Beware of the cat!

wrote:

I too am a cat person (don't get me started about dog owners). Over the years, I have had 11 cats, one of them for 19. 
Of all the cats I have had, they were all Queens. Only one of them ever went for birds, and then she only ever brought them in alive (which I always rescued)
To be fair, the others were pretty much home cats, and never ventured from the garden. This is behavioural of Queens, and they tend to stick to very small areas.
They will sit on windowsills 'chittering' at the birds, but outside they really weren't that clued up nor fast enough to catch them.
My garden was always good for birds, with dense bushes and good cover. The local Sparrowhawk was a regular visitor, and for about 2 weeks was home to a black Redstart. I remember when I first saw it, and started taking pictures through the back bedroom window, accompanied by 2 cats who sat with me 'chittering' away as it hopped up and down the fence.


Well said Nick, I was beginning to think I was the only one who would stick up for our feline friends!  Fannie-Anne (the twin sister of Patch the killer) lived to be seventeen and for the last six years of her life was an indoor cat as a staffie lived close by and I didn't want her harmed or worse. My last cat Lala was six weeks short of her twenty-third birthday when she passed away in 2021, both were gentle souls in their latter years as I am in my latter years. I have never owned a male cat and never wanted to. Like Nick's cats sitting on the windowsills Fannie often did and I had to laugh at her antics, oddly Lala never sat on any windowsill but preferred to sit at the french window watching the birds and especially the tomcats passing by and give a growl which sounded more like a dog than a cat.

My garden is similar to Nick's with lots of trees and shrubs for cover. Unlike Nick have never had a Black Redstart stay two weeks, mine stayed thirty seconds!
Personally I think the RSPB have got it wrong about cat's, they obviously tar all cat's with the same brush!!  I will always stand up for my feline friends.

Cats ‘chittering’? 

That’s a new one on me. 

I thought they just miaowed - or purred if you gave them a saucer of cream. 

You learn something every day.

( Good about the black redstart - I haven’t seen one in Britain for years.)

I too am a cat person (don't get me started about dog owners). Over the years, I have had 11 cats, one of them for 19. 
Of all the cats I have had, they were all Queens. Only one of them ever went for birds, and then she only ever brought them in alive (which I always rescued)
To be fair, the others were pretty much home cats, and never ventured from the garden. This is behavioural of Queens, and they tend to stick to very small areas.
They will sit on windowsills 'chittering' at the birds, but outside they really weren't that clued up nor fast enough to catch them.
My garden was always good for birds, with dense bushes and good cover. The local Sparrowhawk was a regular visitor, and for about 2 weeks was home to a black Redstart. I remember when I first saw it, and started taking pictures through the back bedroom window, accompanied by 2 cats who sat with me 'chittering' away as it hopped up and down the fence.
 

Right well I will have to think of something else then.

For the past thirty-four years I have been a cat lover and  owner of them, but before that I hated them because they used my veg beds as a toilet to put it politely. 

Do you own a cat/s?  I think it's cruel to keep a feral cat indoors just in case it kills a wild bird/s or for that matter any cat but that's my personal opinion. I obviously love birds or I wouldn't spend my time watching, photographing and filming them and don't like to see them hurt be it by cats, dogs or raptors but the latter needs to eat so I suppose that's ok! 

We won't agree re cat's so we will have to agree to disagree. The pair of Sparrowhawk/s that visit me can kill as many feral pigeons as it likes rather than one Spuggie.

Over to you Jim.

Regards 
Max
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I’m not sure that really supports cats.
Sparrowhawks are a native species and their natural food is small birds (as their name suggests): domestic cats are introduced and can quite happily live off tinned Whiskas (rather than birds) if their owners keep them inside at key times.

Decided to do a bit of research in support of the cat.

Britain's 40,000 pairs of Sparrowhawks take around fifty million birds every year!  During one year a pair of Sparrowhawk could take 2,200 House Sparrows, 600 Blackbird or 110 Wood Pigeon.