birds are trying to demolish my house!

nanahi · #1 (**permalink**) 31-07-2011, 04:31 PM

I have been watching the birds in my tiny garden regularly taking cement from between the bricks in the kitchen wall. This is the first time I have seen this behaviour in my garden. They have selected a spot they like and it is being visited by sparrows, blackbirds, dunnocks, and tits. Can someone please tell me why?

shenk1 · #2 (**permalink**) 31-07-2011, 04:37 PM

First thought is - are there any ants about

Welcome to WAB

Somebody with more knowledge than me (most people

) might be able to help more.

shenk1

nanahi · #3 (**permalink**) 31-07-2011, 04:43 PM

thanks for responding.
No ants, very few insects of any sort this year in this part of Northumberland, and the snails which are normally prolific seem to have vanished as well. The snails that are there have very thin shells. I haven't even found many slugs.

werdnal · #4 (**permalink**) 31-07-2011, 04:48 PM

They could be after grit. Birds need grit to help their digestion, and get minerals from it too. There may be a slightly frost damaged/brittle patch in the mortar in your wall which is easy for them to chip bits out of.

exo · #5 (**permalink**) 31-07-2011, 07:05 PM

Might depend on what kind of mortar is the house built with.

I had sparrows regularly doing this with my 1879 soft lime-mortar walls,
I've always assumed it was like cuttlefish skeleton for a parrot
i.e. for the minerals like calcium, and for the grit.

I even nailed up several cuttlefish on a plank over the favourite wall spot
(which was also a kitchen wall), to stop them eventually flying off with the house,
they never got any interest though.

This year's resident brood/batch of around 30 don't seem to be doing it at all,
but it's the first year I've put out a large-ish dust bath,
which might indicate that it's more just for the grit ?