Poacher
Gravitationally challenged member
- Location
- Nottingham
Been a strange few days. Monday morning I noticed a baby Woodpigeon on the floor, looking dazed. Checked the windows; no sign of a collision and the fledgling looked undamaged, so I left well alone, expecting the parent(s) to come and feed it. Nothing happened in the next few hours, so I offered it some food in the shape of moistened homemade wholemeal bread, and water. No inclination to eat or drink of its own accord, and I wasn't going to force it - my nephew did that once, and ended up with a totally dependent Woodpigeon, which sat on his shoulder as he went about his house and shat down his back with distressing frequency, so he had to drape a towel on his shoulder. As soon as he'd raised it to independence, it flew into the road and died in a collision with a passing car.
Monday evening I was concerned that it was a sitting "duck" for the local cats to play with and give it a miserable death, so I caught it, with only token resistance, and put it on a 6' high pergola, where it sat all night. Mid-morning on Tuesday, our local pair of Collared Doves came down, looked at it without interfering (unusually for them, as they normally see Woodpigeons off the premises), but an adult Woodpigeon attacked it and dislodged it from its perch. It hunkered down on the ground beneath the pergola to await its inevitable death without so much as a murmur. Nothing I could do if it wasn't prepared to co-operate with me, and it died late afternoon. I left the corpse for a fox to find. After dark, one of the (far too many) local cats had a sniff, but left it. Next action came from one of two badgers at about 23:35, picked up the body and took into the flower border. I thought it had taken it away to eat, but Wednesday morning found the corpse, minus only the head, beneath a clematis.
I retrieved the remains and put them under the pergola for a fox to find.
Fox at about 22:30 showed interest, shook the corpse, pulled its tail off, then left it!
After badger at 23:25 sniffed the corpse but otherwise didn't bother, fox returned at 4:20, played toss and catch with it and finally trotted off with it.
In other news I found a dead dragonfly in the doorway of the greenhouse in the early evening. It wasn't there in the early afternoon but seemed totally desiccated. What was it doing there? Possibly hunting hoverflies, of which there always seem to be many in the greenhouse?
I think it's a female Brown Hawker (Aeshna grandis), but certainly wouldn't swear to it.
Monday evening I was concerned that it was a sitting "duck" for the local cats to play with and give it a miserable death, so I caught it, with only token resistance, and put it on a 6' high pergola, where it sat all night. Mid-morning on Tuesday, our local pair of Collared Doves came down, looked at it without interfering (unusually for them, as they normally see Woodpigeons off the premises), but an adult Woodpigeon attacked it and dislodged it from its perch. It hunkered down on the ground beneath the pergola to await its inevitable death without so much as a murmur. Nothing I could do if it wasn't prepared to co-operate with me, and it died late afternoon. I left the corpse for a fox to find. After dark, one of the (far too many) local cats had a sniff, but left it. Next action came from one of two badgers at about 23:35, picked up the body and took into the flower border. I thought it had taken it away to eat, but Wednesday morning found the corpse, minus only the head, beneath a clematis.
I retrieved the remains and put them under the pergola for a fox to find.
Fox at about 22:30 showed interest, shook the corpse, pulled its tail off, then left it!
After badger at 23:25 sniffed the corpse but otherwise didn't bother, fox returned at 4:20, played toss and catch with it and finally trotted off with it.
In other news I found a dead dragonfly in the doorway of the greenhouse in the early evening. It wasn't there in the early afternoon but seemed totally desiccated. What was it doing there? Possibly hunting hoverflies, of which there always seem to be many in the greenhouse?
I think it's a female Brown Hawker (Aeshna grandis), but certainly wouldn't swear to it.
