Clear off wildlife

Magicmillbrook

Magicmillbrook

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10 October 2006
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Any one else fed up with wild life? The fileld next to my arena is the only one around now with standing corn so home to every dear in the area. I have swallows in the stables. I wouldn't mind if they just pooed under their nest but every surface is covered so the whole lot will need pressure washing. Pigeons have 2 babies on top of my tack container, so I can't get my jumps down. To add insult the parent birds swoop from the container to the adjacent oak tree whenever I ride, narrowly missing my head. Rabbits have a burrow in the ditch at the other end of the arena and keep scrabbling about, and if they don't the dog is after them. Clear off the lot of you!!!
 
I shall be happy when the deer buzz off - they keep getting in through the top paddock fence & then 'try' to get out in a lower paddock by charging the 7 ft fence there. Am fed up to the teeth of fixing the top fence, despite adding barbed wire to the other side its still happening weekly. Bluddy Muntjack :(
DH thought about turning them into Sunday lunch.... but as he cant shoot for toffee & hasn't got a gun, thats not going to happen just yet.....
 
I usually live in harmony with wildlife, but I swear they have it in for me. My poor little pony has been going round the arena like a spring just waiting for the next boggart to leap out at him!
 
I don't mind the wildlife - but a friend of mine lost her peahens a few weeks ago. There have been sightings in the local area, and I just know that one of them is going to wait til Im out hacking - and leap out of the hedge at us! Alf was attacked by a ninja chicken last year, and is now reduced to hysterics by anything large and feathery!
 
Yes, thoroughly.

Pigeons crap in the water trough
Shed is full of swallows
Rabbits eat the grass as fast as it grows and dig scrapes in the field
Beetles and magpies scatter the droppings about so takes ages to pick up

The good bits:
A little owl perches in the field shelter and we often see kites, buzzards and hares
 
Agree about swallows - "new" stables have been up a couple of years - empty and no swallows. I move in and this spring so do two families of swallows who swoop in and out nearly taking my head off. Im hoping it means ponies will become immune to bird swoops but they poop on haynets and I have to empty and turn over water trugs when ponies not there so that the swallows don't swim n drink (or drown) in them. Everything else is welcome....currently
 
Why is it the Deer can happily cross through my horses field he doesn't raise an eyebrow, we meet on out on a hack and it's a Tiger, no really they do eat horses!!
Other wildlilife we don't really have a problem with.
 
willhegofirst said:
Why is it the Deer can happily cross through my horses field he doesn't raise an eyebrow, we meet on out on a hack and it's a Tiger, no really they do eat horses!!
Other wildlilife we don't really have a problem with.
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This^^^, I had exactly the same issue met a herd of deer out hacking horse spins and runs in opposite direction so when I spot some in the hedge line in field I think oh right this will be interesting as they leap the fence into the field but no we carry on grazing with our new pals! Horses are weird!
 
Bede - I am envious of your owl. I've never seen a live owl.

We have death wish bambis that jump in front of your car at 6am. lots of foxes, hares in the mare's field, a pair of buzzards and the usual swallows and pigeons in the barns. There is also a gang of house sparrows who hang around the tea area waiting for biscuit crumbs. We also had a bit of a mouse infestation recently - one of the kids opened her feed bin and there were 7 of the blighters jumping around in her coarse mix.

Love 'em all, It makes my day when I see a bit of wildlife.
 
I don't mind them really. We have roe deer and muntjac, heron, kingfishers, toads, lots of pretty and colourful birds I haven't identified, voles, foxes, stoat, an owl lives down in the bottom meadow, a rather confident robin who turns up at feed times ...so many sorts of creatures, I like to see them around and about. The rabbits not so much.
 
We have loads of wildlife here too. We have lived in our property for one year and there are deer in the woods, ducks on the pond, swallows, pheasants, sparrow hawks, toads and snakes! We seem to be feeding most of these animals, horses particularly love duck food.
Never mind Escape to the Country lets start a new TV series entitled Return to the City lol
 
The city isn't safe! I'm a nervous wreck since a seagull hatched a chick on a nearby roof a few weeks ago. It's decided that I'm enemy number 1, the mother seagull, it started off squawking rude words at me from a safe distance but recently decided that swooping off the roof at great speed, dive bombing and trying to take my head off would be more effective. It doesn't do it to anyone else...why me oh lord? ......I now have to sprint between my front door and my vehicle every time I go out. I tried waving an old headcollar around to discourage it but it just winds it up even more. I'm going to take an umberella out with me when I go out later, that might work!
 
I don't mind sharing my yard and fields with the wildlife....except the rabbits, damn things digging hoof sized holes in the field ! love the swallows, the stables are theirs in the summer, i just put a pile of straw under the nests to catch the poo, love hearing them chattering away on the powerline of an evening.
 
I quite like them but was relieved when the baby swallows fledged from the nest in Tiggers stable. They pooed on him, on his neck when he's eating his haynet and on his back just where the saddle goes when he's looking out the door.

Then this week I heard a loud cheaping from above my head and realised there are a second clutch just hatched.
 
We live between two shoots - the pheasants are a nightmare and can scare even the safest of horses with their erratic behaviour. I used to avoid them on the lanes as felt sorry for them - but now I have to hold back from deliberately aiming at them!!
 
I adore wildlife. I'm thrilled when the swallows come back, and love it if they choose to nest in Mollie's stable. They come all the way from Africa to do so, and I find that amazing and exciting.

The mess is of no consequence. Why be around horses if you don't like a bit of poo and mess? :)
 
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