Nature is cruel - woodpecker

[matt308]

There isn’t a living thing that isn’t food for another.
Cruelty implies taking pleasure or satisfaction in the pain one is inflicting, which obviously isn’t quite what happens in the animal kingdom, but as humans it is difficult (for some) not to anthropomorphise. Hunters not so much.
I had a sparrowhawk in the garden shredding a screeching blackbird for 20 minutes. Filmed a bit of it but it got a bit distressing. Didn’t shoo the bird off though. That’s nature.

 

[billy_boyle_2010]

There isn’t a living thing that isn’t food for another.
Cruelty implies taking pleasure or satisfaction in the pain one is inflicting, which obviously isn’t quite what happens in the animal kingdom, but as humans it is difficult (for some) not to anthropomorphise. Hunters not so much.
I had a sparrowhawk in the garden shredding a screeching blackbird for 20 minutes. Filmed a bit of it but it got a bit distressing. Didn’t shoo the bird off though. That’s nature.

Agree with most of this.....

But the criticism of anthropomorphism is complex IMO.

Clearly the way children do it (thanks Disney!) and some adults is foolish.

But it's also an easy criticism to throw at someone who's being empathetic. Animals share an awful lot of neurochemistry with humans- anyone who has had close pets will see human like emotions in their animals. They are absolutely capeable of feeling "human" emotions like guilt, envy, joy, sorrow to name a few.

Whilst we shouldn't totally anthropomorphise them- they aren't the inert nothings that some hunters like to think they are as we extinguish their life.

 

[matt308]

Fair enough. I’m not suggesting higher animals don’t have consciousness and emotions, some of which appear to equate with ours, although I think it’s fair to say they are not as wide ranging or nuanced as ours.

 

[billy_boyle_2010]

Fair enough. I’m not suggesting higher animals don’t have consciousness and emotions, some of which appear to equate with ours, although I think it’s fair to say they are not as wide ranging or nuanced as ours.

Absolutely. Although having spent some time in Costa Rica with 4 monkey species- I was amazed at their capacity of emotions. I likened it to working with Toddlers in a pre school group.

 

[GWP]

Trapped Magpies and after a long time nothing was happening so I decided to stop, and let the Call bird go why not.
Next day seen the call bird, recognise him because of the bird droppings on his wings, killing Blackbird chicks.

Yes nature is cruel, it has to be to survive.

why let the call bird free you just defeated all the good work you did knock it on the head

 

[old keeper]

Anyone who has had any experience of free-range chicken farms will know just how vicious chickens can be. Any bird that gets hung up in the surrounding electric netting will be pecked to death in minutes and come back a quarter of an hour later and there's nothing left but bones!

 

[pjkaz]

Jays in are garden picking off the sparrow Chicks.

 

[Rory]

I have several schwegler woodcrete boxes with 'cages' over the entrance hole to prevent predators from taking the chicks - these are also super easy to clean out which is a plus.

Some years ago Mrs D said 'there's a Spotted Woodpecker trying to get into that nestbox to nest'. I replied 'no, its trying to get into the box to get to the Blue Tit chicks!' Next day I fitted some homemade 2mm aluminium plates over all my wooden nestbox holes... Stops Woodpeckers and squirrels getting in.

Reminds me of this epic picture...

 

[baguio]

Reading on this thread how little country people know about the wildlife around us amazes me and saddens me in equal measure.

 

[shakey jake]

ive got a green wood pecker causing chaos in my garden. drilled a massive hole in the ash tree just to raise its young!!

 

[AGR]

ive got a green wood pecker causing chaos in my garden. drilled a massive hole in the ash tree just to raise its young!!

It probably knew the tree would get die back soon anyway!

 

[willowbank]

Had two herring gull chicks raised on our chimney stack......coming on well...growing nicely....until the jackdaws or another gull fancied a meal! Only one now but double the food supply for him/her

Saw a Gull tearing into a roadkill Woodpigeon, not seen that before.

WB

 

[willowbank]

Sorry to rain on your parade but thats a daft thing to do - all it does is educate and make trapping harder for everyone else

Normally the released call bird, imported from away to attract resident Magpies, will be killed by said residents upon its release. Best knock it on the head.
BUT that won’t be happening on my patch this season cos I’ve rid the area, yes absolutely not heard or seen a Maggie for nearly a month. Working 2 Larsens and moving them across to end boundaries weekly.

Willowbank

 

[hw101]

Normally the released call bird, imported from away to attract resident Magpies, will be killed by said residents upon its release. Best knock it on the head.
BUT that won’t be happening on my patch this season cos I’ve rid the area, yes absolutely not heard or seen a Maggie for nearly a month. Working 2 Larsens and moving them across to end boundaries weekly.

Willowbank

Legend!
I caught 3 in my garden larsen trap last week. They seem to love raw bacon.
There’s at least 5 more going about - hopefully I’ll get them all soon.

 

[jall55]

Normally the released call bird, imported from away to attract resident Magpies, will be killed by said residents upon its release. Best knock it on the head.
BUT that won’t be happening on my patch this season cos I’ve rid the area, yes absolutely not heard or seen a Maggie for nearly a month. Working 2 Larsens and moving them across to end boundaries weekly.

Willowbank

But it didnt get killed - it killed the blackbird chicks

Yes i have also had a fair year on the magpies - caught about 50


Having a storming time catching the crows in the clam shells - just had another 5 arrive today - straight out working - I have found with the crows put several traps together and it really brings them in

 

[Keith Edmunds]

Had two herring gull chicks raised on our chimney stack......coming on well...growing nicely....until the jackdaws or another gull fancied a meal! Only one now but double the food supply for him/her

And, when lure fishing, I used to regularly watch herring gulls swoop down into the reedbed and grab baby moorhens. The circle of life

 

[old keeper]

Reading on this thread how little country people know about the wildlife around us amazes me and saddens me in equal measure.

Having lived in the country all my life and in my present village for approaching 60 years, I do take your point Baguio. In my own village, there are just a small handful of "locals" all the others are incomers who know little or nothing about not only the wildlife but more importantly, the ways of the countryside. I know many of these people dislike the fact I "kill things" yet are quick enough to ask me to help out if they have a problem with the local wildlife. With house prices as they are I can only see this situation getting worse.

Sadly, many of these incomers not only don't seem interested in the countryside some seem to want to change the way the village has been happily run for generations. All rather sad.

 

[Mr Tree]

Having lived in the country all my life and in my present village for approaching 60 years, I do take your point Baguio. In my own village, there are just a small handful of "locals" all the others are incomers who know little or nothing about not only the wildlife but more importantly, the ways of the countryside. I know many of these people dislike the fact I "kill things" yet are quick enough to ask me to help out if they have a problem with the local wildlife. With house prices as they are I can only see this situation getting worse.

Sadly, many of these incomers not only don't seem interested in the countryside some seem to want to change the way the village has been happily run for generations. All rather sad.

I was born & raised in the house I live in now, on the farm, & I feel like a stranger in a strange land now!

 

[Keith Edmunds]

Anyone who has had any experience of free-range chicken farms will know just how vicious chickens can be. Any bird that gets hung up in the surrounding electric netting will be pecked to death in minutes and come back a quarter of an hour later and there's nothing left but bones!

When I kept ferrets and caught a fair haul of rabbits we used to throw the guts in to my mates chickens and they went absolutely mad for them - any baby mice uncovered in the straw were soon devoured by the chickens too,

 

[geoshot]

The woodpeckers don't get it all their own way all of the time
One of their nests close to where I live was taken over by ringneck parakeets
It's a bird eat bird world out there