Starlings!

Looks like you just have a large starling population, and if they descend mob handed then your expensive seed will all be gobbled.Go for cheaper feeding options, and DO throw some bread and bits on your lawn away from the feeding station perhaps.If all fails, have no open seed trays at all. just peanuts in wire containers and fat balls also in containers.It will last longer and they may give up sooner, leaving some for the small birds.Good Luck.

We use this pole arrangement purchased (at great expense) from our local garden centre. We put mealworms, suet pieces and sunflower hearts with a bird seed mix in the open containers. We put "Songbird Mix" in the closed vertical container and Nyger Seeds in a specially designed container. We also put fat balls and a fat block. The starlings descend en masse and eat everything except the Nyger Seeds. We are just concerned that the smaller birds don't seem to get a chance.

I get loads and in winter get the migrants as well. Just before dark they all collect on the house roofs chattering to each other it is a lovely sight. Then off they go to roost on the Coast - pier etc. In the morning you can see flocks of them heading inland to the fields and bird feeders.

Also when walking the dog in late afternoon see flocks of seagull heading seawards just the same. The Coast us always warmer than inland.
Sparrows roost locally I have 4 boxes in the garden, for sparrows and smaller birds like tits.

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Starlings preparing to murmurate at the bottom of our field. I tried to get a decent picture of the display but sadly my camera wasn't up to it.

Do other birds 'murmurate'? We watched a great display in Yorkshire two weeks ago but the birds were smaller than starlings. They wouldn't stay still so we couldn't get a good look to see what they were.

No starlings here either. lefthanded do you live in the city? also what food do you put out?If you put out bread, biscuits, bacon rind, that attracts starlings, rooks, pigeons etc ( and rats and mice) peanuts in wire feeders, and seed dispensers ( high up) and fat balls in wire dispensers put hanging in trees, seem to attract bluetits, robins, nuthatches etc.so try different foods and nothing low down or on the ground.

We see those murmurations round here quite often in the Autumn, rosequartz - they're certainly spectacular.

Never get starlings in the garden though - collared doves and pigeons are my bugbears, they hang around to get the peanuts the smaller birds drop from the feeder and they're just a nuisance.

We have starlings occasionally they seem to come in crowds for a day or two then we don't see them again for days.. I thought I saw a woodpecker on our peanut feeder today would a woodpecker do that? Whatever it was it was perched on the feeder upright like a woodpecker would be.

ps I will swap them for the bloody magpies

Send them here! We haven't seen any starlings for a couple of years now.

Funnily enough I was just watching a murmuration (is that the right word?) someone had posted on FB via Springwatch - he yelps when they get very close and one of them poos on him!

However, it was very impressive, I would love to see one.

No but the sparrows hold their own. Don't forget starlings are on the dodgy list so feeding them is good