What would you do? Please help!

[Stella*]

My family and I have fed the birds for as long as I can remember. Before we had our bird tables we'd throw the bread onto our garage roof, and they'd come down and eat. It was a great time, we'd see so many different sorts.

Lately our neighbour and his girlfriend (in their late 40's early 50's) have begun to make a fuss. Banging on the roof to scare them away, and having confrontations with my parents. He has it in his head these are our own personal birds, and we're feeding them to spite them. He doesn't care about anyone but himself, which was his words today. He made a fuss saying how they poo on their washing (which they only hang out once a week).

Watching and feeding the birds has always been something I really love. But now they're making things really miserable, demanding that we stop and take down our bird tables. We took down one, and moved the other bird table so it was as far away from their garden as possible, but still, they persist in scaring them.

What should we do? What would you do in our shoes? Would he decide to complain about something else until we can't do a single thing in our garden anymore? Please help

[Jason Green]

Good morning Stella, and welcome to WAB

Sorry to hear about this!

First off, yes - he does sound miserable! If he says he doesn't care about anyone but himself, then even if you removed all your feeders I'm sure he would still complain about the others. As for deficating on his washing - birds would do this when flying over anyway, whether you fed them or not.

You've taken reasonable steps in moving the feeders. This shows that your family have listened to his concerns, and acted in his interests. If he shows no sign of gratitude for that, then I think that shows he won't stop complaining. There's no pleasing some people!

What birds do you get?

Good luck, and keep us posted

Take care,

Jason

[Dogghound]

I would personally carry on its your garden and yours to do what ever you want in. If he starts going to far i.e damaging your garden or making threats I would call the police.

[Hedera]

Have they been your neighbours for long, or are they new? Why did they not complain before? Sounds as if there is an underlying cause here. You have tried to resolve their complaint as far as you can, and that is as far as you should go. It's your garden and if the birds are used to it, fine. (I hope they don't get a cat!! ) Jealous or what? Get RSPB to send them some literature!

[Stinky Bob]

Hi Stella,
Make a log of everything, even take pictures if you can get away without it causing more trouble. It sounds like you have tried to be accommodating already but what type of birds are you getting, if its seagulls for instance then he could have a slight case in his favour.

If the situation goes to far you may have to report it either to the local police community office or your council.

[Tursiops2]

Hi Stella, welcome to WAB.

Your neighbour has no right to tell you what to do in your own garden, as long as what you are doing is legal and not creating a nuisance or a health/safety hazard. Feeding garden birds is perfectly legal and you've clearly taken all reasonable steps to ameliorate any possible nuisance.

Any further actions by your neighbour could be construed as harrassment.
Put this website Garden Law Discussion :: Index in your favourites, just in case the situation escalates.

Good luck,
T2

[Billy Wobble Dagger]

I agree totally with the above from Tursiops2, it's your garden you do what you want. As long as there aren't rats attracted to your garden because of the food I don't think there is much he can do.

Some people are just so ignorant.

Good luck and keep us posted

BWD

[agrumpycow]

Hello Stella

We have our own complaining neighbours, several months ago ours asked us not to put food out for the birds any more as they were concerned their dog would dig under our fence, eat the bird food and become ill
Naturally it is a ridiculous complaint and to be honest we completely ignored them and they stopped complaining, well, stopped talking/acknowledging us at all actually which is no loss to us!
So I can completely sympathise with your predicament. I don't know the answer but as others have said you are doing nothing wrong and have every right to feed the birds in your garden. Record all that happens in case it escalate and, hopefully, like our neighbours they will get bored of their pointless moaning and turn their attention and boring lives elsewhere

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by Stella*

Lately our neighbour and his girlfriend (in their late 40's early 50's) have begun to make a fuss. Banging on the roof to scare them away, and having confrontations with my parents. He has it in his head these are our own personal birds, and we're feeding them to spite them. He doesn't care about anyone but himself, which was his words today. He made a fuss saying how they poo on their washing (which they only hang out once a week).

Stella, neighbour disputes are always horrible, and very frequently the things that are argued about are not really what's bugging the agressive party.

