Bird dog?

[Howard Glansfield]

Elllie,my quiet and gentle Ellie,today discovered a wren's nest in the garden and killed and brought in a wren chick almost fully fledged.I knew we had a nest but didn't know where it was,even the cats haven't found it.The other dogs are all excited and all know where it is.I am trying to keep them away and resorted to standing guard with a hose pipe tonight! They all got squirted when approaching the place where the nest is.That seems to have worked.I didn't know what else to do.The parents are very distressed, I just hope the young are ready to fly soon.

[Sherry Miller]

That's a hard one for you Howard with the three Irish Setter's to protect the nest from....perhaps as Sue says on lead or taken somewhere else until the babies are gone? Your hose may be the thing to get the message home to them if they do not decide that hose is a game.

 I have been lucky with Molly so far ...she actually would lie down and watch the baby cardinals nest with the mom and dad going in and out...all we told her was no ...leave it.  We did keep an eye on her in daytime but at night she was out there without us.  I did keep her out of the back when the babies were on the ground until they learned to fly.  Molly is into hunting...chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits and birds and her shadows.  So far she has reached in one bush and came out with a bird much to my surprise as I had her on lead coming back into our house....she dropped the bird and wanted it to fly so she could catch it again...gentle mouthed so bird did finally leave under it's own wing power.  Mostly she seems to just wish to chase which the young squirrels and the chipmunks seem to enjoy here...they head up the six foot fence and sit up there and chatter at her as they know they are safe there.  Hoping your little birds are soon flying away so problem ends soon.

[Howard Glansfield]

I have checked this morning and the birds have gone so I can relax now.All the other birds that are still nesting are out of reach apart from a Robin who is nesting on top of an old door which is on its side in my workshop.It flies through a hole, for the cats ,in the workshop door to get in and out! The cats leave it alone,why I don't know.

Ellie caught a squirrel once but was so surprised to do so that she let it go!

[silvia]

Oberon managed to catch (and. sigh, kill) two crawls.. he jumps suddenly (and very atletically, I admit!) when they start flying and catch them with his paw on the flight.. they fall down and he finish them with another strong paw.. then he pretends to start playing with the (poor!) death animal, so you have to take it away.. disgusting.. I though dogs can never catch a bird on the flight before to see this..

 

we certainly will stay FAR from the tower on London before to get horribly fined:)

[Rosie Dudley]

I too have wrens and other birds nesting in my garden and outbuildings and what a delight they are! An advantage for my garden birds is I don't have cats and all cats in my locality know not to come into my garden or they are chased by the red inhabitance. Our many birds are accustomed to the dogs and me and carry on around us as if we are part of furniture, Robins are such bold birds and will often hop around the dogs as they lay in the sun. At nesting time, I have often had to duck down when the food is being flown in and I'm on the runway! I have mesh panels that I use to form a run for puppies when I have them and if a nest is in a vulnarable position, I put these panels around the nest area to offer some protection. The time when the fledglings first leave the nest is the time of most danger, they tend to drop to the ground before really finding their wings, they soon do and then they are gone. This year one of the wren fledglings flew into the house, traveling through three rooms and settling by the window trying to get out. I evacuated the dogs to my van, and caught the little chap and put him back where his parents could find him and give him a telling off! 

 

This wren account, I found really lovely, hope you do too,  http://www.birdwatching.com/stories/house_wren.html

[Howard Glansfield]

By and large the dogs leave the birds alone and,like with you Rosie,the birds just seem to accept them.The three cats we have are very good friends with the dogs.Jemima and Arthur are almost inseparable .The two other cats never go hunting but Gemima does but ,you will be plesed to learn,not for birds.Not since she was after some baby blackbirds last year and she was attacked by ,not only the blackbirds but also a pair of thrushes and other birds that were in the ivy at the bottom of my garden.She now accepts the birds that often feed on the ground and although she wants to stalk and hunt she is scared to now.She still catches the odd mouse but I don't mind that!

[Sherry Miller]

Our Molly is not quite as brave as she pretends to be....her stalking and being scared of the box turtle proved that here....and the day she went into her bush cave only to find a hawk in there was one I wish I had a video of.......hawk flew up startled and Molly jumped three feet and was back on the doorstep crying to get in so it could not get her. Squirrels and chipmunks do really play with her as she will be watching them out on the patio and they will come right up to the other side of the window like they are teasing her.    Birds here just ignore her for the most part unless there is a baby on the ground...their noise alerts me to take Molly out the front instead of back until the babies fly the coop!  Tonights walk was late due to heat here and her new adventure had me laughing inside....neighbors put a new statue in their front garden area ...a squirrel...and Molly spotted it from across the street and stalked it ( with me holding the lead and tip toeing ) took her almost five minutes to stalk it across the street to find out it was only a statue....what a sheepish look she had when she realized it was not real.  She just keeps us laughing and smiling here as I know so many of them do for all of us.