After several years of encouraging local birds to my garden with planting, water etc, and dozens of local birds, regularly visiting (some nesting) in my garden, in a few short months a local Raven has "scared them all away!" Not only have all the small and larger birds found new spaces to play in, but this Raven is depositing all his left-over meals in my yard: from bread and biscuits, sausage sandwiches, beef and chicken bones ... even cheese snack packs! ... as well as stealing the chook eggs.
While a bird is a bird, is a bird ... I would be very grateful is someone can offer tips on how to discourage the Australian Raven, and bring back all the other birds to my garden.
Thank you
Obviously the raven has found a good reliable food source. He ain't going nowhere soon. He's probably already invited his cousins to share his snag sangas. Yum! You'll have to try and close down the buffet venue.
Wish I could close down the buffet venue :) problem is I am not so agile flying these days, so I have trouble taking off to keep up with him to find the buffet. Seriously, the local school is a couple of blocks away in one direction, and the local shop a couple of blocks away in another direction. Will a raven carry food that far before depositing it or is he scavenging from local residents garbage? Thanks for the response
I was nearly going to say there must be a school nearby. Both at the school and the shop the bins should be covered (albeit that the snag sangas may not even be reaching the bin in the first place). The raven is probably competing with his mates for the food and so prefers his sangas takeaway so he can eat in peace. I guess all you can do is approach the school and shop and ask them to cover their bins, etc but I can't see you having a lot of luck there.
It's rather clear that the raven finds that your place has a nice ambience in which to eat the food he's gathered from nearby. In a sense, that's a real positive.
I agree with Night Parrot that the solution lies in shutting down the local food supplies. Does the school have an environment teacher or somebody similar? Would you feel comfortable approaching this person about how the students might be involved in solving the problem by not wasting food, putting leftovers in sealed containers or taking it home for the compost bin, putting the food in the school's sealed compost bin, whatever. Perhaps the school's nutrition & gardening teachers (if they haven't been cut from the staff) could be involved in the project. Writing up the project in the school magazine could involve the English/other languages teacher & would broadcast the project to the wider community. A real team effort! Could you get the local newspaper involved so that the even wider community can become aware of the effect of wasting food on wildlife & what the school is doing about it.
Your problem is a classic example of the impact on the environment of the kind of society in which we live. And it could also be a classic example of how people, working together in good faith, can contribute to the solution. And what an opportunity for educating the wider community!
Good luck, dneumann.
Thanks Woko, for your constructive solution ideas.
I do feel a bit nervous about approaching the school (didn't get a very positive response when I reported to the school office that a large unaccompanied dog was roaming freely in the school grounds !?), however, my daughter-in-law is a teacher, so I will discuss it with her first and plan the approach :)
BTW, I did see some Eastern Spinebills cavorting around my frog pond yesterday, so my loud, scary-shouting, waving arms, "running at the raven" so that he would decide my yard is not a very nice place to visit, approach might be working as well
I will keep you informed of the outcome
In the cities it is very noticeable that the little birds are being driven out by the biggies. Ravens are actually interesting birds, and usually have quite a large range, so you don't get many about and they leave the little birds alone. Our ravens mainly attack the big raptors like whistling kite and wedgetail, also they quarrel with magpies and currawongs.
In cities there is so much food, the balance changes and you get these sort of problems.