Post by rowanberry on Jan 28, 2020 20:16:37 GMT
I was really looking forward to the Big Garden Birdwatch this year... Snowlynx and I have been doing it since before the demise of WaB, and it's become an annual tradition for us. We’d get a couple of cinnamon rolls, cups of tea, binoculars nearby and have checklists in hand. It’s been on my calendar since before Christmas and we've always enjoyed doing it.
However, after coming across the RSPB's most recent report on cat predation, I lost my enthusiasm for it. It has to be the most useless response that I've ever seen about what is becoming a major problem for a great many of us, and after multiple readings of it I am still angry.
“Despite the large numbers of birds killed by cats in gardens, there is no clear scientific evidence that such mortality is causing bird populations to decline. This may be surprising, but many millions of birds die naturally every year, mainly through starvation, disease or other forms of predation. There is evidence that cats tend to take weak or sickly birds.”
*said once more in a simpering voice* “many millions of birds die naturally every year, mainly through starvation, disease or other forms of predation.” Oh, well that’s ok then… we can just top up that number with the added millions killed by cats and count ourselves lucky, shall we?
It never stops… our trailcam shows cats, cats, cats, constantly prowling and hunting around the pond night after night, and I’ve had to put up so much protective fencing it’s turned into an eyesore that I’d happily fill in if it weren’t for the fact that the frogs are desperate for safe breeding spaces, (safe once they get in the pond, that is. They're out of luck coming or going.)
The quoted comment above just really makes me feel like the RSPB does not have our backs at all.
So… no Big Garden Birdwatch this year. Maybe I’ll save all the trailcam cat clips and send them that instead.
There… rant over.
However, after coming across the RSPB's most recent report on cat predation, I lost my enthusiasm for it. It has to be the most useless response that I've ever seen about what is becoming a major problem for a great many of us, and after multiple readings of it I am still angry.
“Despite the large numbers of birds killed by cats in gardens, there is no clear scientific evidence that such mortality is causing bird populations to decline. This may be surprising, but many millions of birds die naturally every year, mainly through starvation, disease or other forms of predation. There is evidence that cats tend to take weak or sickly birds.”
Are they taking the p*ss??? 
(Sorry, but every time I re-read it my blood pressure goes up again.) 
(Sorry, but every time I re-read it my blood pressure goes up again.) 
Do they not realise that those numbers are kept under a semblance of control by us… because we must constantly be on guard against a neighbour’s pet by fortifying our gardens, our feeders, and our nesting boxes? I hate to think of the number of times I’ve wound thorny brambles around boxes to protect them from cats, the birdhouse guardians I've attached, the times I’ve put on rubber gloves and smeared dog mess around the base of tree trunks to safeguard nests, the countless frogs I’ve picked up after a night of somebody’s moggy going on a killing spree around my pond during spawning season.
Every time Snowlynx has an orange we save the peel, (fortunately he eats them a lot) and any garlic that’s gone off so I can cut it up to scatter under the feeding station and under the hedge, to try and ward off the roughly twenty cats that live in our street and who obviously think I hang feeders to provide them with a bit of light entertainment. It’s something I have to do almost every day.
It never stops… our trailcam shows cats, cats, cats, constantly prowling and hunting around the pond night after night, and I’ve had to put up so much protective fencing it’s turned into an eyesore that I’d happily fill in if it weren’t for the fact that the frogs are desperate for safe breeding spaces, (safe once they get in the pond, that is. They're out of luck coming or going.)
The quoted comment above just really makes me feel like the RSPB does not have our backs at all.
So… no Big Garden Birdwatch this year. Maybe I’ll save all the trailcam cat clips and send them that instead.
There… rant over.
