Sorry about that, our nearest garden tree is about 40/50 yards from the back of the house, so it has to be feeders on a pole, not that we have many birds feeding at present, saw three finches in Thursday sick with what I suspect is Trichomonosis, fluffed and lethargic, so on the advice of the BTO seed feeders down and washed and the paved area below the feeders given a good clean, only fats there now for the tits, unnatural, not to see a lot of birds in the garden, be like it for a fortnight.
We have done the same as Lyn a pole with a couple of feeders on a paved area, we keeps cats away by "using used drinks", and rats by placing poison under our shed it is on 2 by 2 inch runners, rats are always in the area, where ever you live, it is just a matter of control, very rarely see them at the feeders, keep grey squirrels away by axle greasing the feeder pole.
We had a rat that lived under the shed, every time the nearby feeder was re-filled (normally after being emptied in no time at all by squirrels) he would immediately emerge and gather up any seed that had been spilled. As we were trying to encourage birds, not squirrels and rats, we stopped filling the feeder.
Would love to have reds here where we live in South Wales but not to be, we do enjoy watching the birds, I record numbers daily to send to the BTO each Sunday, as part of Garden Bird Watch, lots of tits and blackbirds returned there was a spell when none at all, they go beneath the feeders waiting for the bits dropped by the birds at the feeders.
No squirrels here and the neighbour's cat keeps the rat and mouse problem virtually under control (although he is prone to catch a bird once in a while which I chastise him for).
Two useful tips I have picked up recently. One is to fix a couple of sawn off small tree branches into our privet hedge - visibly jutting out, and we have birds using them as perches almost constantly throughout the day.
The second is to cut some old, fallen cooking apples in half, fix them to a tree branch and within daylight hours we have had blackbirds, pigeons and various smaller birds eating 4 halves until only the skin remains.
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Sorry about that, our nearest garden tree is about 40/50 yards from the back of the house, so it has to be feeders on a pole, not that we have many birds feeding at present, saw three finches in Thursday sick with what I suspect is Trichomonosis, fluffed and lethargic, so on the advice of the BTO seed feeders down and washed and the paved area below the feeders given a good clean, only fats there now for the tits, unnatural, not to see a lot of birds in the garden, be like it for a fortnight.
Impossible
Just made some bird cake seeing as its getting very cold out there. Lard, dried mealworms, breadcrumbs, raisins etc..
Last edited: 01 December 2017 14:26:19
Yes the birds need something to warm them up, must admit I buy fats from October to April, then just seed feeds.
We had a rat that lived under the shed, every time the nearby feeder was re-filled (normally after being emptied in no time at all by squirrels) he would immediately emerge and gather up any seed that had been spilled. As we were trying to encourage birds, not squirrels and rats, we stopped filling the feeder.
Have you noticed how i detered the squirell by greasing the feeder pole, such a shame to have to stop feeding the birds.
We are so lucky having only reds in the area tho I have never seen one
A A Milne
Would love to have reds here where we live in South Wales but not to be, we do enjoy watching the birds, I record numbers daily to send to the BTO each Sunday, as part of Garden Bird Watch, lots of tits and blackbirds returned there was a spell when none at all, they go beneath the feeders waiting for the bits dropped by the birds at the feeders.
No squirrels here and the neighbour's cat keeps the rat and mouse problem virtually under control (although he is prone to catch a bird once in a while which I chastise him for).
Two useful tips I have picked up recently. One is to fix a couple of sawn off small tree branches into our privet hedge - visibly jutting out, and we have birds using them as perches almost constantly throughout the day.
The second is to cut some old, fallen cooking apples in half, fix them to a tree branch and within daylight hours we have had blackbirds, pigeons and various smaller birds eating 4 halves until only the skin remains.
We have had problems with more than one cat I use spent beer to cure it, it does work well diluted.