Bl@@dy Wildlife!!!

[wellie]

This time of year always makes me smile in our garden.....
And I appreciate it even MORE this year, with kind of moving house from here in the next two weeks?

I feed the birds all year round, with nut-feeders and a bird table, and various sprinklings of whatever is to hand for ground-feeding birds on the lawn, because it is SO entertaining to watch them.

We have a small woodland next to the cottage, so we get loads of wildlife, and whilst I've only seen it once, we've got a MASSIVE Hedgehog, a Fox that uses our garden as a nightly 'footpath' and whatever else I'm never awake at night to see (Owls, and Bats and stuff?)

BUT! I have taken exception in the last month or so, to one particular Great Tit, who insists on flying into and pecking at our Sitting Room window, just below our Bedroom Window. If it did it quietly, I wouldn't have a problem with it. But it wakes me up every morning now?

He (must be a 'He'...!) commences this noisy activity at about 6am, and sporadically, doesn't cease until Dusk. Only to start again at 6am....

I must point out though, that I'm not in bed from Dawn till Dusk!, but on the days when I'm not at work, I can still hear him banging his beak against the glass when I'm working away in my 'Little Girls Greenhouse' ?

So.... what with Trousers snoring his head off, me mentally trying to arrange the furniture from Holly Cottage into our new Farmhouse home, and a bl@@dy Great Tit pecking at the sodding window from dawn till dusk.......

Is there completely NO peace for the wicked in this life of ours' ????!!

[SarzWix]

Poor you, having to listen to that all day! Amusing for 5 or 10 minutes I guess, but "Not Very Funny Now!". I wonder if it's dozy enough to be trying to pick a fight with it's own reflection...?!

[scarey55]

We have one too Wellie. He pecks constantly at the door that Auntie Wellie used to let the dogs out by when they wanted to "go out the back" I don't know if it is the same one but we also caught him pecking at "your" bedroom window and the car mirror.

The RSPB reckon they do it at this time of year because they see their reflection as a rival bird in their territory so, yes Sarz - they are apparently that dozy

[selfraising]

Our bedrooms have got brick air vents at the top of the wall right at the head end of the bed. Last year something was pecking on the outside of it and it did it every day for about 3 months, starting at about 6.30 and going on for a couple of hours. It drove me nuts cos I don't sleep that well anyway and when I do its quite light sleep, so it immediately woke me up!

[wellie]

Oh! Thank Goodness that it's not just me then!!
Brilliant.... I can listen to him from dawn to dusk, and think of you lot at the same time then....

[lynda66]

oh the joy of a tit at the window .... every year OH get a massive great seagull at 5am .... i swear one day it will come through the window

[wellie]

lynda66....
ooh, er, missus?!

[BarleySugar]

At school we had a pigeon that used to fly at the windows of one of the rooms, and vear off at the last minute. One day he misjudged it and crashed straight into it. The kids all screamed, and the bird knocked himself out . I thought I'd better let site services know there was a dead pigeon on the roof of the block, because it was quite visible to the children, but before the end of the lesson he'd come round and eventually flew away.
The next day another teacher said he did the same We never say him again after that.

[jacob marley]

What you want is one of them bird of prey silhouette'son the inside of the window that deters them....jacob

[HeyWayne]

Great tits at my bedroom window would get me up too!

If it was going to be anyone....

LadyWayne can't stand birds making noise first thing in the morning - not sure what birds we have, but there's seemingly one that sits on our security light (which is attached to the outside wall, which happens to be the same wall the head of our bed is next to) and hammers away at something. Tap tap tap tap....

[Headfry]

Morning Wellie.....I once had bluetits pecking the putty out of my window frames.........WHY? what did they do with it? eat it??? yuck I hope not.

[TheDrunkMonk]

Back in the the olden days, my Grandparents' house used to collect dead birds by the kitchen window. Unfortunately, the mix of their dark kitchen and the bright outdoors used to confuse the birds into flying straight into the reflective window thinking it was an extension of the garden. They put up a light coloured blind and the carnage stopped. Maybe something like this would make this tit's "rival" disappear.

[Alice]

I used to have tits pecking the putty out of the window frames too Headfry. I think it's the linseed oil they're after.

[wellie]

I spent most of my day in our garden today, and Mr. Great Tit didn't let up at all on that Sitting Room Window? His beak must be pretty damn sore now, no?
The poor woman that's buying Holly Cottage will probably think she's got burglars or something! whereas Wellie can be heard to say every five minutes " Do you want to come in?" Wildlife. Mad.....
The Great Tits did start to do that to a mirror Trousers and I have in the garden, but they've abandoned that, and chosen this window instead, and that's why I'm kind of puzzled with the 'reflection' theory?

Talking of wildlife - there was a lovely moment this afternoon over Holly Cottage gate when my cat decided to go for a stroll. With a black ewe and her adorable new born jet black baby lamb asleep in the grass, the ewe chased my cat away, confused as to whether it was her baby, or a completely strange thing that just 'looked' like her baby.

I love this time of year!

[Comfreyfan]

They flutter and peck at our window corners - I think they're after the insects trapped in the cobwebs or the little bugs living in the brickwork crevices around the frames. At this time of year they're definitely collecting the bits of next door's pampas grass which blow over here and get stuck in the webs (it also clogs the winscreen washers and walks into the house). The birds seem to treat the webs as a supermarket!