It Suddenly Went Missing.

Shortly before Christmas I was doing some work in the rose garden when I became aware of a strange bird call. At first I thought it was maybe some kind of bird of prey but as time went by and the calls kept on I went to investigate and discovered this parrot type bird on a window ledge. I watch for some time unsure whether to do anything or just leave it to it's fate, I know they survive outdoors in the south but I wasn't sure about this area. In the end I decided to have a go at catching it reasoning that if I was meant to catch it I would. So I went for the fishing net hanging in the potting shed and after several failed attempts I managed to capture it in the net and took it to the hot house where I released it. I got it some water and various sorts of bird food, it seemed to prefer the fat balls, in particular the seeds within them. I'm not a bird person so excuse all the vagueness within this post.

The bird remained in the hot house for something like ten days - Christmas Eve in fact when it suddenly went missing over night. It used to hide itself among the plants so I looked very thoroughly but found no sign of it so I left the new fat ball I had brought for it and locked up the greenhouse and took a walk around the gardens looking to see if I could see it because I could only think that it had escaped somehow, I saw no signs of it. On returning to check the greenhouses in the evening there was still no sign of the bird and the fat ball was untouched so I knew for sure it was no longer in the greenhouse which saddened me no end as I had become quite attached to it.

The next morning I went across to check the greenhouses and was surprised to find the fat ball that I had left there the day before had gone missing completely. I knew the bird hadn't taken is because he only used to peck out the seeds and leave the rest and so I immediately thought RATS! I'd suspected they had been living in the old heating system for a for a few weeks and had informed the estate vermin person but as usual nothing seemed to have been done about it and this looks to have been the consequence of this lack of action.

I've since got rid of the rats by robbing bait from another location that I discovered otherwise no doubt they would still have been there in their cosy little home doing damage to something else.