• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

Murderous animals!

T

TrimTheKing

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So on the back of innocent little puppy digging up a rabbit warren and eating 6 (SIX) less than 10 day old bunnies, the cat, who is historically a fantastic ratter among other things, caused a hell of a commotion in the bushes earlier this evening.

I heard the noise and 3 or four birds swooping down into the foliage and making all kinds of racket then saw the feline appear with this chick in her mouth. It was dead by the time she presented it to me so nothing I could do for it unfortunately.

Any idea what kind of bird it was...?





Cheers
Mark
 
Haha, very helpful chaps! ;)

I'm struggling to identify it, what I thought were blue feathers look on second viewing to be the feather coatings starting to break open.

Cheers
Mark
 
Its a blue tit.....we have about 10 tit boxes round the garden. Year before last we're all finishing dinner, the kids spot a fledgling literally about to fly the nest, head poking out the hole. Ahhhh Daddy, look at the little birdie, isn't it cute.....can we have a pet birdie daddy....oh its lovely...ooh go on daddy

BOOM...a magpie swoops down and pulls the blue tit out by the FACE and proceeds to peck out its living eyeballs on the ground right in front of my traumatised children!!
 
Providing food does not stop our younger cat from catching / killing things.
Daisy is a bruiser of a cat, over twice the size of Jones our 20 year old boy, she has caught mice, birds and even a bat.
 
Cheers Rob. Regular occurrence round here magpies killing things. Well, until they realised Maisie the cat is a silent assassin and if she doesn't get them then then plethora of kestrels and kites around here are there to take them out.

Maisie went through a spate of ratting, totalling 8 rats each probably 1/3 the size of her, in 2 weeks. One day I was on a phone call and watched 2 magpies trying to drag a fresh rat corpse away for a couple of mins until a kits flew down and they scarpered. Kite then proceeded to year arty to bits leaving only its head, spine and back legs on my patio! :)

Cheers
Mark
 
In increasing order of pestilence...

Cuckoos
Pigeons
Rats
Magpies
Cats

I heard a cuckoo down in the copse on the neighbouring farmland. Not my land.
The next three get the .22
The last, the hosepipe. But luckily there are very few within 1/2 mile of us.

EDIT: I forgot walkers. They are right at the top :evil:
 
TrimTheKing":d2ii1b4k said:
Why cuckoos Roger? I don't know a lot about them so don't know why they are a pest.

Agree with the rest of the list! :)

Cheers
Mark
Click to expand...

Because they evict the chicks from other species.
 
TrimTheKing":23fxlm2l said:
Ah okay, I knew that I just thought you meant they were pests in some other way.

Cheers
Mark
Click to expand...

No, just that I rather like the smaller birds. Last year I saw a blackbird feeding a cuckoo chick that was larger than the blackbird!
 
If cuckoo's turned out to be American....why would that not surprise me :o
 
There's not enough cuckoos around to be a major problem and numbers are declining in the UK.

Magpies kill to eat but also scavenge carrion and refuse.
I quite like them and are saddened they can be killed like other corvids.

Pigeons do a lot of damage to crops etc and make nice eating

Rats are a pest and carry nasty diseases - I shoot any that stray into my garden.

Cats are a pest to everyone except their owners - I used to have a water rifle for them.

Rod
 
Rob":u0obnduh said:
If cuckoo's turned out to be American....why would that not surprise me :o
Click to expand...

Hey now, don't blame that one on us. We have our own like that (the cowbird), but no cuckoos. I always thought they were German (given the cuckoo clock).

As for magpies, ours eat insects and carrion, not other birds. We had plenty of them in California where I grew up, but I've almost never seen one here in the Midwest.
Pica_nuttalli_Lake_San_Antonio.jpg


Kirk
 
And you swapped California for the Mid-West ? :o :shock:
 
RogerS":20qdyexu said:
And you swapped California for the Mid-West ? :o :shock:
Click to expand...

When Uncle says go, you go. I just never went back. Besides, there's nothing wrong with California that getting rid of 15 million people wouldn't help, and I'm just doing my part.:)

Kirk
 
kirkpoore1":g41893xj said:
RogerS":g41893xj said:
And you swapped California for the Mid-West ? :o :shock:
Click to expand...

When Uncle says go, you go. I just never went back. Besides, there's nothing wrong with California that getting rid of 15 million people wouldn't help, and I'm just doing my part.:)

Kirk
Click to expand...

:D USAAF ?
 
Rod":3otvkcgs said:
Cats are a pest to everyone except their owners - I used to have a water rifle for them.
Click to expand...

Sounds good except for the water part. Was clearing weeds and prepping some ground for sowing grass today, almost finished when had to go inside to help my son with some homework. By the time I came out some bl00dy cat had sh1t on the ground I had prepared, no effort to bury it, dirty, stupid things. I have now decided I am actually gong to start shooting any I see in my garden, if the neighbours have a problem they will have to teach them to sh1t in their own gardens.

I hate them!

Terry.
 
I think if you shoot any of your neighbours cats you will get prosecuted by the Police.
Gun confiscated and fined.
Get a water pistol.

