On May 21, 1:30 pm, Klara wrote:
In message .com,


Good luck - and keep us posted!

To everyone, the posted pics are spot on, I have never seen a
woodpecker before.


First of all thanks to everyone who responded to my plea. The update
is I sprayed eau de parfum on the roof. When I stood there looking at
the damage, I could hear scrabbling inside the box. The parents were
in a tree and as soon as I approached the box, they stopped calling to
the chick or chicks. The chick, I think it's one, was talking back
and making chirping noises and then it went absolutely silent. Is
there a warning that the chick understood from the parents and that's
why it shut up?

The hole is quite large now and shaped like a teardrop. Also one
corner of the roof is completely bitten away. I put a basket over the
box and widened the hole to allow the parents in but they keep on
coming to the box, with food in their mouths and appear as if they are
going to go in and then fly away!! If they don't go and feed the baby
soon, I will have to take off the basket.

I did think of filling in the damaged bit with Blutack, would the
parents eat this and if so would it harm them?

Judith

On 21/5/07 15:55, in article
,
" wrote:

On May 21, 1:28 pm, "Geoff" wrote:
I wonder if the bluetits visit a peanut dispenser? If they do, I expect the
nest box smells of peanuts. I suppose there's a possibility that the
woodpecker can smell peanuts in the box and is trying to get to them.

Perfumed spray might deter it!!!

Geoff

I couldn't smell any peanut to be on the safe side, I sprayed Chanel
No. 5 on the roof.

Judith

Probably not a good move. That is alien to the parent birds as well as the
woodpecker. It takes birds a while to get used to new things, so leave the
basket on and leave the best well alone but I'd wipe off the perfume first.


--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
(remove weeds from address)

wrote in message
oups.com...
On May 21, 1:28 pm, "Geoff" wrote:
I wonder if the bluetits visit a peanut dispenser? If they do, I expect
the
nest box smells of peanuts. I suppose there's a possibility that the
woodpecker can smell peanuts in the box and is trying to get to them.

Perfumed spray might deter it!!!

Geoff

I couldn't smell any peanut to be on the safe side, I sprayed Chanel
No. 5 on the roof.

Holey mother of divine sweet jayzes.
I suppose it is lucky you did not have any Lynx.
The poor things.

Des



Judith

"Geoff" wrote in message
...

I don't know anything about birds, the bad one was black with a red
crest and a longish beak,

Most woodpeckers have red feathers on the head but if, as you say, the
bird was black then it might have been a dyocopus martius a.k.a. a black
woodpecker but they are almost as large as a crow and have not been
recorded in Britain. Stand by for twitchers?!!

I saw one once in Germany. It was the single most spectacular bird I saw
for years after. It was mad looking thing.
If that had been what she saw, she would have described it as a great big
black thing with a big crimson crest.
It would be a bit like someone saying they had a newly formed mound in the
lawn and someone else posting in after some checking of diagrams that it
could be a volcano :-).


My guess is that it was either a great spotted woodpecker (picoides major)

I would go with that. They are common and make a habit of doing this to tit
nests.

Des


which also has a red bum or a lesser spotted woodpecker (picoides minor)
having no red bum! Both these are fairly common and the former has a
penchant for bluetits' peanuts so it might be an idea to move any peanut
dispenser far away from any nest box.

By the way, the best thing for getting rid of blackfly etc from your roses
are peanuts. Use a plastic container (dried milk type are best) cut a 2
inch diameter hole in its base place a piece of wire netting (the sort
used for peanut dispensers) inside the container so that it covers the
hole. Fill up the container with peanuts, put the lid on and hang the
container not too far from your roses. Whilst the bluetits are queueing
to get to the peanuts, they do the rounds of the roses and eat the
blackfly!

Geoff

On May 21, 11:23 pm, "Des Higgins" wrote:


Holey mother of divine sweet jayzes.
I suppose it is lucky you did not have any Lynx.
The poor things.

That's all very well Des Higgins but I would have resorted to Joy
(Patou I think) if I had to. I feel I am rearing these chicks.

I came home from the office this evening and what did I do? Did I run
in and pour myself a glass of wine? Did I set the iicrowave for my
Italian M & S supper, no I didn't. I went round to the back, without
even opening the front door mind, and wonder of wonders, I can hear
little chirping and little nails on the wooden floor of the box, they
are alive so I won't have to bring them in yet to save them.

Did I tell you that last year, when a little bird was sitting on her
nest, in fierce sunshine, in a bed of geraniums, that I got her a
drink of water in a ramikin and put her beak into it. When I came
back from a weekend away, the bird had flown and all I could see were
shell particles, she was sitting on 6 eggs, and one dead baby bird.

How long from hatching to flying off does it take as I can't be doing
with all this stress at my age and getting up at 5a.m. to shoo the
long pecker off.

Judith

On May 21, 11:27 pm, "Des Higgins" wrote:
I saw one once in Germany. It was the single most spectacular bird I saw
for years after. It was mad looking thing.

This was a mad looking thing with beadey eyes but it wasn't eagle
sized, about half as big again as the Blue Tits.

If that had been what she saw, she would have described it as a great big
black thing with a big crimson crest.

No I wouldn't, I've been watching late night films again and I would
have thought it was a Raven.

