Netting - A Case For Compassion

[Knight of Albion]

I was in town a while back and I saw a pigeon hobbling pitifully. It had obviously got caught up in netting and whilst it had managed to fly off it still had a fragment of netting bound to its leg - so tightly bound it had developed 'elephantitis' i.e. its leg had become inflammed and had swollen to double the size .... The poor thing must have been in terrible pain.

I saw the same bird this morning. Still alive but now with only one leg ... The wounded leg had rotted and fallen off.

You often see pigeons that have lost legs or broken legs due to netting injuries.

I appreciate that pigeons are not welcome visitors in most gardens, but they don't know they're doing wrong and nothing justifies harming another living being in such a way, intentionally or not.

Inappropriate netting is indiscriminate in its dangers. I remember when I was a boy a friendly robin had got caught up in strawberry netting and had died - we presumed of a heart attack.
We never used netting again.

I'm not the right person to ask as I don't use any netting, but can any of the more experienced gardeners here offer any wise counsel to those who do want to use netting as to which sort is bird friendly.

Thank you.

[spanish_gardener]

Hope this help:
Netting

[Nicos]

We found blackbirds on the 'wrong' side of our netting a few times..and rescued several from other peeps allotments after that.
Since then we've never used netting for that very reason KoA !

I'm now a sheep netting/chicken wire/fleece kind of gal!
( the good things about those is that you also don't need to spend hours trying to rescue the plastic netting from tangled plants- a simple blow torch/bonfire does the trick within seconds!!!)

yeh...OH and I have to fight over who has 'blow torch duties!'

...and guess what??..you can use the wire again year upon year!!...sorted !

[solway cropper]

Stopped using wide mesh netting after I spent twenty minutes extricating a sparrow from its entanglement. I now only use debris netting or veggie mesh.

[Knight of Albion]

Hope this help:
Netting

Many thanks for the link, Spanish Gardener. Just what I was looking for.

[Knight of Albion]

Someone recommended to me a product called Agralan 'Butterfly and Bird Protection Netting' as being small mesh and safe (or safer) for birds.

Has anyone tried it?

[Jeanied]

I will never forget rescuing a young sparrowhawk from being totally twisted up in some netting on the allotments in Suffolk. The net had nearly severed its feet. It was taken to a RSPB vet but I never heard how it got on.

[Knight of Albion]

We found blackbirds on the 'wrong' side of our netting a few times..and rescued several from other peeps allotments after that.
Since then we've never used netting for that very reason KoA !

I'm now a sheep netting/chicken wire/fleece kind of gal!
( the good things about those is that you also don't need to spend hours trying to rescue the plastic netting from tangled plants- a simple blow torch/bonfire does the trick within seconds!!!)

yeh...OH and I have to fight over who has 'blow torch duties!'

...and guess what??..you can use the wire again year upon year!!...sorted !

Good for you - respect to you for caring.

And thank you for the tips.