Bird Patrol

I’ve been on bird patrol.
We like some that visit us and encourage them.  There are others we do not like and would prefer they were not here.  In particular it is the Indian Minors (and the Australian Minors for that matter).
The Indian Minors are smart.   They have been around a while.  Basically, they were minding their own business.  But their behaviour has changed in the last week.  Now they act like they own the place and are giving all the other birds a hard time and chasing them away.  They act like the food on offer is for them and they are the least wanted.
There is one pair of Indian Minors we want to deal with in particular.  They have built a nest in our garage “car port” (it is the outside area where the bbq is and we can sit.  Building a nest so high in the roof we cannot reach it is one thing.  But they are messy nest builders.  Every week I need to blow out the car port because they have dropped building material over everything below.
The Australian Minors are not as bad but they are aggressive.  They gang up on the Wattle bird that visits.  One on one I do not think they would stand a chance.  But a heap of them chase one.  More than once we have gone to the Wattle birds rescue and it sits near us while we deal with the problem.
The Australian Minors are way bolder than the Indian Minors.  The Indian ones I cannot get close to.  The minute I head in their direction they are off.  The Australians though hang around real close by and I have to let them know they are not wanted in no uncertain terms before they reluctantly head off.
I know a lot of people do not like crows but we have one family we have grown close to.  Every year the parents bring a baby here.  We feel like we have got their trust.  The mum has injured her foot in recent times and hops around the yard.  We do not see as much of her of late, but think she is sitting on a nest somewhere.
They are entertaining but the latest developments we could do without.  I know we will have a win, but the opposition is fairly clever for a bird.  I had heard the Indian Minors are clever and I am seeing it firsthand.
One good thing though is the food tends to be consumed faster.  Someone did say to me in the last days there would be scoffers.  I do not think this is what was meant, but there is no doubt the birds are more inclined these days to scoff their food.