Hi x ... I feed the birds every day they have everything and I even make sure their bird drinking bath is always topped up with boiled warm water to keep their tummys warm ... I love my birds but as you say also have a Sparrow Hawk and it so upsets me when he/she take a blue tit etc .. I keep sending my dog out to bark as a warning ... but most birds survive and the pleasure I get watching the robin take control over the food and the blue tits etc creeping up when mister robin is not watching x

It is sad, the sparrowhawk is like lightning....we had a full water pistol loaded and ready to go which chases off both eager cats (we have one ourselves, but he is not a hunter as he is too old) and the sparrowhawk. Our visiting sparrowhawk has only ever taken a blackbird from our garden, it is sad and very upsetting and takes ages to clean up all the feathers and is very distressing to all the other birds who sit silently in the trees too scared to come down.

Ours will not go into or anywhere near a bird bath, they chose instead to drink out of a drain cover hole....which we keep topped up and cleaned out and free of ice...it is odd, we have tried them with loads of different water containers but they don't like them

The feeders are wonderful to watch and we have a territorial robin too who is a terror-torial! We also have three starlings who have worked out how to eat out of coconut shells and the blackbirds have copied them! But there are wonderful compensations, feeding them. I don't know how they would survive in this wild world without human intervention sometimes. Well done, Siuzanah for doing your bit too!

Seems to be a week for sparrowhawks. A female one killed a pigeon in my back garden on Monday. She had only just plucked its back clean of feathers when she was scared off by crows, so she didn't even manage to feed.

It is unusual for crows to scare off a sparrowhawk, though, isn't it? They are not scared by much in the bird world!

Nor are crows, though. They take on buzzards and those are much bigger than sparrowhawks. But in this case, I think the sparrowhawk wasn't so much frightened away as just disgusted that such riff-raff were hanging around watching her.

We feed a colony of goldfinches all year round.I think it's important not just to feed in the winter. Birds especially need food during the hatching season. No sparrowhawks here but lots of pesky squirrels trying to steal the birdfood. We do have one effective anti squirrel bird feeder and it's great fun watching them trying to figure it out, so far it's completely baffled them.

Remember last spring I was sitting on back doorstep with cuppa. Couple of starlings hopping round around then whoosh sparrowhawk dived and grabbed 1 and flew off. I got such a shock.

I totally agree with you Terry, it is important to feed them all year round, but more important in the winter because in particular they struggle for water because it freezes over.

Ros, it is a terrible shock, too, they are so fast and furious....and aren't the starlings wonderful to watch...they have such a gawky ungainly walk and are such amazing colours!

Yep I feed the birds ----to the cat.

We have awesome looking Ravens stalking around on the green quite often, also Magpies galore. In the summer loads of Squirrels, my cat George loves to chase them, but they always get away, i don't think he will ever learn!
I dont feed the birds as it would just encourage the cats to catch even more, plus Rats, Mice ect. The whole area where i live was woodland not so long ago and there are still areas left so we have lots of unwanted wildlife roaming around, and sadly lots of Foxes getting run over, my cats play with them overnight if they are out in the warmer weather, usually the new cubs, i have watched them playing before, very sweet.

How sad, poor foxes getting run over, Serena....where do you live...we used to live in Cornwall and there were always magpies around...love them, but you don't get them in Scotland. sad, because I love to watch them, they are so funny.

I love the cats playing with the foxes...that is amazing! I never heard of that before, how incredible. They are playful, cats, trouble is they are also hunters, sometimes it is hard to reconcile the two sides of their nature.

Sarah my cat catches everything that moves but my last cat use to catch mice and the odd rabbit but never touched the birds. They would feed within feet of him and he just let them be,and when the jackdaws tried to hog the food from the small birds he would chase them off. Funny cat he liked the birds but hated people!

Sensible cat, I would say!! Birds are far nicer than people in my experience!