Blue Tit with Overgrown Upper and Lower Mandible

Linda257 said:

Already reported it yesterday Mike. Yeah a remember your post...seems its not that uncommon...poor wee birdies

I guessed you would have done after seeing where you mention Hazels post, I just got a little carried away as the wind gusted up and moved the garden furniture around, and we gained next doors gazebo roof!

Linda257 said:

Oh you know me too well Mike. Oh a gazebo roof..now what can one do with that lol...my garden furniture is tightly under cover against the house. Even tied my potted trees and water feature to the fence....Hail and wind now....Hope you manage to gather up the furniture and no damage done ;-)

The gazebo roof will be collected by the neighbour later. As for my garden furniture, no obvious signs of damage, though the bog garden (was once nice grass) now has trench holes in where everything has been flung!

Also missing in action, two 6x6 fence panels!

I had a look at the digi weather station, and its recorded a max gust of 102mph!

But I think that gust was the wind being channelled up the road and forced through the space between ours and next doors houses, rather than actual weather conditions.

Hi Linda, sorry only just catching up with your post about the overgrown mandibles which as BTO say is to do with the Keratin which I believe is when the growth is abnormally accelerated along with the added deformity in your bird of cross-over; even if a vet was able to trim the beak (which would be impossible without capture and stressing the bird) it would most likely grow back again just as our own keratin fingernails and toe nails do so the only thing we can do is to provide easy food for the bird. I tried raw cheese pastry with ground down suet and very fine ground down kibbled peanuts which would provide the bird some quick top up energy food and it was able to take live mealworms, tilting its head to one side to pick up food as live worms are easier to eat rather than the dried variety. The blue tit in our last garden was still surviving long term although the length of the beak was not quite as severe as in your blue tit. Good luck and hope your bird survives with easier food you can provide.

@ Mike, sorry about the storm damage to your fencing, it's always a worry as we know from our last house when a very long picket style fence came down like a stack of dominoes. Hope the repairs go smoothly.

PS: Apologies for not actively participating during the last week but I've got a trapped nerve in my shoulder which is sending acute pain down the length of my right arm so not able to do much at the moment :( I'll be keeping my eye on you all from the comfort of my chair for a while. Will be back as soon as I am able but doubt there will be any photos posted or a while - arrrghhhhh. !!

Unknown said:

Hi Linda, sorry only just catching up with your post about the overgrown mandibles which as BTO say is to do with the Keratin which I believe is when the growth is abnormally accelerated along with the added deformity in your bird of cross-over; even if a vet was able to trim the beak (which would be impossible without capture and stressing the bird) it would most likely grow back again just as our own keratin fingernails and toe nails do so the only thing we can do is to provide easy food for the bird. I tried raw cheese pastry with ground down suet and very fine ground down kibbled peanuts which would provide the bird some quick top up energy food and it was able to take live mealworms, tilting its head to one side to pick up food as live worms are easier to eat rather than the dried variety. The blue tit in our last garden was still surviving long term although the length of the beak was not quite as severe as in your blue tit. Good luck and hope your bird survives with easier food you can provide.

@ Mike, sorry about the storm damage to your fencing, it's always a worry as we know from our last house when a very long picket style fence came down like a stack of dominoes. Hope the repairs go smoothly.

PS: Apologies for not actively participating during the last week but I've got a trapped nerve in my shoulder which is sending acute pain down the length of my right arm so not able to do much at the moment :( I'll be keeping my eye on you all from the comfort of my chair for a while. Will be back as soon as I am able but doubt there will be any photos posted or a while - arrrghhhhh. !!

Oh no!

I hope the trapped nerve is settling down?

As for storm damage, its one of those things we have to accept.

I was looking back at the photos of the previous fence, and strangely enough, the panels in the same location were damaged back in the storms of 2014. Perhaps there's something to be taken forward from that, I don't know.

The important thing is, no one was hurt and no homes here flooded, though my heart does go out to those who have lost homes, and thankfully, the young lad from next door helped with the moving of the fence panels, so his young children can play in their garden safely and no panels will topple on them.