That's interesting. We have a lot of buzzards in our area. Perhaps that's
why there has been a decline in songbirds here in recent years. Glad to see
some Dunnocks have returned but I have never seen a sparrow in my garden and
although we did have thrushes and I do my best to maintain a decent snail
population they have vanished. I do have a very bossy robin, several
species of tit and a very noisy blackbird shouting at everyone as I type.
But the treecreeper has vanished as have the wrens that lived round here.

Vicky

"Inge Jones" wrote in message
.. .
In article ,
says...

Then there were raptorial problems when two pairs of Buzzards moved
in;
and remained. They breed every year but four remain ~~possibly not the
same
individuals.
Not a single songbird remains. Even minute Wrens were pulled out of
the
Ivy covered banks. They were so brazen that my wife was attacked till
she
released a Fantail Dove she was protecting. All forty doves were taken
in
four weeks.

It made me cross once when my mail to that group doing the sparrow
survey was poo-poohed. At my last home we had a little group of 6
sparrows that would briefly fly in and out of the garden. Then when we
read about their decline we decided to see what we could do so started
buying the recommended foods to supplement their insects, and grew a
ceanothus because the thick growth would give them cover.

Anyway those six had two broods in the final year, making over 50 at one
count in our garden. The last of the young were just losing their
yellow beaky bits when a sparrow hawk suddenly appeared for the first
time ever seen in our garden.

All the sparrows flew up into the ceanothus and the hawk started
crashing into it trying to dislodge them. Well so much for books that
say they use stealth and sneak up on them as they fly from tree to tree.

He wasn't even bothering to eat them and there were perfectly untouched
little bodies under the tree where they'd simply died of a heart attack
of something. We never saw another sparrow in that garden so we'd even
lost the long-term original six.

When I told the sparrow survey about this they said sparrow hawks don't
do this. I think they've already made up their mind it's a habitat
thing, so why bother with the questionnaires?

"...........We have a lot of buzzards in our area. Perhaps that's
why there has been a decline in songbirds here in recent years...."

We have anything from 4 to 10 buzzards here and I have often seen them
perching on a couple of our poles.
They certainly have done nothing to reduce the birdsong, on Tuesday and
Wednesday I was woken just before 6am by the Birds, don't think I have known
then quite so noisy.
We regularly have chaffinches, green finches, hedge sparrows house sparrows,
blue tits ,long tailed tits, great tits, and coal tits, robins, blackbirds,
thrushes, Collared doves, wood pigeons, a pair of carrion crows, the odd
starling(Though 10 yrs ago we had them by the hundred), Green woodpecker,
magpies, Jays, and the Buzzards, rooks, a couple of Owls we hear at night or
early morning. (NO wrens for the last couple of years).All of these seen or
heard in the last week.
As well tree creepers and nut hatches, flycatchers, bull finches, gold
finches, field fairs,swallows, house martins and swifts, herons, sea gulls
and terns, a pair of peregrine falcons that nest locally, ....... at some
time in the year........ and probably a few that I cant think of now.
Often think we would do better as a nature reserve.

--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk

On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 19:40:49 +0100, John
wrote:
snip
~"jane" wrote in message
...
~ Sorry this is a late reply and may look odd - the original thread's
~ vanished off my reader but I had to reply...
~
~ John ) wrote:
~
~ ~In a Garden Centre in Ivybridge, Devon, one is greeted with 'piped'
~ ~bird song. Although it's only a recording, it is very effective.
~ ~
~ ~The reason I mention it is that the gardens around my home have
~ ~- during the past half a dozen years - become sterile of birds.
~ ~
~ ~I'll not go into the reason for obvious reasons, but it occurs to me
~ ~that a poor second choice to true bird song, would be the mentioned
~ ~disced copy.
~ ~
~ ~Does anyone know of a disc of British bird song? Not one
~ ~of those with musical background - or dreadful shrieking choir -
~ ~but genuine, honest to goodness birds singing their hearts out.
~ ~
~ ~Who knows, it may attract back the originals?
~ ~
~ ~Thank you
~
~ I was also met by a CD of birdsong a week ago at the gardens of
~ Heligan, and upon asking, found it was recorded in the gardens and
~ they have burned CDs to sell in their shop. There are some 51 minutes
~ of song, and though one long track, the insert has a key to main birds
~ heard in it by time.
~
~ It cost me £6 and is wonderfully relaxing and thankyou for alerting me
~ to these CDs. And they sell it online for £7 inc P&P
~
~ http://www.heliganshop.com/ShowDetails.asp?id=255
~
~ Hope this helps... (she says, listening to a particularly melodious
~ blackbird)
~
~
~ --
~ jane
~==============================
~Jane.
~ Many thanks. I've had a look at Heligan's offer and from
~its description it would appear to be very simple to that which
~is to be offered -later this month- from ...
~http://www.wildsong.co.uk/index.html
~which address was also offered on/in? this site.
~
~John
~========================================

The Heligan CD is a tiny bit cheaper, though! The wildsong link is
handy as there are CDs and books to identify particular songs, which
is something I've wanted for a while.

thanks back again!

--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks!

"David Hill" wrote in
:

"...........We have a lot of buzzards in our area. Perhaps that's
why there has been a decline in songbirds here in recent years...."

We have anything from 4 to 10 buzzards here and I have often seen them
perching on a couple of our poles.
They certainly have done nothing to reduce the birdsong, on Tuesday
and Wednesday I was woken just before 6am by the Birds, don't think I
have known then quite so noisy.
We regularly have chaffinches, green finches, hedge sparrows house
sparrows, blue tits ,long tailed tits, great tits, and coal tits,
robins, blackbirds, thrushes, Collared doves, wood pigeons, a pair of
carrion crows, the odd starling(Though 10 yrs ago we had them by the
hundred), Green woodpecker, magpies, Jays, and the Buzzards, rooks, a
couple of Owls we hear at night or early morning. (NO wrens for the
last couple of years).All of these seen or heard in the last week.

