The Lemon Fool

Jackdaws and a few rooks have been having a whale of a time on my lawns that are currently more soggy moss than grass.
I assumed that they were pecking away at the moss to get nest lining, but closer observation showed that the moss was being pecked aside in order to find some food.

I happened to open up a hump in the lawn made by ants in order to level it and this revealed a live ants nest - billions of the things growing to torment my lawns. So I left the nest open to give the birds a chance for a gourmet meal. To my surprise, they ignored it even though ants were visibly milling about, and continued moss-pecking.

I would have thought that an ants nest would have 3 Michelin stars in the jackdaw world, but not so.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/chafer-grubs-in-lawns maybe.

Worms come up out of the soil when it becomes waterlogged (they can drown) so they might be after them. In fact, I remember reading somewhere that certain birds exploit this behaviour by tapping on the ground to simulate the sound of rain and trick worms into surfacing.

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I would have thought that an ants nest would have 3 Michelin stars in the jackdaw world, but not so.
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my world of experience suggests that compared to a nice juicy grub as found under moss in lawns/grass,
ants would be 'crunchy' !!

mc2fool wrote:https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/chafer-grubs-in-lawns maybe.

Almost certainly this. Same problem here, & when I dig out a bit of soil I find dozens of them
The linked article says the only thing a “home gardener” can use is the nematodes, but I happen to know a rather keen home gardener who can obtain commercial quantities of some form of cyanide salt. Not used it (& would not use it) myself!

stewamax wrote:Jackdaws and a few rooks have been having a whale of a time on my lawns that are currently more soggy moss than grass.

I wish they would take our moss away.

Our jackdaws are a right pain taking food from the bird tables, and have learned how to hang on the peanut feeder.
They wait in the trees over the lane for me making the morning seed rounds and before I've even come back into the cottage, they're swooping down.
I don't know which is worse, them or the magpies.

The only safe bird food is the fat balls hanging right in front of the kitchen window.

V8

GrahamPlatt wrote:

mc2fool wrote:https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/chafer-grubs-in-lawns maybe.

Almost certainly this. Same problem here, & when I dig out a bit of soil I find dozens of them
The linked article says the only thing a “home gardener” can use is the nematodes, but I happen to know a rather keen home gardener who can obtain commercial quantities of some form of cyanide salt. Not used it (& would not use it) myself!

Neem oil is apparently also very effective, although does suffer the problem of also killing a lot of things you'd prefer not to, like bees and ladybirds.

mc2fool wrote:https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/chafer-grubs-in-lawns maybe.

Yes I'm sure they are after something bigger than ants . On the grassy banks of a nearby heritage railway, crows and jackdaws are continually grazing, and it appears that they are looking for little frogs and slow worms which are quite abundant there.

Could it be leather jackets or chafer bugs? At our previous house ants were a great favourite of the woodpeckers.

But the jackdaws' preference for 'things in the moss' has meant that the 100sq m of newly seeded patch of lawn is being completely ignored, except by the odd pigeon. Thank you chafer-grubs and worms - your personal sacrifice is appreciated.

leather jackets and chafer bugs are normally an autumn thing, as my battles with the badger can attest.

JohnB wrote:leather jackets and chafer bugs are normally an autumn thing, as my battles with the badger can attest.

We had badgers, the only thing that kept them at bay was an electric fence,