Putting food out for the birds…

First & will be the last time I put food out for the birds we had a rat 🫣

Lovely photo MayBee.

They were there straight away this morning; my ‘parliament’.

But you don’t know them Allira they are highly intelligent, they mate for life which can be 30 years (unlike humans) they are good parents and have the intelligence to fly to the Atlantic and arrive back to exactly the same chimney pot they left a few months later. They have a small red spot on their beak both dad and mum and that’s a guide for the baby to know where their food is when they are nestlings.
They are much maligned and a beautiful bird bright as a button
We have made them into food thieves by removing all their natural food … fish …and pushing them inland When I grew up by the sea we never had any problems with seagulls they were too busy at sea following the fishing boats for their food we have taught them instead how to follow people eating in the street and dropping their food all over the place, greedy, slack, street eating people are what your husband should be calling rats
They are a beautiful intelligent bird

BlueBelle

I feed the seagulls every morning they love bread soaked in milk, potatoes in gravy or sliced/ mashed Sweet potatoes they eat bits of sprouts porridge more or less anything that’s left over
I put it on the square concrete pillar at the corner of my garden Then the starlings, crows, come to find any bits left over and the sparrows usually seem to find some small bits
I love my gulls

I love my gulls
🙂

I don't love them, but they do eat leftovers very rapidly.
Rats with wings - or shite hawks, as DH calls them.
Excuse the salty language.

keepingquiet

Good grief. Rat heaven. Birds are wild creatures and unless we have a prolonged cold snap are perfectly capable of finding their own food.

Putting food scraps out like this is a vermin magnet, including rats, squirrels, as well as pigeons and yes, sea gulls.

Crazy. Eat your own food yourself and don't waste it.

👏👏👏

Good grief. Rat heaven. Birds are wild creatures and unless we have a prolonged cold snap are perfectly capable of finding their own food.

Putting food scraps out like this is a vermin magnet, including rats, squirrels, as well as pigeons and yes, sea gulls.

Crazy. Eat your own food yourself and don't waste it.

I feed the seagulls every morning they love bread soaked in milk, potatoes in gravy or sliced/ mashed Sweet potatoes they eat bits of sprouts porridge more or less anything that’s left over
I put it on the square concrete pillar at the corner of my garden Then the starlings, crows, come to find any bits left over and the sparrows usually seem to find some small bits
I love my gulls

P.S. spare food goes to the foxes.

My problem is that I started feeding the sparrow population because their numbers appeared to have dropped drastically - the result now 10 years later is that I am feeding the entire population of pigeons in Sussex plus all the piers’ and marinas’ starlings - I’m a stop off breakfast point on their way to the downs about 10 secs as the crow flies away. I also have a very healthy sparrow population.

The pigeons a very gentle creatures but they are coming in their hoards. I haven’t the heart to stop feeding them and in any case they would raid the small bird feeders.

Talk about a rod for my own back!

MayBee70

Babs03

@Maybee this is just an argy bargy, is not a deal breaker, if his throwing food on the lawn annoys you just thank your lucky stars this is all you have to moan about.
And in order to sort it out once and for all, get a composter in the garden and put any bits left over in there.

I had a composter at my house and ended up with rats living in it. I do everything I can to avoid throwing things in the bin.They still come searching for tiny bits of eggshell because I didn’t realise it attracted them. I know it isn’t a bit deal; that’s why I put on the AIBU thread.

We got rats nesting in our compost heap so stopped putting vegetable waste out, just garden weeds and grass.

I'm guilty of throwing food on the lawn today but it took me longer to chop it up than for the gulls to come down and eat it. 30 seconds and it was gone.
I'd never leave it out overnight.

The food waste goes to produce electricity here so I don't feel guilty recycling it.

No grapes, no fruit cake in case the dogs visit.

I have few leftovers but never throw away anything which the birds will eat. They won’t, for instance, eat vegetables other than potatoes (or at least ‘mine’ won’t). Any suitable leftovers I put on the lawn for them when I feed them each morning. They know when I will appear and swoop down straight away. It’s soon gone.

