Photo-a-Day  (Sunday, 13th August, 2023)

I hope it isn't the bread man.

Aromatic crispy duck comes to mind (joking)haha

Or perhaps it's the egg man, (coo coo ca-choo).

The Councils don't encourage people to feed birds, they should defend for themselves especially in Summer.

We have too many Pigeons and seagulls lately, known as flying rats because of greed and dangerous droppings. We should not feed them in parks and towns, some councils will Prosecute people who break that law. These birds are vermin and are unsightly they can cause illness with droppings everywhere. So stop feeding them is order of the day or be over run by vermin, lets keep our towns and cities clean and tidy.

We are seeing a great population in birds lately, but the wrong type of birds. As we know and are sadend of the decline of our beloved garden birds, pigeons, crows and seagulls are increasingly at a remarkable number and some kill garden birds. We need to protect our singing garden birds.

Thats a lot of ducks !
We have lots of seagull here but not the great hulking brutes they have at places like Whitby. That said even the smaller ones are scavengers. They circle above gardens in the late afternoon looking for any scraps, public waste bins are designed to keep them out & though asked not to feed them you see visitors throwing chips etc for them.

Dont talk to me about singing garden birds, theirs nowt worse than a blackbird whistling away first thing in a morning.

Oh Al !!
Obviously you are not an early bird. In the still of a summer morning to go outside & listen to the birds is magic....think what you are missing
and a blackbird is so much better than a pigeon or crow squarking in your earhole !!

There nowt worse than a car idiot driving round with his or hers radio on full volume.
Anyway blackbirds sing lovely songs and now after Spring and Summer they've gone quiet.

Al, wear hear defenders then.
I love our garden birds singing it's what Spring and Summer is all about.

Wood pigeons cooing then, now they are annoying.
Blackbirds sing lovely songs.

At least they clear up after human beings drop their left overs on the ground! I admit there’s too many pigeons about.
I am surprised they aren’t culled. People resorted to eating them
during the war as well as rabbits.

No Veronica that's not the way forward. People who drop litter on the ground should be fined heavily, not to think scavenging birds will eat and clean the place up, what do birds do with cans and bottles? No I disagree with you, people should clean up after themselves.

The early morning chorus by birds singing is fantastic, I agree with Helen of Troy.

Remember, feeding bread to birds does them nothing but harm.

Veronica, during the 1980s the Pigeons around town were captured in three traps and culled, they were on top of Rodney House, Westward House and what was then the new Market Hall, any captured Pigeons were taken up to Haigh Hall Zoo where after preparation they were fed to the meat eating animals to supplement their food, this was endorsed by the Vet as being nutritious for them. Although in 1990 with a change of management this Pigeon trapping along with other non-profit making procedures was stopped.

Beautifully singing garden birds are badly affected with those virulent Asian viruses such as bird flu, though these feral Pigeons seem to be immune, unless they're breeding so profusely that their numbers never seem to decrease.

That goes without saying Malc …I don’t for one minute think that’s the way forward either there are fines in place but the idiots still drop the food there’s no surveillance to see what they do. The pigeons see the food and swoop down - nature is nature.
It’s a great pity the culling was stopped in the 90’s Cyril.

Lots of Quack Quacks :)

Seriously is there not a way of finding pigeon eggs before they hatch?
Where do the pigeons hide them ? I’ve never seen any… but I don’t go looking for them. Any ideas Cyril? …perhaps Dtease will have a few ideas…it seems we’re mauled death with ‘um. I don’t mind one or two but not squadrons of them…..

Living on a busy main road as I do, with traffic passing all day and all night, I must admit I love to hear the birds in the early morning when we go to our caravan, where it is very peaceful and quiet. One night last year, I heard an owl hoot, and was thrilled. I love owls. Unfortunately it was just the once but I hope to hear it again sometime. I love natural sounds like birdsong, the wind in the trees and running water, as in a brook. People dropping litter and not cleaning up after their dogs drives me mad! How difficult is it to take litter home or drop it in a rubbish bin? And it takes five seconds and a plastic bag to clean up after a dog. It isn't animals who are at fault, it is people. My grandchildren never drop so much as a toffee-wrapper because their Dad taught them not to do so. I taught their Dad and MY Dad taught ME. Children learn by example. It's not rocket science, it's manners, thought for other people and simple rules taught in infancy.

Your perfectly right Irene my grandchildren have been taught right,never discard any waste food or litter, I’d say it’s the parents 99% of the time not giving a dam what there children get up to .

