Sparrows and string

[viques]

I made an elegant tepee with bamboo and artful bindings of string for my sweet peas to climb up.

Unfortunately it appears that every damn sparrow in the neighbourhood is doing a mid season refurb on their nest and the material of choice is Sparrow and Ball Artisnal Twine. I very kindly made up little tassels of spare string for them to peck at once I realised what was happening. But was that enough. It seems not. They have destroyed two of my bindings with their cunning little beaks.

I have had enough of nature. My garden is being turned into a dust bowl by resident fox cubs , the said sweet peas for example are surrounded by industrial strength netting to protect them from the Cubs, and I have to do a daily litter pick to get rid of their take away leftovers. Fruit shoots! FFS.

It's all very well the spring watch team sitting round a campfire in Scotland and enjoying nature on cameras. I would just like to enjoy my garden , with the odd incursion, without feeling that I am
close to having to stand guard over my little patch armed with night vision googles and an AK 47.

And breathe.

Do you know anyone that has a fluffy cat or dog ? Ask them to collect the fur for you when they have brushed their pet then scatter it around you garden hopefully your feathered friends will take that instead and the smell of dog may put the cubs off ( I have absolutely no proof that this will work ) if the birds don't take it the fur will break down and rot fairly quickly so you will have to worry about cleaning up later.

I also don't think an AK-47 is needed but perhaps one of those Super Soaker water pistols and night vision goggles will give you a bit of fun and satisfaction and scared cubs off without doing any serious damage

YY to the dog fur. Some people with long haired dogs that shed a lot put it into peanut bird feeders, and the birds then take that and use it for their nests.

Apparently male wee is meant to be good for putting foxes off too.

You could peg out some yarn or cat/dog fluff and they will probably take that instead! Every time I groom my poodle I peg out the fluff on the washing line and put bits in the hedges and they come and collect it almost straight away.

The other day I watched a crow pull the fluff straight off my neighbours sleeping alpaca, it was quite funny! She had a huge clump in her beak and the alpaca didn't even wake up.

You could get an alpaca?

you could get an alpaca

Do they deal firmly with unruly fox cubs? They look quite strict

I did have a very fluffy cat, and all her fluff was put out for the birds , they loved it, the blue tits were especially greedy, it looked like a Black Friday scrum when their beaks were stuffed so full they could hardly see where they were going.

Maybe that's it, a communal sparrow memory of good pickings at my house..... They are probably complaining that the quality and fluffiness has gone down hill this year.