Your Questions

PHOTOS, LETTER, TWEETS, QUESTIONS – HAVE YOUR SAY

Our expert panel answer your birding questions

My Wren visit

I enjoyed the article by Ian Parsons about the Wren in his kitchen and it reminded me of a similar situation I experienced in October 2010. I was observing from a hide at Langford Lakes, Wiltshire, when I heard a fluttering noise. As I looked towards the source of the sound,

I saw a Wren, which had entered through a knot hole in the structure.

It flew around for a few moments and then settled on a window sill. I approached it, expecting it to take to the air, but it sat quite still, whereupon I placed my finger against its breast and it duly climbed on to it; it even allowed me to gently stroke it.

I thought that this deserved a photograph and as it continued to remain quite still as I single-handedly removed the telephoto lens for a standard lens and took a couple of photographs.

Eventually, it flew into the undergrowth.

Michael Trew

Egyptian birding

On a recent visit to the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities in Cairo, I came across the pictured panel, which comes from the mortuary temple of Userkaf (2494-2487BC, first ruler of the 5th Dynasty), located in Saqqara. It shows a flock of birds and a butterfly in a papyrus thicket.

The Hoopoe is obvious with its crest, but I scratched my head on some of the others. Apparently the hovering bird at the top is a Pied Kingfisher, while below are a Grey (or Night?) Heron facing a Green Kingfisher, Sacred Ibis (now extinct in Egypt), African Swamphen (on the right of the panel) and at the bottom the head of a Bittern.

Could it be that there were already birdwatchers in Egypt 4,500 years ago?

Rob McCaffrey

We don’t all have gardens

Clare Howcutt-Kelly suggests we can find hope outside the back door (Starting Small, December 2019), but then bases her entire piece on an idealistic assumption that all

BW readers have houses, back gardens with feeders, and even garden ponds. It’s a far cry from the reality for the millions of us in the UK today who live in tiny flats and bedsits, with only streets outside our front door

( because we don’t have back doors either). That’s why I love the advice of Urban Birder David Lindo to look up wherever you go! Perhaps your other columnists could take an occasional leaf out of his book, and be more considerate and inclusive of the diversity of their readers’ lives, too.

Barbara Crowther

n The editor says: Clare’s column was very much based on her own personal experience, but we try to encourage a range of views, and as you say, Barbara, David Lindo’s ‘look up’ approach works well wherever you are.

My rant response

Having just read the habitat loss rant by James Wooden in the December issue I feel I

must raise a point here.

As a bird and wildlife watcher and Peterborough resident I have always found the staff at the country park only too pleased to be involved in the wildlife.

My own experience has always been positive at Ferry Meadows regarding care of wildlife. So, maybe if someone had called at the visitor centre and informed staff that this red-listed bird was feeding at that location...

Education and information produces positive results, it’s easy to point the finger.

Not everyone is a wildlife expert, the same as not everyone is a dog walker. Terry Matthews, Peterborough

Birds will come back!

In response to Bo Beolens’ January column where he asks whether measures taken to make his garden a cat-free zone has actually put off the birds from visiting:

Your birds will come back, ours did. Last year we did the same using angled chicken wire, making the garden look like a prison exercise yard. Not to everyone’s taste, but no cats. Our birds are now safe. Only the odd one or two cats and a fox cub came through the hole left for the

Hedgehogs, until my husband added a wooden maze tunnel at the entrance. Too small for cats but big enough for the spiky friends.

The birds soon realised that they can just pop through the wire into the trees behind into safety when they feel threatened or disturbed, as does the squirrel who runs away with peanuts.

Deborah Bowditch

The editor says: See over the page for responses to Bo’s view on cats...

Sparrowhawk capture

I enclose some pictures of a Sparrowhawk which landed in my garden eating its prey. I was lucky to have enough time to fetch my camera and photograph the bird.

Robert Morsby