Starlings......help! !

Has anyone tried the lampshade type of squirrel baffle? Having just been and spent £25 on peanuts, I don't want to watch the squirrels bury most of them in the garden. I don't begrudge them eating a few though so will scatter some underneath if I can stop them emptying the feeder in a couple of hours. I tried a very expensive feeder called a Squirrelbuster, but nothing could eat from it and the nuts just went mouldy

If you google 'large cage bird feeder uk' you will also find large ground feeders.

We've just had our first snow- and been feeding birds, including the masses of sparrows we have all year round, and all the ones arriving with the cold, all sorts of tits- chaffinches and snow finches will soon be here, I suppose.

We also feed our local sparrow hawks.... inadvertently, as they come and pick a bird or two from the feeders from time to time- they need to survive too. Nature is like that. Many more birds are killed by domestic cats... who do not need them to survive either.

these ones keep out the bigger birds like starlings.

Sorry starling

Starlings are Red Data Book species, try to see the beauty of them. Maybe invest in a 'caged' feeder that they cannot get to or a ground feeder with a cage with holes only big enough for smaller birds to get through. I adore starlings.

I love all birds but we ge t no starlings here in Northumberland near the coast but plenty of noisy seagulls and fat crows. I stopped feeding birds as I had a huge rat on my lawn but im feeling sorry for them as its getting colder so I will put a feeder up again. (birds Im sorry for not the blasted rats).

We have hundreds in our trees by day.
And they fly off to a caravan park for the night.
They sure are noisy!

How are starlings not genuine little birds?
I love their colouring.

If you chase away the Starlings often enough they get the message. Now if I am standing in the patio window they swoop past and don't land. A few hammers on the window chase them away and after a few times they don't bother coming back. This leaves your seed and pea nuts to the genuine little birds.

They are a Red Data book species, just saying

They're wonderful. So full of life and wonderfully argumentative.

Still on the subject of starlings; in the last three days, on walks around my local area, I have come across flocks of them gathering in late afternoon. One lot was on a pylon, another in the hedge of a children's nursery, and today on a grassy slope at the edge of the Mini Car Plant staff car park. They are so noisy!

Be careful about putting seed feeders at ground level, I was up very early one morning and saw a whole family of mice feeding from ours. I understood that blackbirds were ground feeders so thought I was helping them. The ones in our garden soon learned how to hang upside down to get what they wanted from seed and nut feeders.

The decline is general so there still seem to be starlings about but there are actually less of them than there used to be.

They are certainly not declining in my part of Oxfordshire! I have watched the murmurations at Otmoor Nature Reserve, fantastic to see!

Starlings are on the RSPB red list so by feeding them you're helping to support a declining species.

I think that, when you see a magpie, you are supposed to bow your head and say 'Good morning Mr Magpie'.

They are so numerous now around here that I would be doing that all day long, I am more likely to say bugger off go away and leave the little birds and their eggs alone you great big bullies. They like to eat blackbirds' eggs.

One for sorrow
Two for joy
Three for a girl
Four for a boy
Five for silver
Six for gold
Seven for a secret never to be told

I'm singing the theme tune from 'Magpie' in my head as I type this!!

Thanks Nina!

Eight is a wish
Nine is a kiss
Ten is a bird you must not miss !

Does anyone know the magpie 'one for sorrow, two for joy' rhyme beyond 'seven for a secret never to be told', or does it finish there? A friend always says hello to them, as she believes they bring bad luck if you don't. There is one sitting on my feeder at the moment, along with three collared doves.

We have lots of sparrows an other small birds, chaffinches, blue tits, goldfinches etc. We only ever see starlings in the depths of winter. We get crows visiting, DH puts seed on the ground for them and keeps the feeders full for the little birds.

There is a large (40-50) flock of starlings living somewhere near here. We often see them in the evening. We have had 8-10 on and around the bird table at once.
I had read that starling numbers are decreasing but not round here ! I'm more frustrated by the feral pigeons.

Somebody call?

We get mainly pigeons and seagulls here as well, used to see a lot of pied wagtails on the bank out at the front, but they seem to have disappeared lately. I wish we could see a dozen magpies, there`s only ever the one. It`s a different matter on the waterway at the front of the house, we see ducks, geese, cormorants, moorhens, swans, and the odd grebe.

Jackdaws and pigeons are a problem here, too. I've decided to just go with the nut feeder for the blue tits and finches - and sultanas for the blackbirds in the spring.