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Most of us have had some experience of dealing with cats, pests and other irritants. But has anyone else had an unfortunate run- in with the law over feeding the birds in a wildlife garden?
I've been trying to creat a wildlife- friendly garden for a few months, and have followed the advice from the RSPB website, almost to the letter. The seedfeeder was a great success, and my younger daughter (and toddler son) both enjoy throwing bread out in the morning (I know, I know, but it gets them used to the idea of attracting birds to the garden)
During the winter, we had also hung a chunk of cooking lard from a tree- which, surprisingly, was a roaring success. Recessionary reasons prevented me forkign out for something a bit more professional.
Imagine my surprise to get a letter from South Lanarkshire Council, noting that complaints had been received about me throwing food waste into the garden, and that this was attacting vermin and feral pigeons. Additionally, complaints had been made that my lawn was too long (ie not bowling green standard) The letter requested that I cease all such activities immediately, or else!!
When I explained that the only (non- human) vermin was a woodmouse under my neighbour's decking, and that the only pigeons we had had were woodies, I was told that I had received a standard reply but that an investigation had to be opened. The fact was that the letter is sent prior before any visit to the offending site is made, and that a visit isn't alway made in any event. At my inviation, a council environmental health inspector came to visit and gave me a clean bill of health (well, the garden at least) noting that as I livd in an 'urban greenspace' you would expect a variety of wildlife to pop in, but did tell me that if another complaint was made, they would have to go through the same process.
Basically, one nature- unfriendly neighbour (I suspect its the cat owner next door who allows her dog to poo in the garden and leaves it for days, but the council refused to confirm who made the complaint) has the ability to cause any amount of undue stress to bird lovers who are only doing what thousands upoon thousands of us do every day.
On the plus side, the whole affair turned my wife from someone who was despairing about my passion for wildlife into a raving environmentalist.
I even love magpies
Hi Johnny
Your story is one of the many new trends that are starting to appear in the media now. There have been one or two stories appearing in the main stream newspapers stating that people wanted their neighbours to stop feeding their birds. Why - what for?
Johnny: Any neighbour who is not a bird lover has not got a clue what you are doing in your garden. So what legal right have they to cause grief for you. In your case they then contact the council and write a letter what they perceive as 'the issue'. They create 'the issue' and that is all it is - the neighbour's issue not yours.
Sadly we are living in a society where tolerence, and manners has gone down the pan. I have learned from my one bad experience that having nosy interfering neighbours (they have no life of their own) is just one of the worst situations to put up with. In my case I sold my home to get some peace all together. Drastic action but what else can you do. We are in rentals now and if any of our current neighbours kicked up a storm about our feeders, we would move somewhere else simple as that.
I have heard of this happening got other people (not myself - thank goodness). This person (I knew of) had a neighbour openly stating she hated having the bird feeders in the back communial garden area (she saw it as her garden) She wanted the feeders taken down on her terms, as it attracted Feral pigeons. The problem she had was that local Feral Pigeons decided to sit on her window sills outside, and poo, and coo all over her sill area.
The end result was that the this person would leave the feeders alone if something was done about the Feral pigeons sitting on her window sill. Solution to get some anti-pigeon goo, and spread it on the windows sills, so the pigeons would not land there - problem solved. All that fuss for nothing, and the problem person got her window sills done for free.
I assume that this person who has complained live on their own. I do not what to say to you other than talk to CAB, (Citizens Advice Bureux) only to protect your own rights over you neighbour. I think any direct confrontation with this person will make the problem worse for you.
Now the council environmental health inspector has been you can only hope that things get better for you, and a repeat of the issue does not happen agian
Regards
Kathy and Dave
Very sorry to hear that Johnny! Can't believe people do this! Thanks goodness I have tolerant neighbours (so far) as my garden is pretty overgrown and I don't mow to allow a tangle of undergrowth favoured by bumbles & other insects! I also have feeders and bird tables which are visited daily.
However, even with tolerant neighbours, my dream would be to live in a rural location where I don't have any at all, other than wild ones that is!! ;-)
"All weeds are flowers, once you get to know them" (Eeyore)
My photos on Flickr
Never trust anyone who dislikes birds! Oh and I'm with marjus on the dream thing! ;-)
For viewing or photography right place right time is everything. I'd rather be in the right place with poor kit than have the best kit and be in the wrong place.
Sorry to hear that Johnny.
Is the world going mad?...........Is it too late to do anything about it?........Or do we just give up and let idiots like this win?...............I THINK NOT!!!
Remember what Mary Poppins said!!!
"Feed the birds, tuppence a bag" Mary Poppins
Sorry to hear you've been having trouble Johnny - some people are very ignorant and need educating. We're lucky in having neighbours who all have bird feeders so it's not currently a problem, even though our back garden is also somewhat untidy and overgrown (with MarJus on that one!)
Make the boy interested in natural history if you can; it is better than games [Robert Falcon Scott]
Hi Johnnny
I haven't had nearly as much trouble as you with neighbours but I do get it to some extent. I have been feeding the birds for quite a few years now and I must admit, I did get somewhat obsessive. It started small and then I started putting feeders all over the garden to the point that I ran out of places to hang them! Anyway I have calmed down now, to the relief of my OH and bank manager. Although I am still seen at the crack of dawn running around the garden in dressing gown and wellies (during the wetter months) and flip flops in the summer dispersing food to the feeders and topping up water bowls! Only one neighbour has complained to me directly that their cat might catch something from the birds they bring in! I have suggested that perhaps a bell on the collar might help but to deaf ears....I would suggest that perhaps the cat goes as my birds were here long before it was but that's another story! I too have a cat and shouldn't be unkind but he doesn't bring in birds. Other comments received (not to me directly but from over the fence when they know I am in the garden) are "those b****y birds have messed all over my washing". I do try to explain that birds aren't selective they mess over my washing too but you just wash it again!
