What sort of bird is this?

[Paulines7]

Sorry for the bad quality but the photos were taken through the window. 

I watched it as it shinned up the pole before climbing onto the feeder.  We have been overrun with rats this past week and have had to resort to poison.  Each night they eat their way through food in six rat boxes and several sealed packets of poison placed under sheds or down their holes. 

[lorna]

Crikey Pauline, look at the size of it!! You are feeding them too well. Hope you soon get rid of them.

[Ellen K]

Horrible things - would you consider taking your bird feeders down for a while until they are dealt with?

They must have a home somewhere - in urban environments, it's often a blocked drain.  But the food will draw them in.

YUK!!

[Paulines7]

Crikey Pauline, look at the size of it!! You are feeding them too well. Hope you soon get rid of them.

Thanks Lorna, I hope so too.

Horrible things - would you consider taking your bird feeders down for a while until they are dealt with?

They must have a home somewhere - in urban environments, it's often a blocked drain.  But the food will draw them in.

YUK!!

Ellen, I have been thinking of ways to stop them climbing the pole to the feeder.  My thoughts so far have been putting some sort of metal plate on the pole so they cannot get around it or maybe grease it so they slip down. 

They have homes everywhere and there are massive holes in my vegetable beds.  We have this problem every year when the farmer cuts the crop in the field adjacent to our garden.  I suppose they have to find new homes when he gets his farrow out. 

We have 5 chickens too but I have stopped filling the feeders as it was going down at a rapid pace.  I now give them just a handful at a time.  Yesterday, my three month old chick was running around with a dead baby rat in his mouth.  I managed to get it away from him, I am pleased to say.

[Ellen K]

Oh dear it's not easily fixed then 

I have seen the poles threaded through big plastic pop bottles - they are too slippery for squirrels to climb, maybe it works for rats too.  But they doesn't last very long and you have to really wedge the pole in or the weight of the rats drags it down.

Was it you who had the resident Owls?  How are they doing these days?

[Humble Bumble]

I would agree with the plastic bottle cut in half and threaded through the pole but it will need to be a couple of feet up as the little blighters can jump past it if it is too low.  Also reduce the amount of bird food to eliminate too much falling to the ground.

The best way I found to get them is a snap trap, you just have the bodies to dispose off.  better then them dying under the floor boards and stinking the house out.  Been there and don't want that again it took two days of lifting carpets and floorboards before the body was found snuggled up to the hot water pipes. yuk!

[Paulines7]

Ellen, yes, it was me that had the long eared owls.  They arrived last December when we had all that snow and left in March.  We didn't put any rat poison down whilst they were here as their dissected pellets showed that they were eating rats.  Fingers are crossed that they come back again this year.

We bought a rat trap a few years ago but never caught anything in it.  Six months ago we bought a contraption that electrocutes rats when they go in it to lick the peanut butter.  No luck with that either! 

Humble Bumble, fortunately we do not have rats in our house. 

I will try putting a bottle on the pole and see if that helps.  Thanks for that suggestion.

[Mr Smith]

Pauline,
             That is one lot of rat poison being taken, you would be better removing the bird feeders and the rats will concentrate all the more on the poison, that is the reason we removed our bird feeders because of vermin, that is one reason why I won't keep poultry in the back garden unlike someone further down our road, I know that rats are always about but I'm afraid feeding the birds and keeping backyard poultry does not help in controlling vermin,

[Carol]

I agree wtih Mr Smith. Take the feeders down just now while there is plenty food out in the countryside.  I should think your bird numbers are down anyway.   Concentrate on trying to get rid of the vermin.  My rats usually move in at the first frost.   I get the council in with the enclosed box containing the poison.  Good luck.  Rats are a headache.   

[Robert_Brenchley]

It's a rattus finch. A collar would stop them climbing the pole, but if they're that obvious you've probably got a lot, and need to keep the numbers down.

[ipt8]

Stop feeding the birds and put out rat poison in a suitable covered dispenser. Remeber to wash your hands well wherever rats have been as they pass on very nasty diseases to humans.

[Carol]

I have one now  Pauline.  It turned up yesterday so have stopped feeding the birds in that area.