Feeding the birds??

Just as aggiesaid.we get rats too now&then under the feeders And climbing the bushes to get to the feeders..get lots of different species here but the sparrowhawk upsets me (softie) when he swoops and catches?!! Do you all take the netting off fat balls,Bill Oddie said that small birds can catch their legs or feet in them and as they pull away these can then get ripped off..sorry to be gruesome ??

Jalima Chough?

We were lucky enough to have a Brambling feeding off the the Niger seed feeder in full winter colours.
DH rushed to get his camera and managed several lovely shots
Only problem was the SD card wasn't in properly so zilch photographs.

We have had quite a bit of success with our Niger seed feeders.
Several types of tits including Long tails.
Green finch, chaffinch gold finch, gold crest, black cap.
We also have Robins, thrush, blackbirds wood pigeons, collared doves, starlings, wren, house sparrows and dunnocks.
Ducks in spring and unfortunately magpies and sparrow hawk.
When we had a large pond (pre DGC) herons.
In the front garden we had a lost grouse

Just last weekend we had a pair of greenfinches on our feeders for the first time in many years. They went for the mixed sunflower seeds (white sunflower hearts and black whole seeds mixed). We have a niger seed feeder and have seen goldfinches on them but the goldfinches prefer sunflower seeds too. On the same day that we saw the greenfinches, we also had a black and red woodpecker on the fat balls and heard (but didn't see) a green woodpecker. We also have a lone, male blackcap. It's quite sad because we have also seen the female for the previous two winters but not this time.

Ground feeding birds such as blackbirds, collared doves and pigeons like to potter beneath the mixed seeds feeder because some of the other birds feeding on the feeder itself knock the seeds all over the place. We have seen a few starlings, they like the fat balls. Otherwise we also have the usual suspects.

For some years in our last house, we were regularly visited by greenfinches, both in the garden and in the surrounding trees, their distinctive churring call always present, but then, one year, they all seemed to disappear and we neither saw nor heard them. I’ve heard the odd one here but never seen them. We just get rather a lot of LBJ’s!

Interesting to see regional variations in birdlife.Plants do play a big part as OldMeg says as well.As do nesting possibilities, thick hedges seem popular with our garden birds.
I forgot to mention all the large birds who do their craziest best to get at seeds and fatballs, crows, rooks, and jackdaws.
Will try niger seeds this week as we really want to see greenfinches.
We also have lots of red kites circling around ( looking for unwary wood pigeons) and now and then a sparrow hawk.

We put out peanuts, wild bird seed from the Nat. Wildlife Trust and fatballs. We get loads of sparrows (and probably dunnocks, too but I'm not expert enough to tell them apart), blue tits, coal tits and great tits and sometimes long tailed tits. Wood pigeons and blackbirds forage beneath them for fallen seed. Ravens and magpies have a go at balancing on the feeders, very acrobatic. My favourite visitors are the nuthatches; I think they're beautiful birds, so neat. In the summer we have a pair of collared doves but rarely see them in the winter. (Oooh, I tell a lie, there's one on the feeder now...)

I think that the birds take the black sunflower seeds away to eat as I find their husks all over the place, nowhere near the feeders.

We have two youngish cats but they don't seem to deter the birds.

I don't think that the rarer birds come this far north...

Unfortunately we had to stop putting food out for the birds as next doors cats think it's a take away they even invited next door but ones cat as well.

I have stopped using bird feeders except for the fatballs mesh which stays clean . The trays on stalks and the seed meshes were impossible to keep clean without a daily emptying and scrub. I just scatter the worms and seeds on the grass. I like wood pigeons anyway the great fat things although I had to stick stickers to the windows to stop them crashing when they got drunk on crab apples.

We had five or six large black birds in our garden this morning. They had what looked like yellow beaks but I couldn't get to the binoculars in time to get a good look. Much larger than blackbirds, glossy feathers; I thought they could be rooks or crows but, having checked the books and online, they are not.
Does anyone have any ideas.

