There has been a breeding pair of Blackbirds most years in my little garden. They are a treat and a pivilege to have amongst us. This year, as the seasons developed we lost a grand adult male, the victim of yet another cat. At the time this incensed me. I hate cats and I think it wholly wrong that cat owners don't seem to take responsibility for their pets, allowing them to come and go at will all the time knowing that the cat ……. their cat ….. is likely to kill any bird that it manages to. Please don't call yourself an animal lover if this applies to you.I appreciate that it is hard to keep a cat indoors if it is used to wandering but then if you can't cope with this due to work or other constraints then you shouldn't have bought it in the first place. So no excuse there. Also I resent that my "wildlife friendly" garden is part of the territory of several local cats who stalk the birds and even frogs in my garden. So all that sad, I found the remains of a bird on my lawn a few days ago, well to be more accurate, I find hundreds of feathers and skin fragments. I could tell that it was a Blackbird and made the assumption that it was one of the young newly fledged birds that I knew were being fed by two very hard working and devoted parents. (The original male was replaced by another spanking male). Imagine my surprise today when out and about on the fence and lawn was a couple of nice healthy baby birds. I am pleased to say that they are very strong and healthy and flying strongly so I think they may escape the jaws of at least 4 cats that come in to my garden regularly.

So now the question, who did the body belong to? Well I strongly suspect that the adult female was the victim as I haven't seen her for 4 days now. Further to that I am even beginning to think that she may have been the victim of a Sparrowhawk and not a cat. There certainly was a lot of feathers which looked as though they had been plucked and also in some of the feathers had skin remains on them which would lead me to think Sparrowhawk and not cat. Cats would normally carry a victim away whereas a hawk would pluck it's victim……. we will never know unless the hawk makes a return.