Mistle thrush madness

[Paddy's mum]

We had a pair of mistle thrushes nesting last year in our neighbour's orchard,though they used our place as part of their feeding range, and successfully raised three youngsters.

A couple of weeks ago, we noticed a pair exhibiting peculiar noisy and energetic behaviour near one particular tree, and assumed that they were either two rival males or were making early preparation for nesting.

Their odd and raucous behaviour continued to puzzle us, until in the end, we got on the net and learned that they are one of the few species that practise 'resource guarding'. In this case, they have decided that our ivy-clad poplar is for their use only and very vocally chase off any other berry eating bird. They ignore finches (because they are seed-eaters?)but we have watched them repeatedly go for blackbirds, song thrushes, woodpigeons and on one occasion, an innocently passing gull.

I did notice though that they keep a very low profile indeed if any of the hawks are about!

Very unusual behaviour, reminiscent of the little schoolboy's cry of "it's my ball .... and I wanna be captain"!!!!!

[funkypixie]

There's always something new to learn isn't there! I'd never heard of resource guarding before.

My parents have a somewhat 'wild' garden (dad's not a gardener - bless him) which they quite like as it encourages lots of birdlife. They have 2 resident pairs of blackbirds that have been nesting there for several years and one of them has become incredibly used to them. If they are in the kitchen it lands on the windowsill and taps until it is fed a good handful of sultanas and has been know to come into the living room to looks for them if the doors are open.

Each year a pair of great spotted woodpeckers feed at the nut feeder and bring their brood to find a regular food supply. And there are numerous other birds (magpie, wrens finches and robin) that also nest there. It's not even a particularly big garden.

There is a side effect of all this nesting/feeding bird life though. A sparrowhawk has noticed the rich pickings and can often be found in the boughs of the apple tree plucking and eating a woodpigeon or other tasty morsel it has caught nearby It all adds to the experience

Funnily enough the bird they see very few of is the thrush - mistle or song variety. I know numbers are declining but I remember it as being a fairly common bird in my childhood.

Very few birds seem to frequent my garden, although I do have a pair of frequently sighted greater grubby small boys! Co-incidence?

Anna x
(Great idea for a section btw)