Me too (except we have wrens as well, and a sparrowhawk, but I'm not
sure about 2 types of sparrow - haven't looked that closely! Oh, and on
one memorable occasion a hen at the top of an apple tree...)

I'd be surprised to see a buzzard take more than the occasional song-
bird - they are big things, and not all that manoeverable. I had a dog
that managed to catch one once (both dog and buzzard deeply embarrassed
by the whole thing, but both lived to tell the tale.)

I thought buzzards lived mostly on rabbits?

Our sparrowhawks don't seem to be making much of a dent in the local
bird population and nor do the magpies. The species clearly can co-
exist, or we'd have run out of small birds years back, so surely there
must be some other factor involved?

You probably get weirdos in most species - I've never seen a sparrowhawk
behave in the way Inge describes, but I'm sure it can happen.

As an example, I saw a spider try to eat a small frog once (yes, in the
UK, in my back garden!), but I'm not sure that's one of the bigger risks
faced by young frogs generally.

(I like frogs much better than spiders, so I ran the hose on it and it
left the frog and ran away. Maybe I curtailed the evolution of a
disturbing race of frog-eating spiders....)

Victoria
--
gardening on a north-facing hill
in South-East Cornwall
--

In article , Victoria
Clare writes
As an example, I saw a spider try to eat a small frog once (yes, in the
UK, in my back garden!),

I know of a cat who took on a money spider and lost ;-)

--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

The message
from Kay Easton contains these words:

In article , Victoria
Clare writes
As an example, I saw a spider try to eat a small frog once (yes, in the
UK, in my back garden!),

I know of a cat who took on a money spider and lost ;-)

The money spider ate it?

Janet.

Janet Baraclough..16/4/04 5:03
k

The message
from Kay Easton contains these words:

In article , Victoria
Clare writes
As an example, I saw a spider try to eat a small frog once (yes, in the
UK, in my back garden!),

I know of a cat who took on a money spider and lost ;-)

The money spider ate it?

Janet.

No, it gambled away its inheritance. ;-))
--

Sacha
(remove the weeds to email me)

In article , Janet Baraclough.
.. writes
The message
from Kay Easton contains these words:

In article , Victoria
Clare writes
As an example, I saw a spider try to eat a small frog once (yes, in the
UK, in my back garden!),

I know of a cat who took on a money spider and lost ;-)

The money spider ate it?

The cat, well, kitten, actually, came face to face with the money
spider, who refused to give ground. This alarmed the kitten (he was used
to things running away) and he began to edge backwards with his front
paws. Unfortunately he forget to edge backwards with his back paws,
tripped over his own feet and fell over. This so alarmed him that he got
up and ran away, leaving the money spider in possession of the field.
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

The message
from Kay Easton contains these words:

In article , Victoria
Clare writes
As an example, I saw a spider try to eat a small frog once (yes, in the
UK, in my back garden!),

I know of a cat who took on a money spider and lost ;-)

The money spider ate it?

Janet.

Janet Baraclough..16/4/04 5:03
k

The message
from Kay Easton contains these words:

In article , Victoria
Clare writes
As an example, I saw a spider try to eat a small frog once (yes, in the
UK, in my back garden!),

I know of a cat who took on a money spider and lost ;-)

The money spider ate it?

Janet.

No, it gambled away its inheritance. ;-))
--

Sacha
(remove the weeds to email me)

The message
from Kay Easton contains these words:

In article , Victoria
Clare writes
As an example, I saw a spider try to eat a small frog once (yes, in the
UK, in my back garden!),

I know of a cat who took on a money spider and lost ;-)

The money spider ate it?

Janet.

Janet Baraclough..16/4/04 5:03
k

The message
from Kay Easton contains these words:

In article , Victoria
Clare writes
As an example, I saw a spider try to eat a small frog once (yes, in the
UK, in my back garden!),

I know of a cat who took on a money spider and lost ;-)

The money spider ate it?

Janet.

No, it gambled away its inheritance. ;-))
--

Sacha
(remove the weeds to email me)

In article , Janet Baraclough.
.. writes
The message
from Kay Easton contains these words:

In article , Victoria
Clare writes
As an example, I saw a spider try to eat a small frog once (yes, in the
UK, in my back garden!),

I know of a cat who took on a money spider and lost ;-)

The money spider ate it?

The cat, well, kitten, actually, came face to face with the money
spider, who refused to give ground. This alarmed the kitten (he was used
to things running away) and he began to edge backwards with his front
paws. Unfortunately he forget to edge backwards with his back paws,
tripped over his own feet and fell over. This so alarmed him that he got
up and ran away, leaving the money spider in possession of the field.
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

The message
from Kay Easton contains these words:

In article , Victoria
Clare writes
As an example, I saw a spider try to eat a small frog once (yes, in the
UK, in my back garden!),

I know of a cat who took on a money spider and lost ;-)

The money spider ate it?

Janet.

Janet Baraclough..16/4/04 5:03
k

The message
from Kay Easton contains these words:

In article , Victoria
Clare writes
As an example, I saw a spider try to eat a small frog once (yes, in the
UK, in my back garden!),

I know of a cat who took on a money spider and lost ;-)

The money spider ate it?

Janet.

No, it gambled away its inheritance. ;-))
--

Sacha
(remove the weeds to email me)