Neighbours from Hell

[alan45]

My garden is right over the hedge from a local school and every year
for the last 5 years there has been a pair of oystercatchers nest on the roof of the school,they arrive at the begining of february with last years young ones, and spend the next 4 to 5 weeks screaming at the young ones to go away.then once the new eggs are laid they seem to sleep all day and scream and screech all night,and once the young are hatched they have to learn to fly, and thats when it really kick off they take off and the first place to land is my garden shed roof and discover its easyier to fly down than up so it takes a couple of days to get them airborne again.in the meantime i get screamed at and dive bombed everytime i go into the garden.i am sure if they where human they would be served with a ASBO.still i love them to bits and miss them in the winter months when they go back to sea.

[jordanno]

he he they scream at you
i can imagine them screamin right now

[Bramble]

There are some near us who seem to like their nocturnal flights. You are just dropping off to sleep....sleeepy....zzzzz.......then KICHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! KICHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

[jdurbo]

Hi I work nights and when im trying to sleep in the morning all i can hear are them damm starlings fighting over food they are so greedy! jen xxx

[Ipso Facto]

It's not just oystercatchers that should qualify for the noisey neighbour awards. When my wife and I were away on honeymoon (many moons ago!) there were peacocks in the garden and they too can be rather ... 'disruptive' . They may not swoop on you are you walk outside but their call was once described to me as being similar to the cry of an elderly spinster who has just found a young man in her bedroom - I couldn't possibly comment.

[alan45]

Hi Ipso
what you said reminded me of the time
myself and a mate where out night fishing.
there we where standing in the middle of the river
pictch black every thing was quite and suddenly
there was this horrible screeching noise that put the fear
of death into us,later we dicovered it was a peacock.

[Ipso Facto]

Originally Posted by alan45

... there was this horrible screeching noise that put the fear of death into us,later we dicovered it was a peacock.

That's two votes for peacocks then!

[John]

Most unusually I will nominate two birds you would never think of in the noisy terms. It is just the circumstances on this occasion where they did my head in.

Picture it. I started fishing on a lovely quiet Carp lake just before dawn. Not too long into the daylight the Skylarks came out and it was great to hear them. Not too long after a Chiffchaff started up, and it was great to hear him also.

One particular Skylark, together with one particular Chiffchaff, decided to go on an almost non stop marathon sing in right above my head and after a few hours of constant bombardment of these two very different songs I must admit I wish I had brought ear plugs.

This went on for hours and hours and I was so glad when it reached towards dusk and they packed it in. At last I had a bit of peace and solitude, and boy did I relish it.

John

[petermcgain]

We have a pair of Egyptian geese on our land (small organic farm) and they have produced two chicks. Unfortunately the local cats often get too close and even though the chicks are now nearly adult size the parents kick up a right fuss with a never ending, very monotonous honk honk. As cats are pretty busy at night this invariably starts at about 3.30am and goes on for ages, at least till we are well awake. But the Egyptian geese are much more welcome than the Canada geese who are phenomenal grazers and remove much of our grass scheduled for the animals!

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by petermcgain

We have a pair of Egyptian geese on our land (small organic farm) and they have produced two chicks. Unfortunately the local cats often get too close and even though the chicks are now nearly adult size the parents kick up a right fuss with a never ending, very monotonous honk honk. As cats are pretty busy at night this invariably starts at about 3.30am and goes on for ages, at least till we are well awake. But the Egyptian geese are much more welcome than the Canada geese who are phenomenal grazers and remove much of our grass scheduled for the animals!

Egyptian geese unfortunately are not all sweetness and light, they are cavity nesters and can out compete barn owls for nest sites in trees so if you are lucky enough to have barn owls perhaps consider getting a box up for them (I think the hole in a box is too small for the geese).