Bird Behaviour

One morning last week I looked out of my bedroom window to see a wood pigeon and a magpie squabbling over possession of the cup of fat and breadcrumbs that I regularly hang in a cherry tree in my garden.

I try to avoid using plastic cups, but when I'm given one, then I make use of it again this way.  This cup is now a bit battered, as it has done several refills.  I often find the cup has gone from the tree and I have to look for it in the bushes.  Now I know how they get there and why they get battered.

As children, my sister and I used to look after ponies and one of the things I learnt then was that when putting out piles of hay for them, you always put out one more pile than there are ponies, so that if one pony is trying to nose in on another pony's hay, that pony can go to the spare pile.  It avoids the arguments.

Maybe I should put out more than one cup in my cherry tree?