The birds ain’t coming.

It's spring and then summer, birds like to find their own food now, put out water, they'll arrive in the Autumn.

I have 3 nesting boxes in my garden. As yet only one is being used. It's occupants are a nest of wasps.

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We go through a litre of no-mess wild bird food every day in winter, restricted to every 2 days in Spring thru the Fall.
All the various tits & finches, the robins & sparrows have their special time of day.
Together with a number of the smaller birds, the doves, blackbirds, thrushes, and woodpigeons clear up the spillages. Occasional pheasants, woodpeckers & partridges are welcome.
The bigger birds, magwumps, buzzards, crows & ravens stay away.
Feeders are cage-type, which just let smaller birds in.
The Red Squirrels have their own special feeders, but that doesn't stop the kits from accessing the bird food when they are still small.

Given that I've got a robin nesting in an open shed in my garden I'm thinking of putting a nesting box there as the nest itself is in a very precarious position. How do I go about cleaning out a nesting box, though? Mind you, knowing robins they will probably still make their nest in a crumpled up dustbin bag! There seem to be two babies from three eggs. The garden, which annoys me because of the trees and leaves and permanent shade is perfect for birds though, as the shade means it is full of flies in the evening and the leaves mean there are lots of piles of leaves for the birds to rummage through looking for insects.

Luckygirl3

The problem with siting the feeding table near cover for the small birds is that squirrels can climb up the vegetation (and indeed a fence) and snaffle the food. A great deal of the stuff I put out for the birds gets scoffed by a squirrel - but to be fair he/she is quite cute!

The small birds are more attracted to my bird bath and at this time of year drink from it, as do bigger birds too. Oh - and Mr Squirrel! - he likes a drink.

I don't mind what animals are eating here - except for rats!

The pigeons, however, will have a drink from the bird bath then turn round and poo in it.

Just to make you a teeny bit jealous, we have 2 male and one female woodpeckers. I could, in fact do, spend hours watching them
Persevere and the birds will come

We had a bird feeder which did attract some small birds. Unfortunately the spillage also attracted rats so the bird feeder went.

Don’t do what I did though.
Ask the spotty youth in the pet shop if he has fat balls 🙄

We have a lot of hanging feeders plus a window feeder. The birds loved the old window one and we had all sorts in it, even woodpeckers. Unfortunately, it eventually died so we got a new one, quite different to the old one, and it's taken months for the birds to get used to it. We get all manner of birds in the garden, from blue tits & great tits to greater spotted woodpeckers, siskins, greenfinch, goldfinches, nuthatch, dunnock, Robins, blackbirds etc . We also have ravens, jays, magpies and pheasants. In addition to fat balls & peanuts, we only ever feed sunflower seeds, I found everything else was getting wasted. Every kind of bird seems to love them.

We have lots of bushes and trees near the bird feeder, it provides cover and a quick escape for nervous birds.
We have many different types who come to feed.

Do you have any trees, high shrubs nearby where the birds can use as staging posts. Quite a number of birds especially bluetits, chaffinch, like to peck at a feeder and then "rest" in a nearby tree. Stick with it, the birds will learn where easy food is located.

I'm having this problem at the moment. I've lived in my house for 30 years and always had lots of birds around the feeders. This year even the pigeons are few and far between. Mealworms bring a hoard of starlings and they gobble them up in no time. Walking around the countryside at home in Suffolk and last week up in Yorkshire it seems so much quieter than usual very little bird song. There was a lot of Bird flu last year and the RSPB are still asking people to use feeders and not to use bird tables as Bird Flu spreads much more from tables. On a positive note I was walking in the local country park yesterday and heard Cuckoos.

A comment on facebook just now made me realise that there are some things in my garden that could fill up with water if it rains and when my robins fledge they could drown. So going out now to check everything. I had a bird drown in my bird bath a few years ago and no longer use it. I've actually had more birds and insects in my garden this year than I had in the whole of last year, especially butterflies.

There was a lot of Bird flu last year and the RSPB are still asking people to use feeders and not to use bird tables as Bird Flu spreads much more from tables.

Interesting, we do use feeders but occasionally put food on the table for larger birds. I'll remember that.

MayBee70

A comment on facebook just now made me realise that there are some things in my garden that could fill up with water if it rains and when my robins fledge they could drown. So going out now to check everything. I had a bird drown in my bird bath a few years ago and no longer use it. I've actually had more birds and insects in my garden this year than I had in the whole of last year, especially butterflies.

DH has put wire netting on top of the bird bath, mainly in an attempt to stop the pigeons using it as a loo. The birds can still drink.

MayBee70 Your nesting robins reminded me that many years ago a robin raised a brood of chicks in the hood of my dad's gardening jacket which he'd left hanging on the hook in his car port.
Until all the chicks had fledged and gone he caught the bus everywhere as he didn't want to disturb the nest by moving his car. I always think of him when I see robins.

Churchview

MayBee70 Your nesting robins reminded me that many years ago a robin raised a brood of chicks in the hood of my dad's gardening jacket which he'd left hanging on the hook in his car port.
Until all the chicks had fledged and gone he caught the bus everywhere as he didn't want to disturb the nest by moving his car. I always think of him when I see robins.

What a kind, lovely man your dad was...

Thanks MayBee70 he really was.

Churchview

MayBee70 Your nesting robins reminded me that many years ago a robin raised a brood of chicks in the hood of my dad's gardening jacket which he'd left hanging on the hook in his car port.
Until all the chicks had fledged and gone he caught the bus everywhere as he didn't want to disturb the nest by moving his car. I always think of him when I see robins.

I remember going to view a house years ago and we had to creep quietly through the attached garage because a robin was nesting in the homeowner's bicycle basket.

Ps that was really special, Churchview 🙂

We have a pair of nut-hatches that visit daily. They take seed and Bury it in the bark of the tree. Most entertaining

merlotgran

Interesting thread! I have the same problem and after four years in a cottage style but coastal garden I’ve all but given up.

The garden next door used to be overgrown with large trees that were much loved by magpies. Not a small bird in sight. The new neighbours have cleared the trees and left the shrubs but they have a cat!

My planting is as wildlife friendly as possible but I’ve given up with a feeding station.

Yep...I've found the birds come in and help themselves if the garden is a bit semi-wild (like mine is then). The one use the awful neighbours below my house had was they had two cats I was friendly with and they would frequently come up and hang out in my garden and clearly lived in hopes of catching the bird visitors - they were both living more in hope than in expectation.

So yep - if you want visiting birds = plant a cherry tree or two and they'll come visiting whether you want them to or not (fingers crossed they leave more of my cherries for me this year - they can have the ones too high for me to reach if they like - but I want the rest).

Oh the hood story ❤️

Thank you * Allira*.
Robins nesting in a bicycle basket has to be the cutest thing I'll hear all day.

On a slightly less poetic note the blooming pigeons use our bird baths as loos too. I'm sure they wait in the fir tree for me to change the water and then sweep down to use the clean facilities.

My babies. Mind you I read that once they’ve fledged the female Robin will lay more eggs leaving the father to feed the youngsters. So it looks as though my shed will be out of bounds for a long time.