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Neighbour complaint about feeding the birds

alisonc2095046433
05/06/2015 22:50
New people moved in to the house whose back garden backs onto our back garden. I have fed the birds for years but she came round yesterday to complain. She said she was asking me nicely to stop feeding the birds as they were making a mess on her patio furniture, washing and car. I have a lot of starlings visiting and I know they are noisy, they squabble a lot and poo a lot. They have had a successful breeding season and are flying around in a flock that can be about 60 birds, the majority being juveniles. She has threatened me with environmental health if I don't stop, which doesn't seem friendly to me. No one else has complained in the 7 years we have lived here. Now that the youngsters are fledged and independent I have started to gradually reduce feeding to encourage more natural feeding but I am not about to stop altogether. The blackbirds are still collecting for their babies so I will continue to put out food for them, though when the starlings descend the food quickly vanishes. I was feeding about 4 times a day but have already reduced that to 3 and today have only fed twice. Any advice on what course of action I will need to take, have never been threatened like this before and am a little worried.
  • 0 13/11/2021 14:33 in reply to Mike B
    Michael B said:

    Sadly, our council pick and choose when to get involved.

    Next door but one, the garden is overgrown and a rat haven.

    My wife and I, plus the neighbouring properties to this house have all complained, and all the council will say is, unless there is risk of damage from the overgrown vegetation and the house is at risk of collapse with resulting damage to neighbouring properties, they aren't able to get involved, not even for the rats that we see running around.

    Talk about washing their hands of the problem.....

    If it’s an environmental problem such as rats, any council or local authority can take action even if anyone owns there home.

    Regards,

    Ian.

  • 0 16/11/2021 21:35
    The reason the neighbour changed my mums fence was because he wanted the nice side facing his property.it was not a shared fence, it is my mums fence. The neighbour actually agreed that it was. There was no problem at all with the original fence as it was only a few years old. Also when the neighbour first started harassing my mum over a year ago, we had a man from the council come and inspect the garden and they agreed that there was no sign of any rats. He has been twice since at our request, still no sign of rats. He keeps telling my mum he is watching her and making notes. She is 88 and lives alone. The neighbour has also intimidated the neighbour on the other side of his property and made home cut his hedge down. It wasn’t even on the border of the properties and it was only 4ft high. My mum feeds the birds from a low feeder now, which I purchased for her, still only once a day as she did before. He still isn’t happy. Birds are there to be enjoyed especially by house bound pensioners. I will look into the cameras.
  • 0 18/11/2021 10:55 in reply to Sarah webb
    Sarah webb said:
    The reason the neighbour changed my mums fence was because he wanted the nice side facing his property.it was not a shared fence, it is my mums fence. The neighbour actually agreed that it was. There was no problem at all with the original fence as it was only a few years old. Also when the neighbour first started harassing my mum over a year ago, we had a man from the council come and inspect the garden and they agreed that there was no sign of any rats. He has been twice since at our request, still no sign of rats. He keeps telling my mum he is watching her and making notes. She is 88 and lives alone. The neighbour has also intimidated the neighbour on the other side of his property and made home cut his hedge down. It wasn’t even on the border of the properties and it was only 4ft high. My mum feeds the birds from a low feeder now, which I purchased for her, still only once a day as she did before. He still isn’t happy. Birds are there to be enjoyed especially by house bound pensioners. I will look into the cameras.

    I quote: "He keeps telling my mum he is watching her and making notes."

    That is harassment of a vulnerable person, and please accept my definition of vulnerable in a supportive and positive sense. It would be good if the trailcams, or even CCTV were to record that.

    Most trailcams will capture sound, but often only very close by sound.

    Mike

    Flickr: Peak Rambler

  • 0 30/01/2022 20:06
    I have some sympathy for the neighbour who complained. If their patio, washing and garden are being defecated on because of you overfeeding birds (3 -4 times per day is excessive) then you are indirectly causing them a nuisance.
    What do people expect the neighbour to do?
  • 0 20/05/2022 16:01
    I recently moved to an owner occupied apartment with a large shared garden. A neighbour who appears to run the garden puts broken polystyrene in pots as drainage where one would normally but bits of broken bricks. This is bad enough. But yesterday I saw a layer of broken polystyrene in the Niger seed feeder. What can be done?