Rod
 
Rod":2mblijnc said:
I think if you shoot any of your neighbours cats you will get prosecuted by the Police.
Gun confiscated and fined.
Get a water pistol.

Rod
Click to expand...

I suspect you are right Rod. But seems a crazy world when I can wake up to find birds dismembered in front of my back door and my garden covered in cat sh1t, yet I can't use some 'pest control'. What's next I get prosecuted for catching a mouse in a trap? And the fact the cats don't catch the mice has not escaped me either!

Terry.
 
Sadly cats are not considered as pests by the authorities.

I've recently treated my lawns with moss and weed killer and so far no sign of cats - perhaps the smell puts them off?

Rod
 
You might be able to catch them with a live trap. Then turn them over to animal control (or whatever is the local equivalent where you live).

Kirk
 
kirkpoore1":39lkjgbk said:
You might be able to catch them with a live trap. Then turn them over to animal control (or whatever is the local equivalent where you live).

Kirk
Click to expand...

I suspect that if I tried such a thing they would be back with the owners in hours. I'm beginning to think the answer may be to give in to my daughter's pleading for a new dog (both ours died in the last 12 months). Or import an American vet, crossbows and all - I understand there is one currently without employment.

Terry.
 
Wizard9999":2rwydwja said:
kirkpoore1":2rwydwja said:
You might be able to catch them with a live trap. Then turn them over to animal control (or whatever is the local equivalent where you live).

Kirk
Click to expand...

I suspect that if I tried such a thing they would be back with the owners in hours. I'm beginning to think the answer may be to give in to my daughter's pleading for a new dog (both ours died in the last 12 months). Or import an American vet, crossbows and all - I understand there is one currently without employment.

Terry.
Click to expand...

Veterinarian or veteran? My sister's the former, and I think she's going over in August or September. She'd use a syringe, not a crossbow.:) I'm the latter, and if you want to pay my ticket I'll come help you out.:)

You could also turn the cat over to animal control--two towns over...

Kirk
 
Kirk said

You could also turn the cat over to animal control--two towns over...


There's a certain amount of cunning in that which rather appeals to me :-)
 
You can't do that with a Basset Hound. There used to be one lived near Evesham and regularly used to go roaming far and wide. Got to the point where the bus driver would pick it up when he saw it on its travels and drop it off nearer to its home.
 
I am looking to get some chickens over the next couple of weeks and have been busy building a super max chicken house and run. I last had chickens and ducks as a teenager and lost the lot to a Fox one sunny August day :!:

Not planning on getting caught out again if possible.

Cheers Peter
 
Peter Sefton":3qkyh1ik said:
I am looking to get some chickens over the next couple of weeks and have been busy building a super max chicken house and run. I last had chickens and ducks as a teenager and lost the lot to a Fox one sunny August day :!:

Not planning on getting caught out again if possible.

Cheers Peter
Click to expand...


Oooh, goodie...free eggs at your next Open Day, then :D ;)
 
RogerS":pvr7odno said:
Peter Sefton":pvr7odno said:
I am looking to get some chickens over the next couple of weeks and have been busy building a super max chicken house and run. I last had chickens and ducks as a teenager and lost the lot to a Fox one sunny August day :!:

Not planning on getting caught out again if possible.

Cheers Peter
Click to expand...


Oooh, goodie...free eggs at your next Open Day, then :D ;)
Click to expand...


Or bacon and egg rolls
 
Peter Sefton":30mna1v7 said:
I am looking to get some chickens over the next couple of weeks and have been busy building a super max chicken house and run. I last had chickens and ducks as a teenager and lost the lot to a Fox one sunny August day :!:

Not planning on getting caught out again if possible.

Cheers Peter
Click to expand...

Would like to see pics of your new coop and run. How many chooks are you getting? We only have room for bantams and have 4 hens at the moment (lost one to neighbours dog last year) and am off to see some more this afternoon, a breed I have not come across before, Bielefelder Bantams.
 
Peter Sefton":3je56l4x said:
RogerS":3je56l4x said:
Peter Sefton":3je56l4x said:
I am looking to get some chickens over the next couple of weeks and have been busy building a super max chicken house and run. I last had chickens and ducks as a teenager and lost the lot to a Fox one sunny August day :!:

Not planning on getting caught out again if possible.

Cheers Peter
Click to expand...


Oooh, goodie...free eggs at your next Open Day, then :D ;)
Click to expand...


Or bacon and egg rolls
Click to expand...

You keep pigs as well?
 
The coop is still work in progress so no pics yet.

We are only looking to get three hens if they are all regular layers that will give us more than enough eggs. We have a great local poultry farm who breed all varieties of chickens so we will go and choose some when ready.

http://www.newlandpoultry.com

No pigs but a few of the local farmers sheep in the field.

Cheers Peter
 
From 4 hens (bantams are reputed to lay less than full sized chickens) we can get 10-12 eggs a week. We bought a couple more yesterday which are probably a bit larger than the bantams but not full sized either. A Maran and a Bielefelder. Will let them loose with the others later today.
 
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