There is the "flying rat" argument, which I do tend to agree with being as town pigeons are horrible disease ridden shysters.
There was the one on Whitby station the other year that attacked me as I was enjoying a smoke (remember those? ) and a coffee. I made an excellent left-footed shot right through the open double doors of the station entrance.
It is high tortoise season here. There is only one that we know of thast actually lives in our garden. It was about the size of my thumb, last year, and now fits the palm of my hand. The fields around are full of them, noisily mating, with a clashing of shells and little barks. We have many doves and magpies and swallows nest in our carport every year.There is also a nearby owl who likes to sit on our gatepost. Our barrel roof tiles encourage birds to nest under the curled edges so we have two sentinel plastic owls which tend to discourage them. Apart from the noise and mess, the main reason is because, the first year we were here, we were invaded by bird mites and it took a lot of diligence and hard work to get rid of them.Nasty little things, almost invisible with a nasty bite. A friend in U.K. had to move house because of them. Thankfully, we have not had any more problems with them in the last 16 years.
Our garden is also afflicted by several cats who claim to live with us......
It's a great pity the right of free speech isn't based on the obligation to say something sensible.
I love tortoises. I used to have three of them, so I’m really envious that you have them wandering around your garden, Cass.
A friend who lives in the States also has iguanas wandering around her garden. Gromit used to enjoy wandering round ours although I had to watch him carefully in case he decided to shoot up a tree. 😳
On the nest is big fat squab about half the size of its parents, almost ready to go.
Could hear a lot of flapping in the tree when I was working in the garden this afternoon. Went to investigate, and there are 2 large fat squabs! They were exercising their wings, jumping in and out of the nest to nearby branches. Thay are back in the nest tonight, but I think they will be off in the next day or 2. They look like normal pigeons now.
There been mixed fortunes for the 2 doves which took over the pigeons nest around the end of August.
I saw a broken egg on the path a couple of weeks ago, but noticed the next day the nest was still being sat on. Fast forward to yesterday evening and next door spotted a fledgling dove fallen between the fence and their decking. They put in the dense evergreen shrub under the tree this morning, and the parents have been coming to and fro since.
I guessed what they had done, because "you know who" was paying great attention to the shrub and trying to work out if he could get up there. He has lost interest for the time being. So fingers crossed, the dove doesn't fall again, which will happen on my side this time. yoursmiles.org/tsmile/kitten/t09154.gif
Better news is the hedgehogs have been here all summer and bred again. One poor little hoglet was attacked and sadly died, the rest were fine and have wandered off now. One of the adults has been visiting me regularly the past month. I put out some cat food and biscuits every night, the light comes on briefly when he gets to the dish, so I get to see him/her scoffing.
We have lots of pigeons here. There is a pair that come everyday to waddle round the garden and visit the bird bath, it does take them a bit of effort to get off the ground lol!
Rescuing the baby dove and putting in back in the bush below the tree from which it fell has been successful. The parents have stayed in attendance, feeding and protecting it. I took this picture this morning of it sitting on the fence in the sun. I've stood some large garden trays up against the tree trunk, if Boots sees it he will up there!