On Sat, 17 Jul 2004 19:57:18 +0200, "john.morgan"
wrote:

Peter wrote in message
.. .
We have noticed that the blackbirds normally that frequent
our garden seem to give it a miss when we have used
metaldhyde in the form of slug pellets or when applied in
liquid form, however small the area or however few the
pellets.

Blackbirds and thrushes will eat the bodies of any slugs you
may have killed and then suffer secondary poisoning. This
may not necessarily kill them in their turn, but they can
become much easier prey for cats and other suburban
predators, like a drunk is much easier to hit with a car
compared to a sober pedestrian.

Eventually other blackbirds will find your garden, and hang
out there until you decide it's time to poison them with a
few more slug corpses.

By contrast, the house sparrows seem to increase in number
when there is metaldehyde about.

If your garden is small and you feed the birds (on something
non-poisonous), the presence of larger Blackbirds might have
acted as a deterrent to Sparrows.

Have you tried catching slugs in a pitfall trap baited with
beer? Or get a toad or a hedgehog to take up residence.

John Morgan

John,

Thanks for your interest and comments. I have taken what you have
said to heart. I will try alternative non-poisonous techniques to
get rid of the snails and slugs!

Concerning the sparrows vs blackbird situation, some while ago I was
amazed to see a small sparrow which had been bathing in the
birdbath, pause to see off a male blackbird which wanted to get in.
perhaps we have sparrows that are more confident than usual.

Peter