Walter's got competition

Meet Walter Pigeon, on the left of the picture.  He's been coming to our garden regularly for a year or so, and he's brought his mate there, had two nesting attempts in or near it (at least one succesful; we ringed Walter Jr) and has become something of a fixture.

You've met the rats before; we haven't named them yet.  They were climbing up the hedge to raid the bird feeders, so I've made a metal tree-thing to hang them on that they can't climb.  But the sparrows, of course, throw most of the food on the ground, and then the rats simply come and help themselves from there - displacing poor old Walter in the process.

Today the four of them were there, occasionally dashing back to the cover of the hedge, and making Walter visibly uncomfortable.  If there were only one or two rats present, he was bold enough to approach within two or three feet and grab the odd dropped seed.  But if all four were there, he'd just stand off a yard or two and look huffy and discombobulated.

This reminds me of a story about rooks and hares, but I have no photos of that and it'll have to wait until another day.