Wild Birds

Yes! They seem to take absolutely ages but they will eventually come. One of the biggest attractions is fat so you try suet blocks or fat balls.

I do put out nuts in a very robust metal container as anything else is promptly taken by squirrels. Far bald would be home on minutes. We get a few birds on the nuts but not a great number.

My DD has the same trouble. Nothing comes to her bird feeder. And it's well away from the house. Loads come to ours. The robins love the half coconut filled with suet and seeds that I added when the weather got colder.

My DS has loads of sparrows come to his. And a Sparrow Hawk came and gobbled one up the other day.

That's what happened in our house too jing only it was a starling. All that was left was feathers and two halfs of beak?

It is just patience they will find it eventually, we have one of those squirrel proof bird feeders DH treated himself , it took a few weeks but now we have lots of birds who come every day some are ground feeders and just eat what drops on the floor and others like the very annoying parakeets we have round here make a meal of the peanuts, but after a few minutes DH goes out and scares them off as they frighten all the little birds off.

They need water too which freezes really quickly in this cold so I replace it every day.

DH adapted our bird table to try and stop the @#%& feral pigeons without success.
He spends £s on seed, nuts and mealworms and I make fat balls.
We have a resident robin and a pair of blue tits we see occasionally.
Patience will see them arrive I'm sure.

We only use hanging feeders for that very reason ninanana. Had to give up completely on my lovely bird table. Sodding pigeons.

They'll come, give them time. And then when you run out of food they'll all b****r off and go somewhere else. We only have sparrows, a robin and a couple of dunnocks in this garden. I miss the lovely birds from my old garden.

The sparrows scoff the chicken's grain here. And we have a robin, or maybe more than one, who comes into the house, hops around, quite at home.
He stood in the cat's dish today eating her croquettes, while we sat at the table nearby eating our lunch Cat was asleep.
We often have the door open.

Bought a new super duper much larger bird house 10 days ago- and the birds are only beginning to flock back now- they seem to ahve been scared away by the change. We have 100s here, sparrows, nuthatches and tits of every kind (no long tailed tits though as we had in profusion in East Leics), many types of finches, and many many more. In heavy snow yesterday we had a bedraggled blackbird- which we rarely see here.

It took a long time for most of the birds to come to my feeding station, except for the goldfinches which appeared within 5 minutes of my hanging up a new niger seed feeder. I have had difficulty finding squirrel-proof items, would advise against purchasing this style!

The birds do take time to get used to something new; we have had nest boxes in the garden for two or three years before they were used. One nest (for blue tits) was up for many years until one spring a great tit came, made the hole bigger and used it.
Once we had goldfinches visiting the lavender and eating the seeds but we have never seen them since.

A sparrowhawk visits occasionally and takes a sparrow off in its beak or feet.
One time it tried to take a pigeon (hungry or ambitious?) the pigeon escaped but flew smack into a window leaving a beautiful complete imprint of itself with outstretched wings, stunning itself. The sparrowhawk came down and took it off to the top of the garden and ate it (apart from the feathers).

Oh yes, we have a resident sparrow hawk too- and he does sometimes comes to the bird feeder- but not for the seeds. Nature is nature.

He did once come to pick all the sparrows from a nest on a beam right above the patio- Just couldn't help it and screamed at him- but he just looked down to me with disdain and got on with the job (feeding his own chicks I suppose).

We also get great spooted woodpeckers.

Nature, red in tooth and claw! We used to get sparrowhawks - they were quite bold, sitting in the fir tree just feet from my patio windows. I absolutely loved them.

We used to have bird feeders in the back garden and out the front, on the grass verge. Wagtails on the ground at the back - never in the garden. The range of species visiting the two different sites was not the same. Never saw a greenfinch in the garden for instance. I concluded the back was more sheltered with bushes nearby and that some species prefer a bit of cover close at hand - while others prefer to have a good view in all directions.

Finches and wagtails won't feed on feeders- I always put sunflower seeds on the patio for them- same for blackbirds.

Goldfinches feed on our seed feeder.

Yes, we've had goldfinches on our feeders, although rarely seen in the garden these days.

Blackbirds love sultanas - I sprinkle a few in the big flower tubs on the patio for them in the Spring.

I have a good range of birds visiting including green and spotted woodpeckers. I have found that my birds have expensive tastes and do not like the economy feeds...sunflower hearts, suet pellets and meal worms will entice a good variety. The peanuts are popular too and I quite like the squirrels pinching them!

Our seed feeders are very popular with finches.

Don't forget the RSPB birdwatch the last weekend in January. We've been doing it a few years now but our sightings seem to be reducing.

We get goldfinches here later in the year, but they won't come into the garden. They sit on the tv ariel and sing their hearts out. I have tried putting niger seed out, for which they will normally sell their souls, but no go.

We seem to have a lot of magpies which nest in a neighbour's conifer - I get very upset in the spring when they steal blackbird's eggs and drop the shells in the garden and menace the smaller birds. They do seem to be on the increase.
They also make a very loud screeching noise from about 5.30 am. One year a young magpie must have had a deformed wing because he couldn't fly far, but would hop around the hedge - he (or she) used to screech and squawk constantly for his mother.

We have a huge flock of feral pigeons which gobble up all the food we put on the garden table. OH has devised a crafty device to scare them off: he hung a remote controlled doorbell in a plastic bag under the table. When the flock descends he presses the bell on the dining room window cill and they all take off in fright. They soon come back though...