It doesn't help you really this but I it has helped me get something off my chest and totally commiserate with you and un-bird-friendly neighbours.
Kerry
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kezmo6310/
Evening folks,
Thanks for your support, its good to know that other people have had similar issues. We've also had the mutterings over the fence and the conversations between neighbours which suddenly stop when we walk by. So, we've decided "to hell with the neighbours" and carried on doing, in our own garden, what we wanted to do. We own the house, and its a 5 minute walk from the local school, so we have no intention of moving while the kids are school age. I've compromised with the missus about keeping a tidy front garden (albeit, her idea of tidy and mine differ greatly) but the back garden is mine. The irony is that my wife works for South Lanarkshire Council, and has worked with the Environmental Health department before, and knows exactly the real work they do. Petty complaints from small minded people must be as frustrating to them as it is to us.
My wife got her revenge by taking the kids into the garden when the neighbour was there, and playing nursery rhymes on a cd player, encouragin the kids to sing along. I would have opted for a CD of Gregorian Chants or Iron Maiden, but the missus explained that to childless couple, a 6, 4 and 2 year old singing the Wheels of the Bus would be agonising. I'm very, very glad she's on my side....
The climate in Uddingston meant that 'good drying days' for washings are few and far between.
Incidentally, and this will be of interest to anyone in the South Lanarkshire Council catchment area. The EH inspector told me that there are NO set guidelines or standards, and each inspector uses their own judgement as to what is causing a nuisance. So, what is acceptable to one will be completely unacceptable to another. Hardly effective.
My plan for the autumn is to put a hedge at the adjoining fence, to go with the 'wild patch' of grass. The fact that my neighbour has one of those decorative benches at this fence is purely coincidental.
That's Mrs Dipper too, out there in dressing gown and wellies in the morning feeding the birds, and again in the evening to put out food for the hedgehogs!! I think I've already constructed every type of bid table, nest box, bat box, hedgehog box, etc,etc that you can buy from the expensive catalogues and garden centres, have also provided plenty of wildlife friendly areas in the garden, as a result our garden is like bird central, yes they poo on the childrens swing and climbing frame (and also my new fence I've just built!!) but you just clean it off.
BTW, like the idea about singing nursery rhymes, as a parent of two I can imagine that this could be annoying to people without children.
When I first started feeding the birds the starlings (I have mentioned these elsewhere but needs must) did cause a real problem for me. Not only did upwards of 24 arrive on the hour, every hour, but also, come fledgling time, that number increased to well over 36 (I lost count). Because my feeders are in my yard they perched anywhere and everywhere and they do, to be honest, make quite a noise and an awful lot of mess.
Frankly, I wouldn't have been surprised if my neighbour had complained to me but she didn't. Although it must have been oppressive for her (our yards adjoin as these are Victorian houses) due to the area as a whole resembling Hitchcock's "The Birds" she did put up with it in silence until I managed to "train" the starlings to the extent that they now know 12 is a bit too many and 13 upwards is a definite no-no.
So I was, really, incredibly lucky that my neighbour was tolerant of my, then, new hobby and allowed it to continue while I "got things sorted out". As a result, she and her family also now enjoy seeing the many different birds which visit my feeders - without the expense of the kit or the food!
The other Sunday morning, there were 2 goldfinches, 4 robins, 3 dunnocks, 2 chaffinches and 2 blackbirds lined up along the fence waiting for me to put out more food. I heard her say "Oh, how sweet - look at all those" and I replied "a vast improvement on all those starlings..." - a comment with which she completely agreed. So I know she had noticed them. Thank goodness for her forebearance and tolerance!
Fingers crossed that your neighbour will come to enjoy your visitors as much as you do.
The necessity of bird-watching is a really good reason for avoiding all forms of housework.
The dust will still be there tomorrow - the birds may not be!
You are certainly not alone with this problem. RSPB Wildlife Enquiries receive almost weekly enquiries from people in the same situation. It is very sad that so many councils decide to send a threatening letter to anyone BEFORE finding out the other side of the story, particularly as many of these complaints are malicious and unfounded. There was one case where a neighbour was complaining about a single lonely peanut feeder, claiming that it was attracting hordes of pigeons!!!???
You did just the right thing getting the council official to see you. Let's hope that you have heard the end of this now. We advice anyone who receives a letter like this to get in touch with the council straight away, and get the EH official to come and see for themselves. Explain what food is put out, in what quantities, when, and how soon it is eaten up, and describe the kinds and numbers of birds that visit the garden. Add any other information that may help and support the case depending on the exact nature of the complaint. The chances are that the official is likely to agree with the bird feeder, rather than the neighbour. When he does, make sure that he puts it in writing to you, and to the complainant. That way you have written proof that the bird feeding is not a problem, and that you have the council's backing. This will make it harder for the original complainant to come back on it, and will put you in better stead if someone else complains.