I hope they'll be back again so I can get a better look.

Lifecycle of head lice

We have a resident pair of Goldcrest. They nest in the pine trees at the bottom of our garden. They never come to the bird table though. Likewise a wren I see flitting about occasionally.

It might be worth looking at what plants you have in the garden. I often sit and watch birds in my trees and shrubs which never come to the bird feeders.

Now is a good time to consider planting fruit and berry bearing trees or bushes in the garden to attract a wider range. As well as the many native berry-bearing species (including rowan, holly, whitebeam, spindle, dog rose, guelder rose, elder, hawthorn, honeysuckle and ivy), attractive shrubs like cotoneaster, pyracantha and berberis are especially good for a wide range of birds.

I’ve copied that last paragraph from the RSPB website lemongrove.

We put out dehusked seeds and fat balls mainly. If finances permit we also treat them to mealworms and/or peanuts. We only get basic birds like sparrows, blackbirds, starlings, pigeons, a dunnock, blue tits, great tits, coaltits and a robin. We also have a cheeky little mouse that gets inside the fat ball container and eats to his hearts content safe from any predator because he's in a wire cage.

H buys bulk bags of seed from the farm shop also peanuts and mealworms.
He has made the bird table so that the ferral pigeons can't get at it.
The most exciting thing we see is an occasional blue tit. Starlings are certainly not in decline in our area and nor are sparrows. We also see thrushes, collard doves, wren and robin also the pesky magpies.

DH buys loads of bird food, but we don’t get any ‘exotics’ in this garden; mostly sparrows, dunnocks, a robin or two, pigeons, blackbirds and very occasionally a wren. Goldfinches come and sit in numbers on the television aerial, but they don’t come to the feeders. We bought a large bag of expensive niger seed and a feeder for it, but they weren’t interested. I was spoiled in my last garden, with all the usual suspects plus greenfinches, goldcrests, bullfinches, and redwings and fieldfares in the winter and even a waxwing one winter - a real rarity though he didn’t stay around very long.

Just talked to DH and he reminded me of the redwing, treecreepers and the magpies. The trick seems to be keeping the feeders topped up so that it is a reliable source.

We have a small London garden and my OH feeds the birds -we have seen an enormous variety- goldfinches. Chaffinches, geeenfinches, bluetits, robins, wrens, Jays, magpies, crows, woodpeckers, nuthatches, thrushes, blackbirds, lots of pigeon varieties and plenty of ring necked parakeets. Lots of birds and other wildlife drink and bathe in the pond and the heron has attempted to pinch the fish on more than one occasion. We have also seen a sparrowhawk looking for grub.

We get lots of gold finches - a think a group is called a charm - but they ignore our Niger seeds. We put out table seed, sun flower hearts, fat balls and peanuts.

We have dunnock, sparrows, blue tits, great tits, long tail tits. Blackbirds, a few thrushes, fewer starlings, a couple of wrens, Robins, black caps, chaffinches (sometimes), ring doves, flipping pigeons and squirrels! The people next door do exactly the same and have visits from a woodpecker.

When we had a pond we were often visited by a heron and a sparrow hawk caused great excitement!

Fat balls - no very exotic birds- sparrows, robins, blue tits, starlings. wood pigeons.

Last year I was very surprised to see, at the beginning of the year, some goldfinches in our potted Christmas tree. I don't think I've ever seen one in our garden before. This year, just one, again in the Christmas tree. There must be something that attracts them - but only for a week or so and then they disappear. Is it the new shoots on the tree? I don't know - perhaps someone on here does?

We put out mealworms as well (soak them first) on the bird table, but many of our birds seem to have abandoned us in favour of next door. I must find out what they put out for them.

We do have sparrows, tits, a robin or two, several fat pigeons, an occasional thrush and a couple of blackbirds but also a couple of feisty squirrels and our garden seems to be the through route for neighbourhood cats .

I think Niger seeds attract greenfinches . I used to spend a mini fortune on bird food but had to stop because the dropped bits meant that rats were about