Topic: Why do birds suddenly dissappear

[cornykev]

Every time you are near.  Sorry getting a bit carried away
Anyway as some of you may know I have recently moved
Ten weeks we've been her and I've not seen a solitary bird in the back garden
In our old house we had pigeon's, doves, robins, sparrows, tits, blackbirds you name it
Other wildlife were present, foxes, squirrels, cats etc, so none of these deterred the birds
Some days you would sit there looking up on the house roofs and it was something like out of Hitchcocks Birds, a bit spooky sometimes, there were 100's just sitting up there staring at me
Not only none in the garden but none on the roofs either side of us or down to the left or right as I look facing down the garden
There are a few large trees about but nothing
For fours weeks plus we have put out food balls but they have not been touched and a nice birdbath but nothing
I'm not a Birdie person, well not that type any way
Anyone any ideas anyone.
PS    How come we still get bird nuts on the car out the front.   

[ACE]

neighbours probably have cats, they will be back when you put out some decent food, I mean if somebody was using nice stuff and you are using poundland rubbish, what would the bird do?  Most probably sh!t on the Matiz and go and eat up market.

[alkanet]

they're moulting at the moment and a bit self conscious

and there's lots of food elsewhere atm

[Flighty]

Read this webpage and you'll find out why -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/natureuk/entries/188f15e1-f71b-431e-8999-43dc578b4cd4

[Obelixx]

When we moved into our ex farmhouse in Feb 93 it was -15C outside and stayed that way for weeks.  One of the first things I did was hang bird feeders on the wire washing line to help the local birds but they hadn't a clue what they were.   It took 3 years before they cottoned on and by then we'd started converting the former cow pasture around the house to be a garden with shrubs and flowers and a pond and later on a veggie plot.

Now we have our own colony of sparrows, another of great and blue tits and loads of regular visitors - finches, robins, woodpeckers, jays, jackdaws,, blackbirds, warblers, wrens and so on.    Some come for the feeders and some come for the insects the garden now attracts and others do both.   

We've lost the bat colony though and I don't know why.

[Digeroo]

We have had lots recently.  There have been loads of starling, blackbirds and thrushes after the flying ants.  And I have seen a pair of linnets my first ever in the garden.

I would suspect cats or red kite.

[squeezyjohn]

You should probably shoot all the badgers and hedgehogs too just to be on the safe side ;-)

Seriously - this is always a quiet time for garden birds when they are moulting as Alkanet says ... they seem to disappear overnight after all the early summer activity - but they do come back when they're hungry as winter draws in.

[alkanet]

and they've stopped singing of course also

when robins start again with their tic tic tic, the ending of the year is beginning

and rather depressing

[Borlotti]

Don't worry Kev, they are all having a lovely time on my allotment in Enfield. Had some paraquets the other night.  Perhaps they like figs, fresh fruit etc.  Not a great bird expert, think they like sunflower seeds, so maybe plant some in your garden.  Pleased that your move worked out OK.

[GREGME]

Cheshunt is great area for birds though maybe not in your garden and August not really peak month for garden birds, breeding season over and still much food out there in habitat outside your garden. The summering birds have gone south and the wintering birds havent arrived yet.

Some really good bird reserves in your local area in the lower Lea Valley.
 
http://www.hnhs.org/birds/view_site.php?id=8

[small]

and they've stopped singing of course also

when robins start again with their tic tic tic, the ending of the year is beginning

and rather depressing

That's the truth! Silence here till yesterday, then the robin started up as I was picking blackberries, soon be autumn!

[cornykev]

Next door does have cats but they did at our last place
The matiz was ungraded to a Micra before we moved
Twenty rooftops I can see and not a single dickie bird must all have cheapie food
Not seen any red kites, lots of flying ants though
Seems like plenty on the allotment mainly pigeons though
Read both web sites so thanks all for your answers. 

[ACE]

The matiz was ungraded to a Micra before we moved

I am please to see you ungraded, from the son of Arthur Daley was it.

[gray1720]

Other things may have vanished but saw not one, not two but three kingfishers last night!

Living by a canal helps, mind.

Adrian

[Robert_Brenchley]

The kestrels almost disappeared a few years ago, but they seem to be coming back slowly. Buzzared, which I never saw when I first came to Birmingham, are now common. I don't understand why I don't see more sparrowhawks around the site as with all the hedges and trees, and lots of large gardens around, you'd think it was an ideal area for them. I've seen peregrines over the site twice this year. some things are doing badly; there are very few house sparrows, when I remember flocks of thousands, there are a lot fewer starlings. But other species are thriving.

[cornykev]

Remind me Ace, what is your lovely wife driving these days.   

[ACE]

It's a K,kk ki, nope can't say it, but at least she now parks it outside somebody elses house which leaves me plenty of room to turn the gas guzzling 4x4 around on the drive.  When she went to have it serviced they cleaned it as they could not believe there was a car under all the dirt. What with the jammy dodgers stuck to the seats and child seats for the rugrats  filling up the back I have to get a taxi home from the pub.

[Paulines7]

I hadn't seen many birds and hadn't filled the feeders since having my two cats.  I missed seeing them but didn't want to encourage them to where they could be caught by the cats. 

Three weeks ago, I found a solution to this problem and hung a coconut full of fat and seeds, a peanut feeder and a feeder full of sunflower hearts and mixed seeds outside the first floor bedroom window, beneath the eves.  Since then it has attracted plenty of blue tits, great tits and finches.  When I draw back the curtains in the morning, I get back in bed for a while and sit and watch them all.  I had about seven or eight birds visiting the feeders this morning.  Problem solved as the cats cannot get to them and whereas I thought there weren't many birds, I now know that there are plenty about. 

On the opposite side of the house we have a house martin nest box under the eves. It was there for about three years but the birds were not using it.  I wondered why and then realised that my hubby had put it upside down!  He rectified it before the martins arrived this year and we were pleased to see that they made use of it.  We have been watching the cute babies fly out of the nest, then they all go back in when they get tired.  They have done this for the past three or four days.  I suppose they have to build up their strength gradually before their long flight to Africa.  We have bought two double boxes to put up next year and hope we can attract even more of these lovely little birds. They are quite vocal and we can hear them chattering away in the nest.