As other posters have pointed out you are entirely within your rights and your neighbour's behaviour would appear to be bordering upon a criminal level of intimidation, or at the very least something that would be covered by an ASBO. The key thing at this stage is to see if the temperature can be lowered, without you having to give up your "quiet enjoyment of home and its surroundings"

I think so far you've done the right thing, you've attempted dialogue and made some compromise by moving the bird tables. I would suggest you have a further think about what you could 'live without' - for instance could you by changing the feeding methods discourage the larger birds (pigeons, crows, magpies) ? Also, if the neighbours do have 'washing day' is it feasible to reduce the food you put out on that one day ?

Having decided on whether you can make any further changes, make that your bottom line - if you can make further changes tell your neighbour (if it makes it easier write it down in the form a friendly letter), thereafter if your neighbour behaves in any kind of intimidatory or anti social way, contact the relevant officer at your local Council - you can find their details at Respect - Anti-social behaviour coordinator search if you do contact the Council do have a full log of all the incidents plus a record of all the changes you have made to accommodate your neighbour.

One point of caution - if the birds you are attracting do include numbers of what were traditionally considered 'pest species' - pigeons, crows etc you may find the Council is not sympathetic to your position, which is why it would be worth making changes to your feeding practices if this is the case.

CM

[nightshade]

I have had my first dispute with my neighbour (85) of 26 years, the fences had been down for around 2 years plus, I had trimmed the hedges and removed the cuttings, painted the back gate and fences and trimmed the conifers that overhung the pavement.
I suggested I would pay to replace the fences, then I got a deputation on my
doorstep and was accused of attracting rats with my feeders and not removing a loose tile from their roof!! all as a deflection from the fence problem.
But I digress, throwing bread on a garage or any other roof should be avoided as uneaten/unseen food does attract rats and feral pigeons.
I moved my feeders and reduced the number of feeders, although I always take up any fallen food before evening as a matter of course.
I still get rats coming through the garden they live under my other neighbours shed and they breed. they are trapped and baited until they leave but of course they dont go far as plenty of people still throw bread out "for the birds" and do not clean up what is not eaten

[Stella*]

Hello everyone,

Thank you for all of your kind words. Things have been getting a whole lot worse than the day I posted. After the confrontation, to prove my parents wrong, they’ve been putting out washing everyday. Despite how they’re in the house, they leave it out from ten in the morning, until seven/eight at night as though wanting birds to poo on it so they have their proof.

In answer to your questions, we have sparrows, blue tits, black birds and the odd pigeon here and there, but not very often anymore. We haven’t attracted the seagulls, they fly overhead, but never come in to have a bite to eat. (Somehow I have a feeling he’ll blame us for birds that fly over his house next!)

I just get the feeling that no matter what we do he’ll find a reason to argue. He even has his blinds facing our garden as though fixated on it. It’s not a nice feeling, but from reading all of your kind words, I know we can’t be doing anything wrong. I’ll see if my parents think it a good idea to change the feeding method, and see what happens then.

Thank you for listening to me, I was finding it hard to face this on my own.

[Jason Green]

Morning Stella

Maybe you could build a counter-case against them? You know, if it seems they're leaving their washing out for prolonged periods, log it - especially if your photographs display the time on them If they point their blinds at your garden, log it, say you're feeling watched, spied-on in your garden.

If things persist, maybe contact the Citizens Advice Bureau, or even your local RSPB office.

Finally stick with WAB - we'd like to hear about the birds that visit, help identify any you don't recognise, and of course support you with your neighbours from... !

Take care,

Jason

[tcvarlh]

....

[dickybird]

so its tanks at dawn eh?

dickybird

[Jason Green]

Originally Posted by tcvarlh

....

Originally Posted by dickybird

so its tanks at dawn eh?

dickybird

...sorry, you've lost me!

[BloomingMarvellous]

Originally Posted by Jason Green

Morning Stella

Maybe you could build a counter-case against them? You know, if it seems they're leaving their washing out for prolonged periods, log it - especially if your photographs display the time on them If they point their blinds at your garden, log it, say you're feeling watched, spied-on in your garden.

If things persist, maybe contact the Citizens Advice Bureau, or even your local RSPB office.

Finally stick with WAB - we'd like to hear about the birds that visit, help identify any you don't recognise, and of course support you with your neighbours from... !

