Sparrowhawk or Cat? (1 Viewer)

songbird6666 · Jul 31, 2004

I decided to eat my breakfast cereal outside in the sun this morning (yes, we actually had some for the first time in weeks) I opened the back door to be greeted by the remains of a poor little female greenfinch. There were two wings, two legs and the beak and only a few other feathers. I didn't feel much like eating after I had cleared them away. Does anyone think or know if this would have been a hawk? I haven't had a visit to my knowledge at all this year, but I would have thought there would be more feathers - don't they usually pluck the bird or is it only when it's a bigger bird like a dove? I do know there is a damn cat which keep skulking around, but would a cat have left the bits and pieces?

shelley810 · Aug 1, 2004

Sure sounds like a kitty MO.
The neighbor across the street has one of those whiskery things and when it catches mice she leaves them in front of her door (usually with no head) lined up. If she catches a bird, the head is usually on (according to my neighbor)
If it was indeed a cat, wonder why dear kitty felt she had to leave a "present" for you! (yukky)

Shelley

PS--sorry the little glimpse of sun was spoiled for you. Hope it shines better tomorrow!

Bluetail · Aug 1, 2004

shelley810 said:
If it was indeed a cat, wonder why dear kitty felt she had to leave a "present" for you! (yukky)

It seems some do. When I was a baby my parents used to have a cat which had a habit of bringing in dead rodents and leaving them in my pram with me. Evidently it thought I needed feeding!

Agree songbird's predator does sound like a cat.

scampo · Aug 1, 2004

Well - I think a cat, too. Our two tend to leave us these 'presents' fom time to time, sadly. A hawk would likely have caught the bird on a lawn or such like and devoured it there.

songbird6666 · Aug 1, 2004

Thanks for the replies, I thought it would be the cat too. I'm very very fed up about this - not only is it constantly in my garden stalking the birds, hiding under bushes etc, it is also using the lawn or anywhere else it damn well likes as a toilet. I am so angry but what can you do, apart from falling out with neighbours, I can't afford one of the electronic devices, and of course, every time I see it, it sees me too and is off before I can get anywhere near it to chuck water over it. It's also out there very early, saw it at 6am the other morning as I happened to be in the kitchen getting a drink. Why can't people keep their cats indoors at night, what's the point of having a pet that is out most of the time? I just don't get it. :C

scampo · Aug 1, 2004

It's sad that you are having such problems - and I've never known a cat not bury its toilet. We've had two cats as pets since we've been married, and my parents also had a cat when I was a young child. I've never known a neighbour find this a problem, thank goodness. I don't know what I would do if that was so - but I would prefer to be told about it so...

Do speak to your neighbour and see if a friendly compromise of some kind might be reached. Something might be possible - I know we'd try hard to make matters improve.

But, life will go on with or without the cat, of course - it just begins not to seem that way when you're very angry. In the great scheme of things, I hope you'll agree, that little moggy might be a pain in the **** at times but when all is said and done, I hope you'll agree it's a relatively minor irritation.

Out of interest, we wake up many mornings to fox droppings on our lawn, and - less often these days - to dog droppings on the pavement. It happens!

Mickymouse · Aug 2, 2004

I get regular visits by my neighbours cat, the birds just fly off for a while the cat goes home and my birds come back, no real problem. To be honest I have got more bird poo than cat poo in my garden.

Mick

Goat · Aug 2, 2004

I found a pile of sparrow feathers which as nothing else reamined made me think hawk and the next day got a superb view of the sparrow hawk as it came in fast and low , shot between the two houses and did a sharp bank left as it emerged intotopen space.
Cats tend to leave a couple of feathers then remove the whole corpse.
Nip out to Woolies or the £Stretchers and get one of the modern water pistols which you pump up and shoot about 30 feet ! You then can have fun pretending to be Alan Quartermain and go big game hunting !.
I have a problem in that my rescued Labrador cheerfully chases off any bird that enters even the air space above our garden so my bird table and feeders have the fastest snacking birds in Glos. !

Bill@dwp · Aug 2, 2004

I agree thats its a cat. I've seen quite a few sparrowhawk attacks over the years and they result in huge amounts of feathers as they tend to eat the kill where they take it. Cats usually skulk off and then tuck into what they've caught and have a tendancy to leave bits they dont fancy.
Our old cat wasn't keen on wings or heads, but fortunately was too bone idle most of the time to go after the birds.