You find pigeons eggs in the nest before they hatch. You'll find them in trees and Conifers. Many underneath railway bridges and disused buildings.

I live on the coast and the sound of gulls wheeling overhead is great, especially when there's a storm brewing and they head inland. There are swallows nesting in the eves of the house (yes they make a mess of the walls, but after making a flight of thousands of miles from North Africa, I don't think I should complain). Wildlife has as much right as humans to live on this planet. The behaviour of birds has mostly been influenced over the years by people eating fast foods and not disposing of rubbish responsibly.

Have you looked under Ma Pigeon Veronica? That’s where they usually keep em.
Yer affot gerrum afore they learn how to fly ‘cos it gets a bit tricky after that tha nose.

Blackbirds whistling...never heard them whistling, Al.
I've heard them singing lovely songs first thing in the morning in Spring and Summer.
At this time of year, their a little quiet.

Irene your spot on what you say, you have a way with words. If you ever write a book, let me know and I'll buy it. Cheers, now it's sherry time.

Veronica, Pigeons are Rock Doves and they originally made nests on the rock ledges of cliffs (until the Victorians started to keep them for food i.e., squabs,) the nests are plain and rough using anything to hand, stones, twigs, grass and even bits of litter, nowadays these nests are made on the ledges of buildings or wherever they roost, I can't recall the number of eggs they lay, though it will probably be according to the availability of food, Wiki will know, they also feed their chicks on Pigeon milk. That was a question on an RSH exam paper, 'What is Pigeon milk?'

It's just liquid regurgitated food what the Pigeons have partly digested to feed the chicks. A lot of businesses have put up netting and spikes to deter Pigeons from roosting and nesting, but somehow they get around these obstacles to roost and nest. The reason the trapping and culling stopped was there was no money for the manager to make a profit out of it, who would the council send an invoice to for trapping Pigeons in public places, it was then when they also began charging for treating rats, mice, ants and wasps etc., these services were free before with the payments being made from the rates people had paid, but the free pest control service ended to became to be run as a business and to make as much profit as possible, which I and also others didn't agree with, but you know what happens when the council sees a way to make money.

Egg breaking has been tried with Seagulls, but people began objecting, so I don't think that's done now.

According to pigeonpedia and Quora: Pigeons lay a clutch of only two eggs, but they can lay 2 eggs up to six times in a year, so a flock in the park with plenty of food on the ground will soon multiply.

https://pigeonpedia.com/how-many-eggs-does-a-pigeon-lay/
https://www.quora.com/How-many-eggs-does-a-pigeon-lays

I’m a bit squeamish so I couldn’t crack pigeon’s eggs even if I found some. I wouldn’t like to sprise Ma Pigeon off a nest either. But thank you for the information from all. I can’t see myself climbing trees either Alan and there’s plenty of them where I live. Jungle Jim
( a neighbour of mine) has heavily thinned some branches though due to me putting a note through his letter box. Which was nice of him.

Any problems with trees Veronica give me a shout I do any tree work for Jean that had the shoe shop in Westhoughton.

Veronica just Google it.

Your right Cyril and young female pigeons start laying about two eggs after they are six months old and can lay all year round, so it doesn't take long to have massive flocks of birds.

That’s useful to know John. The problem was they are JJ’s trees he shouldn’t have planted them so near my patch….so all’s well that ends well. Although I can’t reach the apples and plums now -they were very tasty. ;o)

Veronica I went to Galloways pie shop at Platt-Bridge on Saturday, a teenager walked by drinking a can of bull, finished it off and just thrown it on the pavement without a care in the world. Across the road between the pie shop and the Handymans store are Council waste bins at the side of the pavement not far from where he threw it.
Discussing.

If you say anything to them which I have done recently you may get verbal abuse or they say “it’s not me who’s dunnit” . I pick bottles and cans up and have wet wipes in my bag after touching them. It’s a good job we have those wonderful volunteers in W/H. It’s a nice tidy place but there’s always the wrong un’s everywhere.

Veronica my cousin John is one of the volunteers that keep Westhoughton station looking good he worked at Hindley golf course I think he may have retired but unsure.My wife had a do with one young girl who was being abusive to an old lady at Tesco white horse the girl had 2 children with her and clearly nothing wrong with her but parked in a disabled bay with no blue card F’in and Jef’in at the old lady who couldn’t get parked but had a blue badge,the lady thanked my wife,what will those children be like when they grow up,it’s a good job I wasn’t there.

Exactly I fear for those children with a mother like that. What kind of a world have we come to?

Pigeons don't squawk, chirp, tweet, hoot, honk or quack, they actually koo.