Chicks left motherless.

Sheikh

Sheikh

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My cat finally managed to catch the Mammy bird as it returned to the nest in the hole in the wall. There are about three chicks in there. if I take the wall apart and take them out could I keep them alive or are they goosed ? Mybe I could drop food into the nest.
 
Best to get rid of the cat or block up the nest site in future, Sheikh. Domestic cats are the worst predators of wildlife, birds at their most vulnerable, like this during nesting time, being their soft targets. Don't you have any wildlife rescue centres near you who could advise? It'll be useless dropping in food as the chicks are still having it placed into their open mouths by the parents. They aren't yet self-feeding. I assume the male parent's a goner, too? If not, he should be feeding the weans as well. If he's already been killed by your cat, the family's now as good as dead.

Try your local wildlife centre or the Society for the Protection of Birds, which should be in your phone book. But I wouldn't be optimistic.
 
I had presumed the Dad had gone walk about but there is still a bird going in and out so fingers crossed one bird can manage.

Need the cat especially around harvest time when the vermin are abroad.
 
Ah, yes, in that case you would need kitty's services, for sure. Songsheet sourced five ferals for the job her way! Approachable enough, but they love their little miceys!

Yes, that'll be Dad on the go twice as hard now, Sheikh. Do you know what they are? You could help if you could determine what - most garden birds love mealworms, grubs, anything like that which you might be able to help him make up for the deficit in hunting assistance. Any pet store will have them, so if you could chuck those out early morning on the wall for him, he can stuff the babies fairly full before Felix is fully awake! If you can help him out (and I think he will feel you owe him that!), he may well single-parent the babes until they fledge and then self-feed to a degree. Best of luck.

PS: if you can't get the mealworms (although pet shops will stock them for reptile and spider lovers), then pro tem a little grated cheese, some dry porridge oats, thin pieces of ham cut into small bits, leftover egg, etc. would be most helpful and do them no harm. If you could add half an egg for them when you're scrambling some for brekkie and leave that out, it would be excellent protein for them.
 
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Mealworms (the dead variety which might make it a bit easier if you're at all squeamish) can be bought from supermarkets now. Even bird seed is good. Athough they don't feed it to their chicks it keeps the adults going so they can devote their time to finding food for the chicks.
 
Years and years ago (when very young) I helped feed a family of blackbirds. We didn't have all the help and advice on helping wildlife as it was not perceived as being under threat, so there was no-one and nothing to tell what to feed them or, indeed, anywhere to get the food if we had known. I seem to remember using minced beef, egg yolk and a pair of plastic tweezers, with a tiny pipette, begged from the Chemistry teacher, to give them a drink.

We weren't allowed to touch the babies as the surviving parent would abandon them, but Dad made a wooden box with an open roof and put it on a tall pole in the garden as he had seen the male bird flitting around and could hear him calling.

We watched for hours to see if he would hear the hatchlings in the box and, much to our relief, he didn't reject them and started flying in and out.

We've always had about a dozen blackbirds in our garden at any one time, which is surprising as they are getting increasingly rare. I like to think that they are descendants of the ones that we helped.
 
I wondered if they might be - they like nesting near to people and pay the price in that people often keep cats. One of my own cats knocked down two new fledglings in the same of 10 minutes, killing both, the wretched animal. I didn't speak to her for days.

Try to get them some mealworms if you can, Sheikh. They'll appreciate berries if you've got them but as it's just Daddy working his nuts off now, the easier you make it for him, the more chance the babies will live.
 
Didn't know blackbirds were getting rare as well. They love apples, don't they..when I eat an apple I always throw the core onto the lawn for [they have their own apples as well!]. As an ex cat owner I now understand why some of my neighbours used to get so angry with my cats going into their garden at this time of year. My next door neighbour always used to tell me when the baby blue tits had left the nest and I used to keep the cats in for a couple of days. I've got a small dog bowl full of water at the end of the garden and every night we watch the robins have a bath in it. My garden needs a bit of pruning and tidying up but it's such a great garden for birds that I'm going to leave it as it is [good excuse for being lazy]. I've got a large holly bush in one corner which is a great place for young birds to hide behind, because nothing can get to them there. Are those 'fat balls' [cue for lewd comment from somewhere] that you hang on trees meant for tit's [it gets worse]. Daddy bird could have a meal out of danger with one of those.
 
Yes, tits are the most-intended recipients of the fat balls, along with other small garden birds like sparrows and robins. If Sheikh can hang one nearish to the nest site, but high enough up that the cat can't just swipe the bird off it, that'd be a grand idea.

Sheikh, your cat will be looking askance at you! Can I also suggest, if you eat them, leaving pieces of orange/tangerine peel near the nest site? Cats loathe and detest citrus! He'll cut you from the Will after this, but at least there's a good chance the wee babies will survive to take a chance on their own.
 
...moving swiftly on...noticed something very strange this morning..imprint of a pigeon on the patio window, wings all a flapping...went outside expecting to see dead pigeon lying on the ground but, nothing there, not even a feather. Most odd..and a bit creepy.
 
Cat nearly got Daddy tit yesterday. Have been leaving snails and other grubs recently. Will hang fat balls out later near the tit.
 
Well, you can only do so much to deter the little fecker! You could try belling him, but I suppose that would alert those pesky varmints he is supposed to kill!
 
moehat said:
...moving swiftly on...noticed something very strange this morning..imprint of a pigeon on the patio window, wings all a flapping...went outside expecting to see dead pigeon lying on the ground but, nothing there, not even a feather. Most odd..and a bit creepy.
Click to expand...

Yet strangely beautiful.

We have a corridor leading to Theatres which is all glass. In certain lights you can see a whole load of such "imprints" in different "poses" all along the corridor, where pigeons have collided with the glass.

It is most noticeable on a winter's evening as the light changes colour and starts to fade.
 
Yes; I'm in no hurry to clean the window [good excuse!]. It is beautiful..it's next to my solar powered rainbow maker as well.
 
I bet the pigeons have a rather different view about leaving their strangely beautiful imprints on plate glass! :eek:
 
Meanwhile, Sheikh's cat should have this sung to him (or her):

Motherless children have a hard time when mother is dead, Lord,
Motherless children have a hard time when mother is dead, Lord,
They don't have anywhere to go
Wandering around from door to door
Nobody treats you like a mother will when your mother is dead, Lord

Father will do the best he can when your mother is dead, Lord
Father will do the best he can when your mother is dead, Lord...
 
Doesn't look good, no sound from the nest. I'll have to cover up the hole in the wall so no others nest there :-(
 
Have a good look inside first, Sheikh. If they were on the point of fledging, they may just have left. But tits are notoriously fragile - I had so many nestboxes full of dead babies, it was tragic. It may be they just died of natural causes in spite of Dad's best efforts.
 
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