We were about to post on the joys of Spring and the changing behaviour - and eating patterns - of the flock, with lovely happy photos of dust-bathing birds and daffodils...but yesterday morning we noticed something was amiss. The birds invariably gather in a mob by the door in the morning, waiting for their seeds. They flutter and call, and fight amongst themselves, and are generally active and happy. This particular morning there were only a small group, and they were crouched low, utterly immobile, staring up at me, frozen. They've been like this before, when a hawk flies low over the net - they freeze, and wait for a while before relaxing and going back to whatever they were doing. This time they didn't relax. When I talked to them, and began scattering seed, they stayed motionless but began making a noise I'd never heard before; a soft purring growl. They all did it, and not one moved. They looked terrified. I thought a currawong or a hawk had got in, but it wasn't a hawk, it was our old friend, the rat. We found a small hole bitten in the net, and feathers scattered around - and then, our oldest girl, Spick, lying bloodied and miserable on the ground...
Incredibly, she was still alive - she'd been bitten, but not killed. We put her in a small cage with straw and food and water and covered her with a blanket... One of the other birds is limping, but seems unharmed. The others were just...traumatised. They stayed huddled together most of the day, and were completely unlike themselves. They moved in short jerky bursts, staying low to the ground, and spent a lot of time sleeping. We wonder if they were fending off attacks from the rat all night...
Another group of quails, who have separated from the main bunch, were completely unconcerned and I suspect, did not encounter the rat at all. As for Plum, our tiny rat-ninja King quail, he, of course, is unharmed.
It had to be a small rat, as a large one would have killed the birds - and the hole in the net couldn't possibly fit anything very big - I still can't believe a rat can get in at all. We searched through the piles of mulch and weeds but there was no sign of it. In our other garden, however, where the compost bins are, there were lots of fresh diggings and rat activity. So we went hunting. Apologies to any rat-lovers...but remember, these are wild city rats, and not the gentle lab-rats that people have as pets.
We poured water into the compost bin, and sure enough, a rat dashed out and took cover in a nearby heap of weeds. We covered this heap in netting and searched through it until we had the rat, tangled in the net. We despatched it. It wasn't particularly large, but it wasn't that small either. Extraordinary the gaps they can get through! We set the possum trap inside the quail garden last night, just in case. It was untriggered this morning and all the birds were much happier. Best of all, Spick is still alive, and eating. So far, so good.