Galaxy

I currently have an apple with holes in it on my lawn. Part of an experiment. To be fair the insects devouring it do look disgusting.

I always put any apples on the lawn for the blackbirds: I think it’s their favourite food. I don’t put food out for the rooks at my house but my garden is small and in a residential area. There is a rookery quite close to my partners and they’re often in the field at the end of the garden. There aren’t many small birds roundabout as it’s quite exposed and if we do put seed in the feeder the jackdaws devour it. I must point out that I don’t put food out all of the time. It’s only if there’s something that I know is going to end up in the black bin anyway. I try really hard to meal plan and get really annoyed with myself when I miscalculate. It doesn’t help that he doesn’t have a brown bin and food scraps just get thrown into a bin bag. There isn’t a bin for glass, either; we have to take that to the bottle bank.

Rats are my fear. We have them around here and indiscriminate bird feeding is the major cause. Also a neighbour of ours used to leave food for cats on her doorstep.

Galaxy

I currently have an apple with holes in it on my lawn. Part of an experiment. To be fair the insects devouring it do look disgusting.

Insects feed the birds….🤓

I currently have an apple with holes in it on my lawn. Part of an experiment. To be fair the insects devouring it do look disgusting.

merlotgran

What’s the point of the RSPB trying to encourage people to attract small garden birds into a safe environment when they are deliberately and thoughtlessly putting out food to attract magpies, seagulls and crows that will drive the small birds away. These large scavengers will take care of themselves. It’s the small garden birds that need help.

I’m sure the local rat population is delighted.

I also think food thrown on the ground looks disgusting. If you must put out left-overs, get a bird table or even better….eat up all your food!

I do not encourage magpies they have been there for over 20 years. They seldom feed at the table and I have never seen them on the lawn..
You think bread on the lawn looks disgusting…. Well, there are a lot of things that look disgusting to me but bread on the lawn certainly isn’t one of them 😂😂
By the way, for your information, I don’t get crows or seagulls plenty of sparrows goldfinches and blue tits… 😜

Just have a Hot (composter) bin.

What’s the point of the RSPB trying to encourage people to attract small garden birds into a safe environment when they are deliberately and thoughtlessly putting out food to attract magpies, seagulls and crows that will drive the small birds away. These large scavengers will take care of themselves. It’s the small garden birds that need help.

I’m sure the local rat population is delighted.

I also think food thrown on the ground looks disgusting. If you must put out left-overs, get a bird table or even better….eat up all your food!

I think what you do sounds completely sensible but he is also entitled to throw food onto the lawn in his own house. I probably do all sorts of things in my house that people wouldnt like but ot is my house. Sorry!

Rats would be my worry. I know they’re excellent climbers but I’d suggest to your partner, putting waste peas in a container on a bird table - I’d bring the container in at dusk. Not foolproof rat wise but stops dog scavenging

I leave crusts of bread on the lawn and I put suet balls as well.
And there is always a Suet block on the bird table
Apart from what the birds have pecked at, it’s always there in the morning particularly the bread I’ll leave her for a couple of days and then remove it but the rats certainly don’t have it or any of the other stuff out there… Mind you,
I do have a cat and a dog, so maybe that’s a deterrent ..🤷‍♀️
I also have a nest of magpies that been there for years in the trees at the bottom of my garden…

@Maybee70
Sorry didn't mean to tread on your toes. And you're right I had more or less the same levelled at me on the drivers are selfish thread. But am just trying to lighten the mood because I can tell you feel worked up about this.

Dog gets some leftovers, rest in the bin or in a tub in the fridge if we can use it next day.

Rats give me the heeby jeebies! I stopped feeding the birds because of rats. However, I do occasionally throw excess parrot food on the grass or in the borders for the birds when I clean his cage out.

I have a lot of black birds frequent my garden, I have a bird table and I have hanging feeders but I will put food on the lawn because the blackbirds are mainly ground feeders….
Because they’re so territorial, I spread the food out as well, and I’ll probably get 8 to 10 blackbirds every day.. That’s at one time