As birders we’re aware of the menace prowling cats present to birds. However, an incident I witnessed at close quarters this morning (29/10/20) sheeted home what an awesome
bird killer the wandering domestic moggy can be. At 10:00 am I was in a Weetangera garden watching a male Superb Fairy-wren, resplendent in his breeding plumage, hunting tiny insects as they swirled above an area planted thickly with clumps of native grasses.
I became totally absorbed in the balletic flight of the wren as he pursued his protein, appearing virtually weightless, like thistledown on the wing, tumbling through the air from one direction to another, nimble as quicksilver.
My birdwatching idyll ended when a cat reared from the grass and, with a lightning left hook, sent the wren skittering sideways to land lifeless on the grass. Before I
could recover my wits the cat snatched up its victim and jumped out of the grass and on to an adjoining lawn where, keeping low to the ground, it fled, paws surging like the pistons of a horizontally opposed engine. Within seconds it disappeared around a corner
and into the back garden where, a few minutes later, I found the soggy, bedraggled body of the wren. I don’t believe any attempt was made to pluck or consume the victim. As for “Thrill Killer,” the cat he was keeping well out of my sight. Brutal he is but
not entirely stupid.
John Layton
Holt.
29/10/2020
