A blue tit is squeaking from somewhere near our neighbour’s roof. I have seen or heard it several times and I have wondered if it might be nesting. There is a gap under the tiles and they have nested there before, though it seems a bit late in the season to be looking at a new site. According to naturalists on TV they have had a bad season this year, the cold spring preventing the flush of caterpillars that usually coincides with the hatching of their young. No food meant a poor success rate. We tend not to feed the birds these days because it attracts squirrels, magpies and rats. None of them are particularly welcome. Several of the neighbours over-feed, and some even put food out for foxes. I’ve told them several times that this causes rats, but they ignore me. One even told me that it was my unkempt nature plot that caused the rat problem. Not true. Rats need to eat, and there is nothing for them here. Gardens that leave out food scraps and hard boiled eggs are the cause of the rat problem, and gardens with decking. The stories I could tell you about decking . . .
I have actually sat in a neighbour’s garden and watched rats, in daylight, emerge from under their shed and climb the bird table to feed. The neighbour treated it as if it were a nature documentary. It’s not the fault of the rats, it’s the fault of humans who don’t have the sense they were born with.
After a lifetime killing rats on farms, and knowing a man who caught Weil’s disease whilst fishing, I don’t take rats lightly. There’s something about a rat that riggers a murderous impulse in me. I have actually seen people playing with pet rats in public, and have felt myself wanting to go over and kill it. Fancy rats, despite their colours and cute faces are just the same as the normal disease-ridden bird killing garden rat – they were originally bred from colour variations that Victorian ratcatchers found in sewers. Bear that in mind next time you see one.
Maybe the dearth of caterpillars accounts for the paucity of butterflies. we don’t get rats any more since next door’s abandoned house has been refurbished and occupied.
Yes, I hadn’t linked caterpillars and butterflies in my mind. It must be a relief to have non-furry neighbours.
I am keeping my fingers crossed that our bird feeding won’t attract rats though I believe that research says that no one is ever very far from a rat wherever they live in this country.
Yes, though the distance does depend on the research. I probably have rats in the garden all the time, but as long as they keep themselves to themselves that is OK by me. I’m sure your bird feeding is done sensibly. Round here we have a lot of overfeeding. I am going to start again this winter as I think some of the bird populations need help.
Mankind attracts fellow animal life that feeds off of his refuse and takes shelter in his lifesytle. I do like rats as pets, though I have never had one. They are highly intelligent creatures, and have served Man in the laboratory as experimental subjects. I don’t think it is wise to attract wild rats though.
They must have their good points, but I struggle to see them. 😉 It’s like wasps (yellowjackets) – eat waste food, control insects but a lot of people don’t like them. I do, and am considered strange.