Thread: Save the Birds

I haven't heard of the Liberator Collar, thanks for that. A few nights ago I came home to a house full of feathers and expected to find a dead bird (which sadly I am now used to). Instead I found a bird that was still alive and hiding in my bathroom. There was no blood but I am sure Roark injured its wings because it coudln't fly. I put it outside (Roark stays in at night) and prayed that the pigeon would survive the night and couldn't find it the next morning. The day after that when I opened up for Roark in the morning he came back half an hour later with the pigeon dead in his mouth.

Very sad day for me.

Our old moggie was a fantastically good birder, he had five bells round his neck to no avail. We used the collar which beeps and flashes only when he pounced and it worked wonders. His strike rate fell and he was down to an average of one songbird a week, from several a day.
One extra point - if your boy is catching and eating thrushes it might be worth asking your neighbours to use an alternative to slug pellets as they get eaten by snails who get eaten by thrushes who start to feel ill, slow down a bit and get eaten by the cat who gets poisoned. There are all sorts of alternatives (we collected the snails in an ice cream tub, drove 20 miles into the countryside and sang "Born Free" as we released them. Next day they were all back... Next time we painted the shells with fluorescent paint, just so the thrushes could see them more easily. Sadly, by that stage the cat had eaten just about every single thrush in East Yorkshire and we had some rather peeved snails!)