Take care,

Jason

Is there really a Washing line Law that I've missed along the line, how utterly funny. Don't think I'd like anyone taking a photo of my smalls on my washing line, can you imagine being caught. Ha Ha Ha

We should have a Love Thy Neighbour Day

[Jason Green]

Originally Posted by BloomingMarvellous

Is there really a Washing line Law that I've missed along the line, how utterly funny. Don't think I'd like anyone taking a photo of my smalls on my washing line, can you imagine being caught. Ha Ha Ha

We should have a Love Thy Neighbour Day

No, I didn't mean it like that!

I was thinking more of just showing the duration of time they get left out for, to put any amount of bird stuff into perspective... if you leave it out for longer-than-normal periods, you'd get more... stuff, on them perhaps. That would not a sign of the number of birds in the locality, just that it was left out for a long time. I only meant to offer a suggestion to counter-claim their's.

OK, forget the photo idea... point taken; but suffice to say in my suggestion I just meant something distant to show a washing line, and not a close-up of things hung-up, obviously!

[dickybird]

youre lost jason because tcvarlh has deleted his extraordinary post where he suggested the initiator of this thread basically declare war on their neighbour.

too many sunday sherries i think!!

dickybird

[Jason Green]

Ah, right. He deleted it though, so must have realised later on what the thread is actually about. Thanks DB

[Stella*]

Hi everyone!

You really are all so kind, thank you for all of your support ^^

Jason Green, thank you for your advice, my parents are definitely looking into telling someone. Though for now they've started jotting down the times that they bang, so we have proof of how often this occurs. My parents have been feeling really victimised, and so wanted to write down notes of what next door have been doing.

It was a pretty peaceful afternoon, because he and his girlfriend were gone out, then the second they came home they banged twice, really violently (with a broom on his roof) and there wasn't even a bird in sight this time around. I looked out as he did it, and it was so still out there.

I have a feeling they're just doing it now for.. I have no idea, because they want to annoy us? Since that talk with them, maybe they're just proving they'll keep doing it. They didn't know I was looking out after all, and he's very different to any neighbour I've seen.

The lady has also just hung out her washing (5.30pm) ^^;; I guess when you're fixated on proving a point that you don't just hang your washing out once a week (though they did until my Dad pointed it out during their confrontation..) you hang out their washing everyday, despite how it's evening now.

I really hope they just get bored, but I have a feeling they'll keep on doing this because they seem to have no life, other than watching.

Again, thank you for reading and for speaking to me about it ^^

[tameblackbirds]

Unless the birds are really making a noise and a mess I don't see that your neighbor has a legitimate complaint. You really need to log what is happening for at least a couple of weeks and present claim to council. In the mean time do not get into any confrontation with your neighbor. Log if you do.

[Jason Green]

That makes sense, that he'd bang even without a bird in sight. Probably just to try and annoy you, which I suspect has been his intention all along with the birds being a cover for his anti-social ways. Sounds like a case for an ASBO! Log all times, occurences, etc. If the banging is for a persistant period of time I'd be tempted to use a camcorder discretely - evidence collation and all that!

[snowdrop]

What miserable lives some people live. Personally I think the situation is all about control. The ''look at me... I'm somebody to be reckoned with'' syndrome.
I'd take care not to stray feed the birds with bread but move your feeders closer to your home. I did and now washing dishes is a pleasure, though sometimes it takes a long while, what with the distraction of bird antics.

Who knows, your neighbours, like mine, may change their attitude at some future date. ( though why he has surrounded his feeders with barbed wire and fitted bare-nailed slats along the nearby fence, I'll never know!)

[Elean0r]

"What would you do?"

Apart from feeling very uncomfortable that my neighbours were being so horrible about something so ordinary as feeding garden birds I'd try to talk to them again and perhaps agree to only feed birds using a feeder so that larger birds wouldn't be obviously attrtacted to my garden.

I know it doesn't work that way, because pigeons will still land and eat up the bits that fall to the ground, but it'll show you're making a serious effort to resolve things.

If that didn't work I'd go to the CAB and find out about community mediation provision in my area - it's always free of charge.

Please be very careful not to take pictures of their washing. One of our neighbours found themselves talking to the police after taking a picture of some plants in their own garden, they hadn't even noticed the washing in the background - which belonged to a rather difficult neighbour whose first response is always to make an official complaint.

[solus]

Originally Posted by snowdrop

( though why he has surrounded his feeders with barbed wire and fitted bare-nailed slats along the nearby fence, I'll never know!)

Probably trying to keep cats and/or squirrels away.