just like most animal species ask Attenbough.

How many chickens are being killed by McD or KFC per week ? But I guess yuo don;t count them as birds.

and it's not like mice & rats can have a harmful effect on humans is it.

I can because there's no other option. We got rid of dog licenses why ? Dogs can and do kill humans and they'll kill other animals too.

Yes mostly but perhaps you should show all thesze studies. You've yet to show one, even I found one in the USA and that one wasn't blamming domestic cats but feral ones.

I've donated and signed for the need to have cats microchipped. Next doors cat has had 3 sets of kittens I think it's digusting to allow such a thing but what can I do about it, if I complain I'll be a racist !. I said opnce you should get your cat nutered but I was told it was cruel and against nature. if I could prove they were selling them I'd report them to someone.

Just like they have for 1000s of years yes.

and are better at hidding.

Who come the grey squirrel population hasn't been decimated by cats ? Surely wvery cat must kill quite a few a week if not dozens.

and it;s not like mice breed fast enough to recover from cats is it. Mice are gettign quite a raratiy aren't they. In a few years we'll only see them in specialist zoos.

My cat is an indoor cat, a friend that has 3 cats will only let them out at certain times, not early in the mornings. And I'm betting you've eaten more birds than all her cats have.

So, it's called nature, humans are a far bigger and more destructive influence. But some humans put up birdboxes and the like to help birds.

Humans are killing animals for fun. Humans are destroying animal habitates including bird habitates for profit, is that betetr or worse than for fuhn and humans collect eggs for fun and profit.

but there is a reason to perfect hunting skills. A dog will kill a fox or a rabbit or sheep. A wild bird will killand eat an insect that might be a butterfly or something you like the look of.

Well, there have been many cases where someone living alone has died and the resident cat, unable to get out has dined on the body, whereas a dog in similar circumtances would just patiently wait by the body to be fed.

everyone ?.

My cat didn't do that she was left alone in the house with her owners dead body for 3 days and then the police broke in.

But a dog might kill you before you were dead.

In message snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk>, "Dave Plowman (News)" snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk> writes

Or plastic soffits.

That's the big one for many suburban and urban birds.

When I bought my house it had fully enclosed (other than a small air gap) soffits, my parents' house has no fascia or soffits at all and is open around the roof edges.

The difference was amazing. At my parents' I used to be kept awake for hours at night as birds shuffled and scratched around in the eaves and I was woken by the same at dawn. In my house there is no disturbance.

More importantly, they often had birds nesting directly over the doorways, with the resulting mess on the steps being a slip hazard.

Having experienced both, I can fully understand why people would prefer enclosed soffits, even without the benefits of protecting the roof structure from the elements.

SteveW

That's a factor overall but it's not thought to explain the loss of sparrows from both central London and from the centres of other European cities. So there's still a £5,000 prize on offer from The Independent:

Hmm. I skimmed that. Slightly surprised they are only considering 20 years.

In the case of London, I would think the nesting opportunities have totally disappeared: with the re-building from WW2 and general slum re-development together with building regulation looking for air tight dwellings!

The 20 or so pairs living here are on short notice as the barn they have occupied is being re-developed for housing.

Food may also be an issue as urban grassland is rarely allowed to seed forcing the flighted chicks to look elsewhere.

Been watching a re-run of New Tricks?

Yes - never had a decent explanation. And given how quickly they vanished, I'd have expected to see lots of bodies lying around.

When working as a sound recordist on location, I missed their constant chirping greatly - it used to mask other less pleasant noises.

I took photos of the public address system in York Minster and some interesting overhead power wires in Pickering :-)

Owain

Gurney Stoves - AFAIK all the working ones now use gas but a treat when on full blast in Hereford Cathedral on a cold day

There are a number of blogs devoted to manhole and coal hole covers; and the hobby goes back 1869 when a medical student Shephard Taylor wrote a book on the subject "Opercula"

There's been a bit of resurgence of interest in the hobby of late, if not in the man-holes themselves, as Jeremy Corbyn is reputedly a bit of an enthusiast.

michael adams

...

My cat is a fat bastard that cannot jump a 5ft fence. I keep him in when the fledglings are leaving the nests in my hedges or he would kill them.

And too fat to catch a healthy bird.

The last cat once brought a live budgie in and I know that one other poster had a cat fetch in a live woodpecker.

Yeah, its Adam's.

I have plastic soffits but I put some sparrow boxes up and we still have lots of sparrows.

Our previous cat brought one dead bird and one live one, plus a few mice during his entire lifetime. He did however bring back half a buttered barm-cake and steal the next-door neighbours chicken breast that she was planning to have for tea (fortunately she was a cat lover, which was why he was in her house).

SteveW

I though it had been established that it was a plasmodium pararasite (same family as malaria) that was hitting the sparrow population?

AJH