Sue wrote:
I've either seen one rat three times or three different ones this
afternoon. One of my neighbours said that they've had them before.
They had come up from the river and were nesting under a shed
further
down the road.

Any advice? I suppose I'd better start by clearing away the area
with
bricks, paving slabs and roof tiles stored in it as that's where I
saw it / them twice right under the bird feeder. Do I have to stop
feeding the birds? Not keen on that idea.
[...]

They will keep coming, even if you poison a lot of them: stream banks
are a route they use a lot. You're right in wanting to clear away as
many hiding-places as you can, of course. As to feeding the birds,
you may perhaps have to stop giving them the things they scatter
about; but I wonder if you could hang some sort of tray under the
feeder? A dustbin lid, for example. This would get full of water when
it rained, of course, and need to be emptied carefully to avoid
dropping food; I wonder if it's practicable to make something out of
wire mesh, or at least put a big mesh-covered drainage hole in the
tray.

Tough cats and Jack Russels can be a help. But I suppose we sometimes
just have to learn to live with rats: they don't usually do a lot of
harm as long as they stay outdoors. I had some in the roof once, and
that was a different matter.

Mike.