Birds and leaf-guards

[stewamax]

My house gutters are equipped with plastic leaf-guards (filters) where the downpipe running outlet joins. They work fine, stay in place throughout winter storms and prevent clumps of moss blocking the underground drainage pipe.

Correction: worked fine until … now … when five of them were seen on the ground below.
Wind? no.
Rain? no.
Birds? Yes, and I caught one pecking hard at the moss that accumulates around the leaf-guard on the guttering on a half-landing that I can watch from above and actually dislodging one.

[bungeejumper]

What kind of birds? Crows, pigeons? We've had pigeons patiently chewing their way through chicken wire when there's something on the other side that they fancy eating.

And as for the squirrels....

BJ

[stewamax]

Pigeons, rooks and crows; it was a crow I actually saw.
Perhaps gathering moss for (presumably) nesting is safer in the sky than on my moss-ridden lawns, or perhaps they like drier moss: our lawns are on Leicestershire clay - impervious stuff that could be used for lining ponds and re-waterproofing Barbours.