Judith

On 22/5/07 17:57, in article
,
" wrote:

On May 21, 11:23 pm, "Des Higgins" wrote:


Holey mother of divine sweet jayzes.
I suppose it is lucky you did not have any Lynx.
The poor things.

That's all very well Des Higgins but I would have resorted to Joy
(Patou I think) if I had to. I feel I am rearing these chicks.

Well, at least it wasn't Bal a Versailles....

I came home from the office this evening and what did I do? Did I run
in and pour myself a glass of wine? Did I set the iicrowave for my
Italian M & S supper, no I didn't. I went round to the back, without
even opening the front door mind, and wonder of wonders, I can hear
little chirping and little nails on the wooden floor of the box, they
are alive so I won't have to bring them in yet to save them.

They'll live to thank you for that! If the parents have returned? Have
they, do you know? Otherwise you're going to have to find some worms etc.,
chew them up a bit and then shove them in through that little hole to your
greedy babies.

Did I tell you that last year, when a little bird was sitting on her
nest, in fierce sunshine, in a bed of geraniums, that I got her a
drink of water in a ramikin and put her beak into it. When I came
back from a weekend away, the bird had flown and all I could see were
shell particles, she was sitting on 6 eggs, and one dead baby bird.

How long from hatching to flying off does it take as I can't be doing
with all this stress at my age and getting up at 5a.m. to shoo the
long pecker off.

Judith

Freudian slip alert. ;-))

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
(remove weeds from address)

On 21 May, 09:48, "
wrote:
for 2 days I have heard a noise like a woodpecker and this morning I
finally tracked down what he was doing. I was woken by this yammering
on wood and I thought it was in the eaves, it wasn't it was at the
bird box on the wall and pecking the entrance hole enlarging it!

I shooed it off but it was back within a minute. The parents of the
blue tits in the box only came back after the bad bird had gone.

It's a Great Spotted Woodpecker, they do prey on eggs and nestlings of
hole nesting birds and can become a damaging pest of beehives. Not
much you can/should do for your birds. Sad if they do take 'your'
birds but do remember woodie has a living to make as well and they are
certainly not endangering blue tits as a species. With or without
woodpeckers, there is always a huge mortality of young birds and
you'll see blue tits in that box next year - but you might like to
strengthen it a bit, even to the extent of encasing it in wire netting
like some beekeepers have to with their hives.

On May 21, 1:28 pm, "Geoff" wrote:
I wonder if the bluetits visit a peanut dispenser? If they do, I expect
the
nest box smells of peanuts. I suppose there's a possibility that the
woodpecker can smell peanuts in the box and is trying to get to them.

Perfumed spray might deter it!!!

Geoff

I couldn't smell any peanut to be on the safe side, I sprayed Chanel
No. 5 on the roof.

Judith

Probably not a good move. That is alien to the parent birds as well as
the
woodpecker. It takes birds a while to get used to new things, so leave
the
basket on and leave the best well alone but I'd wipe off the perfume
first.


--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
(remove weeds from address)



Most birds - truly, almost all - do not have a well-developed sense of
smell, so spraying things or having "eau de peanut" leftover from other
birds isn't going to make a difference.

The person who told Judith that "it's nature" is absolutely correct. It
isn't always pretty, but there is a reason animals and birds do what they
do. Tits would overpopulate and suffer if other animals and birds did not
naturally keep their populations in check. The exception is cats/dogs.
They are now domesticated and are NOT natural predators, so allowing them to
prey on birds and small mammals is not nature.

I agree - leave the situation alone. Spraying perfume probably does more
harm to the birds you're trying to protect than it does the birds you're
trying to chase.

Judy B

wrote in message
oups.com...
On May 21, 11:23 pm, "Des Higgins" wrote:


Holey mother of divine sweet jayzes.
I suppose it is lucky you did not have any Lynx.
The poor things.

That's all very well Des Higgins but I would have resorted to Joy
(Patou I think) if I had to. I feel I am rearing these chicks.

I came home from the office this evening and what did I do? Did I run
in and pour myself a glass of wine? Did I set the iicrowave for my
Italian M & S supper, no I didn't. I went round to the back, without
even opening the front door mind, and wonder of wonders, I can hear
little chirping and little nails on the wooden floor of the box, they
are alive so I won't have to bring them in yet to save them.

Ok ok ok; well done :-).
Birds in yer garden are special.

Des

On 22/5/07 22:38, in article , "Des
Higgins" wrote:


wrote in message
oups.com...
On May 21, 11:23 pm, "Des Higgins" wrote:


Holey mother of divine sweet jayzes.
I suppose it is lucky you did not have any Lynx.
The poor things.

That's all very well Des Higgins but I would have resorted to Joy
(Patou I think) if I had to. I feel I am rearing these chicks.

I came home from the office this evening and what did I do? Did I run
in and pour myself a glass of wine? Did I set the iicrowave for my
Italian M & S supper, no I didn't. I went round to the back, without
even opening the front door mind, and wonder of wonders, I can hear
little chirping and little nails on the wooden floor of the box, they
are alive so I won't have to bring them in yet to save them.

Ok ok ok; well done :-).
Birds in yer garden are special.

Des


That's it exactly. They *are* special and I think so many of us become very
protective and personal about them. My reaction would be just the same as
Judith's - "what can I do to protect them?" I'd never make a nature film
camera operator. ;-(

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
(remove weeds from address)