We Are Being Terrorised In Our Own Garden

cotton

By what we think is a raven. There are 100's of crows here, (we're between Bray & Greystones) some are huge but this fella is easily 4 times the size of them. He's truely massive. You can tell him apart from the others by his sheer size. He sits on the roofs of the houses or on our wall & dive bombs the dogs when they come out. He dive bombed the OH in the front garden the other morning when he was bring Elliott one of the dogs out for a walk. If the dogs see him through the glass doors, they go banana's barking at him.
Please don't laugh at this, I know it sounds funny but he is seriously freaking us all out.
Has anyone ever heard of this before?

cuddlycavies

Go walking over there a bit. From windgates to the cliff lookout. There are Ravens there okay. About twice+the size of rooks. But last week I saw two Buzzards. They were wheeling about in the air and screeching which is part of their courtship. They are probably going to nest round there. These are big birds and four + times your crow size. Only marginally smaller than an eagle. Re the dive bombing Raven. Haven't seen this. But they are a january/february nester so a fledgling or nest may be nearby.

Mr. Presentable

OP, sounds like a raven. The other crows are likely to be jackdaws. A raven is a lot bigger than a jackdaw. I doubt there's much you can do about it.

luckat

If you want to deal with this, get some fishing line and string it from tree to tree across the garden in a random pattern. When he dives and gets caught up in it once, he'll be seriously freaked out, and will almost certainly avoid your garden after that. Birds don't like things they can't see.

seanybiker

pellet gone and your sorted. Try get a pic up so the others will definately be able to tell ya what it is.

cotton

Luckcat the garden is way too big to do that plus we've tons of other lovely birds in the garden which I'd hate to upset. I don't want to hurt him, just interested as to why a bird would divebomb large dogs like that.
cuddlycavies, the buzzards have been here for a few years now, you hear them before you see them! I'm nearly sure they have a nest in Windgates house & they can regularly be seen in the field opposite.

John Griffin

There was a Jackdaw in the Enniskerry area last year, he was doing the same thing. I had a look at it and almost caught it by hand. It was wearing a blue ring and appeared to have been hand reared and then released or escaped. He was landing on top of people, it turns out that he simply associated people with food and just wanted to be fed, also known as an imprinted bird. Sounds like your Raven is similar. Freaks people out but they are not trying to harm you, they just want you to feed them. Call your local Ranger, he maybe able to advise you better, his name is Anthony McElheron and he lives in Greystones. Ring 0404-45800 for his number.

boneless

cotton wrote: »

Luckcat the garden is way too big to do that plus we've tons of other lovely birds in the garden which I'd hate to upset. I don't want to hurt him, just interested as to why a bird would divebomb large dogs like that.
cuddlycavies, the buzzards have been here for a few years now, you hear them before you see them! I'm nearly sure they have a nest in Windgates house & they can regularly be seen in the field opposite.

I am glad you feel this way. I know how you feel though having been subjected to raven attack on a few occasions !

I am sure it is because of the breeding season as well and it may be a young bird which did not mate and is just getting territorial.