Jos Stratford · Aug 2, 2004

It's dead easy (sorry for the pun) to decide who's the guilty party here ...cat leaves head, wings and bundle of feathers by her scrathing post in the living room (!), sparrowhawk leaves at best a single feather or two under the feeder!

Kitty's trophies have included Quail, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Red Squirrel, two Grass Snakes (both left in living room alive) and assorted others! PS she has two bells and is not allowed out in the early morning, but I'm afraid her garden list continues to grow!

Mary · Aug 2, 2004

I've found scattering mothballs under shrubs quite successful as a cat deterrent. Also, if you can get some branches from Pyracantha (with long thorns!) place these under the shrubs, then there's nowhere comfortable for the cat to wait!
Mary

Dave Brov · Aug 2, 2004

Get a dog not many cats are foolish enough to come into my garden anymore and the birds are flourishing and bring more birds with them and my big bulldog hates cats so he helps the birds even though he doesnt know it

songbird6666 · Aug 2, 2004

Dave Brov said:
Get a dog not many cats are foolish enough to come into my garden anymore and the birds are flourishing and bring more birds with them and my big bulldog hates cats so he helps the birds even though he doesnt know it

I've got a dog already - and she chases cats, not that she would harm one if she caught it, but these cats round here shoot off like a rocket as soon as I so much as move the door handle, so I have no chance of getting either a shot with a water pistol or the dog getting anywhere near.

As for discussing this problem with a neighbour, I'm not entirely sure who owns the culprit. Apparently it was a stray which has been adopted by someone down the road, but whom exactly I don't know, and I don't really know any of the people around here anyway, I keep myself to myself if you know what I mean!

Cat owners seem to be very anti-collar-with-bell too, I have been involved in all sorts of discussions on other forums about this subject, but whether they actually do any good anyway I'm not sure. I will give the mothballs idea a try though, and I could put hawthorn under the shrubs, that won't be very comfortable either and I have plenty of holly around too,m anything is worth a try. :C

Jos Stratford · Aug 2, 2004

Hi Songbird,

No point trying to persude owners to make cats wear bells ...my cat has two bells, but she just sits and pounces, too quick for the bell to make any difference. Also don't think the mothballs will work, my cat could't care less about them.
Try the hawthorn ...gives good bit of wildlife cover too and no cat is going to make a successful catch if needs to squeeze through thorn bush!

Best bet though is to get to like cats!!!

songbird6666 · Aug 10, 2004

Update - the cat has made at least two more kills, and I'm so fed up. I stopped it's little game of lurking under bushes by blocking them so that it can't spring out on unsuspecting birds on the ground, but this cat is very clever. It leaps from the ground in the gardens behind mine and grabs the poor little birds off the top of my 5 foot fence whilst they are sitting waiting patiently for a turn on the feeders. I guess barbed wire along the top is the next thing then, not sure that will stop the thing though. One more greenfinch, and tonight a poor young blue tit, saw it's little body in the neighbours garden, it didn't even bother to eat it. Feathers everywhere. :C

Katy Penland · Aug 10, 2004

Don't know if you have anything like this where you live, but where I live in AZ (USA), if dogs or cats are running loose without collars, we can call the local animal control. Then it's the official's job to catch and "impound" the marauder until an owner shows up to claim it, or it gets adopted out. Hopefully not by one of your own neighbors!

I've discouraged local strays by firing a BB gun near them (I never aim to hit any animal), and they hate the noise. We used to have 2-3 cats/day stake out the feeder area on our 2.5 acre property. Now we have 1 cat visit every week or two, and the bird casualties have fallen to 0. However, it sounds like you have close neighbors, so the airgun approach wouldn't be advisable. Although you could just pump and fire it without the BBs -- it still makes the same godawful racket!

