Adventures with my birds

Birds visit Beijing  see earlier posts:
Beijing birds visiting
and
Beijing birds

Nothing dramatic has changed but I had some new visitors.
Eurasian tree sparrows and spotted doves are the regulars. The Eurasian magpies are afraid to visit except sometimes for drinking, they are a lively gang in the big tree in front of my office.

The Eurasian magpie or common magpie (Pica pica) is a resident breeding bird throughout the northern part of the Eurasian continent. It is one of several birds in the crow family designated magpies, and belongs to the Holarctic radiation of “monochrome” magpies. The Eurasian magpie is one of the most intelligent birds, and it is believed to be one of the most intelligent of all non-human animals.
The other one is the Azure-winged Magpie.
The azure-winged magpie (Cyanopica cyanus) is a bird in the crow family. It is 31–35 cm long and similar in overall shape to the Eurasian magpie (Pica pica) but is more slender with proportionately smaller legs and bill. It has a glossy black top to the head and a white throat. The underparts and the back are a light grey-fawn in color with the wings and the feathers of the long (16–20 cm) tail an azure blue.

Another intruder in the kitchen

A small azure-winged magpie fell down our chimney landing in our kitchen through the gas stove air exhaust. My wife tried to catch it but only managed to catch its feathers from the tail. It then hid in a small corner

Before going to bed I made sure there were no any lights in the kitchen and left the window open. By the morning it had left.
Yes, I told my wife several times we need to install some screen on the chimney and just now a worker came to soon solve the problem… The birds are attracted by the warm air…

A new visitor

I spotted a new bird on my balcony and finally succeeded to take a picture.

The light-vented bulbul, also called the Chinese bulbul, is a species of bird in the bulbul family found in central and southern China, Hong Kong, Macao, and other. Scientific name: Pycnonotus sinensis,
Looking forward to more different visitors, attracted by the corn and drinking water.

A visitor

I already wrote about Beijing birds. Now it’s about Beijing birds visiting.

We heard noise in the ventilation shafts, in my bathroom and in the kitchen, the exhaust for the gas cooker. I said to my wife, yes, that’s the noise they make sitting on the chimney on the roof, the first chimney installed in our compound (my idea) so all exhausts from the bathrooms and kitchen really go OUTSIDE (and not to the attic, no joke).

After coming back from a quick bike tour my wife had a story to tell. Well, the birds were making a LOT of noise. So she took about the exhaust pipe from above the kitchen fan. And a big magpie came out, obviously a bit lost and in panic.

She tried to grab it but the bird was full of oil (from the kitchen exhaust). She opened the window and managed to guide the magpie back outside. I wonder if the bird could have made it back outside through the chimney…

Ruckus on my balcony

Sparrows can make a real ruckus. They fight, mate, play. The doves fight little but love to mate and groom themselves. They are acrobats doing it all on the railing.

Not sure what was their game here. The fight looks ugly at the beginning but they end up flying away in good condition…

Rats are too clever

As I am a Rat myself, I thought, I know how to catch a rat. Big disappointment.

Here’s the story.
One day in the kitchen the kaki fruit (persimmon) I had prepared for breakfast was partly eaten when I came into the kitchen. As the fruit was on the kitchen working table, my first thought was – cockroaches.
But then by chance I was going through a deep drawer looking for some kitchen equipment when I noticed droppings. That was clearly the hiding place of a mysterious visitor. But how could it enter? Obviously must be during the night.
All indicated it should be the draining pipe of the washing machine.
I set up a night camera and caught the beast.

A war I lost

How to catch a rat seemed easy, I had actually big rat traps, like this one. In my young time in the Beijing Hotel I caught like a dozen mice in my room…

I tried the trap, putting on some kaki fruit. I tried putting the kaki in the middle of a nasty glue surface (used to catch mice or cockroaches). I covered the mechanism of the trap. I made sure the trap was “clean”.

All to no avail. The rat came, sniffed at it, even managed to eat a little without touching the glue.
So, I finally gave it up. We secured the water hose of the washing machine in the drain pipe so nothing could move it.
We heard the rat complain for a few days and then it also gave up.
By the way, we are on the 3rd floor. You can imagine how that big rat comes up from the sewer system into our kitchen…