Don’t you just hate it when you make a bold public statement, only to be proved totally wrong just seconds later! We witnessed a perfect example during our visit to Sculthorpe Moor Nature Reserve in Norfolk a couple of weeks ago, when an enormous rat put in an unscripted – and thoroughly unwelcome – appearance, much to the dismay of one of the Reserve’s volunteer staff.
The Reserve is run by the Hawk and Owl Trust, and boasts a range of habitats including wetlands and woodlands. One of our favourite spots for birdwatching there is the Tower Hide. Sitting atop posts several metres tall, the wooden structure overlooks wetland to the east while offering great views into the tree canopy on the west. A bird table attached to the western side of the hide, directly in front of the viewing windows, is loaded with tasty and nutritious seeds. It enables visitors to admire at close quarters the birds that land there to feed. Unless, of course, the rats get there first!
Brown Rats are not native to the UK, but arrived here in the early-to-mid 18th century. Originating from Central Asia and Russia, they came as stowaways on ships, with some theories linking their arrival to timber trade ships from the Baltic – hence their Latin name rattus norvegicus. Once on British soil this resourceful rodent thrived, and became a menace to various species of birds by predating their eggs and chicks as well as spreading diseases like Salmonella. Needless to say, birdwatchers and Brown Rats are not the best of friends.
We visit Sculthorpe Moor most years, and have always been saddened to see Brown Rats partying on the bird table attached to the western edge of the Tower Hide. Their presence makes it difficult and possibly very dangerous for our avian friends to feed there, with the result that most birds approach with extreme caution, if at all. Whether you’re a bird or a birdwatcher you just don’t need it. So imagine our delight when we noticed, during our most recent visit, that rats were conspicuous by their absence.
The only other person in the Tower Hide at the time, a volunteer who works at the Reserve, explained that special measures had recently been taken to prevent rats accessing the table from both the surrounding trees and from the hide’s external walkways. These appeared to have been successful, she said, and the bird table had been declared a rat-free zone. It was, we all thought, a cause for celebration. And then, literally seconds after she had finished speaking, a rat clambered onto the bird table and, looking very pleased with itself, began to feast on bird food.
The poor volunteer was embarrassed and horrified in equal measure. She dashed out of the hide to chase away the wretched rodent, and then went off to inform her colleagues on the Reserve’s team that their efforts had been in vain. We, meanwhile, shook our heads in disbelief, both at the rat’s audacity and at the bad timing of the volunteer’s comments to us. You couldn’t make it up!
Following the departures of rat and volunteer a few birds began to return to the table, and we settled down to watch their feeding behaviour. But not for long, as just a few minutes later the rat re-appeared. And this time he brought a friend.
With all hope gone of seeing birds on the table any time soon we exited the hide and set off to explore other parts of the Reserve. About 40 minutes later we encountered the volunteer again and felt obliged to update her with the news that not one but two rats had found their way onto the bird table at the Tower Hide. She looked crestfallen, seemingly lost for words, so we simply wished her well and went on our way, leaving her to reflect no doubt on the masterful adaptability of Brown Rats and the embarrassment that may result from bad timing!
Now I'm 64 
A sobering ta(i)l! I have had rats visiting my bird feeders from time to time and have found the only thing to do is to refrain from puttin out food for a week or two so that the rats will go elsewhere. This tactic has worked.
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They’re intelligent creatures, so I guess they quickly recognise they’re wasting time and then head off to search somewhere else for some dinner.
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Sculthorpe Moor is one of our absolute favourite nature reserves and we too try to get there regularly. I suppose that rats must be almost inevitable if you are regularly putting out food – I wonder what they are going to try next to deter them? This spring we have tawny owls nesting in one of our owl boxes that has a camera on it and I am often seeing rats being brought in to the box – so they are useful for that at least!
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Sculthorpe’s great, isn’t it. To be fair, I don’t have anything against rats so long as they know their place, which definitely isn’t the bird table. An adult rat must make a decent meal for a tawny owl, and there’s definitely no shortage of them!
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Oh that isn’t good! There has been a huge move back in Wellington for predator free areas and the reintroduction of kiwis and other native birds. It has been successful, and locals join in with traps and sightings.
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Yes, it’s a particular problem in NZ, isn’t it, with so many of your native birds being flightless. We never made it to Wellington when we visited, but were thrilled to encounter kiwis on Stewart Island.
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Post well worth waiting for! Great photos as ever, even if they are of rats
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Thank you Trisha. Good looking beasts, aren’t they!
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Poor volunteer!
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She seemed to be a really sweet lady; I did feel sorry for her.
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Oh no. Wher theres food theres rats. Trust them to put in an appearance when the volunteer thought the problem had been solved. Yikes!
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All three of us in the hide were in a state of shock when the first rat hopped onto the table and started enjoying its bonus brunch. Not at all what we’d expected on a quiet Sunday morning.
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I was lucky enough to go badger watching in Cumbria once. Before the badgers arrived, there were the rats. And lots of them! Luckily when they sensed badgers in the vicinity they scarpered….
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Great story, PM. When you spend a lot of time in nature like you and I do, we see all kinds of these contradicting events unfold before us. Back to the drawing board….
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We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but I did know instinctively the events we witnessed would make an entertaining story for the blog. Nature’s wonderful, isn’t it.
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Yes, my friend, it is.
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Sneaky little critters! And poor, red-faced volunteer.
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Rats are intelligent and resourceful, even quite cute at times. But they are never welcome visitors.
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Well, darn! That was embarrassing. Used to see rats all the time when I visited my daughters in the city, but we don’t seem to have them at our house by the woods. But just you wait! Now that I have written this, we will probably start seeing them.
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Well they’re nature’s garbage men, so they do have important functions, but to us they signal filth and disease and we rarely think about their role in ecosystems.
They get terrifyingly big and bold in New York. I’ll never forget waiting for the subway on 125th St., which is an elevated platform, and seeing a conga line of well-fed rats emerge from a crack in a retaining wall while the sun was still up. They didn’t have a care in the world.
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Rats are incredibly intelligent. They were probably mocking the volunteers too.
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There may be a lesson about not putting out food for birds there. The trend seems to be to grow the right plants to attract the birds but not the rats.
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I suppose the obvious solution would be to remove the bird table, or at least don’t put food on it, but then that would discourage the birds yourselves and others go there to see. You got some great photos though even if the furry creatures weren’t a welcome sight.
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