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Posted Nov 6, 2009 by kea
I don't have four and twenty, but some are ripe for pie making. I can handle them being vandals in the garden, but now for the first time they've decided to come inside  If I go out and leave the back door open they come in and leave me little mushy black poos everywhere (which are hard to get out of the carpet)  . I was lying on the porch this morning and one walked across my back to get inside - I think that is going too far and now something has to be done 
Any solutions as well as pie making welcome.
(apologies to Effers. I'd send them all to you if I could!).
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Posted Nov 6, 2009 by Taliesin
Got  ?
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Posted Nov 6, 2009 by STRANGELY STRANGE ( A brain on a spring )
Get a spikey jumper for your back!
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Posted Nov 6, 2009 by Vip
You'd probably just treat them the same as chicken - if you could catch them, kill them, gut them, pluck them and prepare them for the pot!
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Posted Nov 6, 2009 by Reddyfreddy
Are NZ blackbirds the same as European ones? Early colonists often gave the same name to completely different species, because...er...they were the same colour (cf. American and European robins).
I wouldn't treat them like chicken - pigeon is probably a much closer comparison. The only edible part is likely to be the breast (the legs are too small to be messing around with), which you will need to remove. You can do this without going to the bother of plucking the bird - you can skin the breast with feathers on, then cut round the breast meat from the sternum.
Pigeon meat is best cooked rare (once known as "the poor man's beef"). If cooked for too long it will dry out and become very tough. Alternatively, you can stew it for a long time, if it is to go into a pie. Here's a recipe: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/pigeonpie_8159.shtml
Good luck, and let us know how it tastes!
RF
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Posted Nov 6, 2009 by Cheerful Dragon
New Zealand blackbirds are the same as European ones. They were introduced in the late 19th century by settlers who wanted a reminder of home.
As for how you'd cook them, I'd treat them as a small gamebird. Don't ask for details - I don't have any.
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Posted Nov 6, 2009 by kea
 you took me seriously about the pie making! I wish I had the guts now to kill them.
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Posted Nov 6, 2009 by Gnomon [See A60420098 for details of new sign-in system]
I think the reason there were four and twenty in the pie is that there's not much meat on a blackbird. It would be a lot of work to prepare enough of them to make a pie. Better to make a scarecrow.
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Posted Nov 6, 2009 by Flying Ants; formerly Effers
 
They maybe the same species but it appears NZ blackbirds behave in an entirely different way to Brit blackbirds. Here they behave in an entirely wild way. And indeed make the most almighty warning racket if a cat appears.
Yes I think I'd be quite happy to eat the NZ ones if they are going to behave in such a woosy manner.
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Posted Nov 6, 2009 by Br. Robyn Hoode - Ginger and Spice and all things nice.
Bit small.
Have you tried playing heavy metal on your balcony regularly?
Or fire rubber bands at em?
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Posted Nov 6, 2009 by highamexpat
Here's a recipe for Rook pie. I'm sure it would be the same for blackbirds.
http://www.scottish-recipes.com/rook-pie.html
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Posted Nov 6, 2009 by Vip
This thread is making me hungry!
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Posted Nov 6, 2009 by Br. Robyn Hoode - Ginger and Spice and all things nice.
Rooks are about six or seven times the size of a blackbird so I'd adjust the number of birds required...
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Posted Nov 6, 2009 by STRANGELY STRANGE ( A brain on a spring )
Oi, leave those Blackbirds alone! They are lovely birds that eat nasty bugs in gardens.
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Posted Nov 6, 2009 by Flying Ants; formerly Effers
Yes I'm with you SS.
Here is a poem that I once posted in my journal about them,
The nightingale has a lyre of gold,
The lark's is a clarion call,
And the blackbird plays but a boxwood flute,
But I love him best of all.
For his song is all of the joy of life,
And we in the mad, spring weather,
We two have listened till he sang
Our hearts and lips together.
William Henley (1849-1903)
But it seems NZ ones are a different kettle of fish
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Posted Nov 6, 2009 by Gnomon [See A60420098 for details of new sign-in system]
"Blackbird from a willow sings:
Tiny beak with voice that rings.
Yellow bill, like coal his coat,
Merry music from his throat."
An Irish monk in the 9th Century who was illuminating a Bible jotted that poem in the margin as he worked. Obviously he was looking out the window instead of working.
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Posted Nov 6, 2009 by Br. Robyn Hoode - Ginger and Spice and all things nice.
I like to play whistle tennis with them, well, I used to with one who used to greet me at work a couple of years ago. It'd whistle something and I'd mimic it and it'd mimic me and after a few of those, I could whistle something else and it'd mimic me...
He did a really good telephone ringing and truck horn as well.
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Posted Nov 6, 2009 by Marķa del Mar
No pie, Kea,
be merciful.
Those disturbing beasts
are the same that sing
among your garden green,
among the tree that
cuddle you when sat pensive.
Consider this, it“s for you:
the tasty song of blackbirds
it is not in the stew
but in the ear where tastes best.
<apologies>
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Posted Nov 6, 2009 by kea
<<
I think the reason there were four and twenty in the pie is that there's not much meat on a blackbird. It would be a lot of work to prepare enough of them to make a pie. Better to make a scarecrow.
<<
So it's an ironic pie?
Like pukeko soup:
Take a plucked, gutted pukeko; put in a pot with a stone and water; simmer 10 hours; take the pukeko out and eat the stone.
A pukeko: http://www.richard-seaman.com/Birds...onForest/PukekoWithOneLegRaised.jpg
I don't mind blackbirds in the garden. I do mind them in my house. Playing heavy metal might work but then I'd have to shift out as well.
Effers, do they not get tame at all? Here they'll follow you round the garden while you're weeding sometimes within a few feet.
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Posted Nov 6, 2009 by Gnomon [See A60420098 for details of new sign-in system]
I don't think I've ever been within 20 feet of a blackbird. They never get tame. They're not like robins which would nearly land on your hand if you had robin food in your palm.
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