Paul G · Aug 10, 2004

I've discouraged local strays by firing a BB gun near them (I never aim to hit any animal), and they hate the noise. We used to have 2-3 cats/day stake out the feeder area on our 2.5 acre property. Now we have 1 cat visit every week or two, and the bird casualties have fallen to 0. However, it sounds like you have close neighbors, so the airgun approach wouldn't be advisable. Although you could just pump and fire it without the BBs -- it still makes the same godawful racket!
Today 01:11

Hi Katy.........I have a vivid picture of you standing in your yard with a remington wingmaster pump action blasting away and shouting "damn vermin"
Great post
I have mentioned this in an earlier post and was accused of "Flamming" but I will print it again :-
I have a rescued European Eagal Owl living in my back garden (she is 14 years old and to old to release) I have absolutly no problems with cats and the birds are so so used to her (they even land and chirp away a few feet from her)

Katy Penland · Aug 10, 2004

Paul G said:
Hi Katy.........I have a vivid picture of you standing in your yard with a remington wingmaster pump action blasting away and shouting "damn vermin"

LOL! I do come from a long line of old west homesteaders, so you're right. Well, except for the shouting bit (which would only scare my birdies).

Lest anyone think I'm operating under a double standard when it comes to guns (because I took another BF poster to task for advising someone to outright shoot pigeons and starlings in her urban neighborhood), I deliberately do not use a pellet gun (more powerful = longer range; and pellets tend to penetrate, not bounce like round BBs do).

I've also used the BB gun to discourage birds! Two young ravens who, two days in a row, tried to get at the nest of a Lewis's woodpecker who'd lost his mate (yes, to a feral cat) and was literally working his tail feathers off feeding three noisy hatchlings. Again, didn't shoot AT the ravens but at the tree trunk below where they were perched, and they vamoosed. I'm also happy to report that that intrepid Lewis's male fledged all three young, and all four still hang around the yard, cadging peanuts, corn, and the young are learning how to use the mini-pond. I'll be very sad to see them go when the weather turns.

I have mentioned this in an earlier post and was accused of "Flamming" but I will print it again :- I have a rescued European Eagal Owl living in my back garden (she is 14 years old and to old to release) I have absolutly no problems with cats and the birds are so so used to her (they even land and chirp away a few feet from her)

Don't know why you'd get flamed for sharing this. Everyone's circumstances are different, and individual birds of the same species will also behave differently according to the situation. There are many things I have to do for myself here in the wilds of northeast Arizona, where if I were living in southern California, I'd call the appropriate authority.

For the most part, I've found common sense will dictate the appropriate course of action. Having said that, Thomas Payne once intoned, "There's nothing so uncommon as common sense." Guess I just shot my own argument in the foot, huh?

Jos Stratford · Aug 10, 2004

Sounds a bit gun-crazy the last couple of suggestions from the USA ...first I think you'd scare the birds further than the cat, second probably be illegal in the UK! And regardless of how much I like birds, I know what my reaction would be if someone took a pot shot at my cat!

Katy Penland · Aug 10, 2004

Jos Stratford said:
Sounds a bit gun-crazy the last couple of suggestions from the USA ...first I think you'd scare the birds further than the cat, second probably be illegal in the UK! And regardless of how much I like birds, I know what my reaction would be if someone took a pot shot at my cat!

First, I think name-calling ("gun-crazy") is inappropriate, regardless of your opinion on the use of guns of any kind. I have probably used my BB gun fewer than a dozen times in the nearly 3 years I've lived here. Hardly "crazy" behavior by any standards. Also, I'm sure you are aware that BB and pellet guns are airguns, right? Not firearms. They're still "weapons" per se and need to be handled with respect because they can injure.

Secondly, as I alluded to in my response to PaulG, wildlife are adaptable to varying circumstances. Our yard "regulars" may flush if I happen to use the BB gun when they're around, but they also immediately (within seconds) return to feeding. They somehow know I'm not shooting AT them. The same holds true when I shoo megaflocks of, e.g., pinyon jays, who will invade the yard by the literal hundreds (150-300) for weeks at a time. My loud clapping disperses the feeding frenzy, and within seconds, the smaller birds -- who were, BTW, displaced by the megaflock -- return to the yard.

Thirdly, if you have a pet -- cat or dog or horse or snake -- keep it under control. If your animal is allowed to wander onto others' property and do damage (pooping, digging, scaring/killing other pets/wildlife, etc., etc.), you shouldn't be surprised if others will do the controlling for you. Besides, as I said, I don't shoot or even aim AT the trespassing, bird-killing (not just bird-scaring!) cats -- the noise of the gun alone scares them off as does the sound of the BB smacking into the tree under which they're hiding.

Edit: Forgot to mention the reason I was so protective of the Lewis's woodpecker brood: They're listed as a "vulnerable" species and, in some areas, are a "management indicator species." Otherwise, I would have let Nature take its course vis-a-vis the invading common ravens.

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