I feed my wild birds on Albert E. James's No Grow VAM Garden Friendly Wild Bird Food - I know, it's a bit of a mouthful!
It's a really good mixture that doesn't sprout and the birds clear it quickly with no waste, so provided that I only put out small amounts at a time, no problem with the rats.
It contains cut maize, pinhead oats, sunflower hearts, peanut chips, cut peas, Nutribird B18 extruded complete feed with vitamins & minerals and marine oil.
(Nutribird B18 is a cereal, seed and fruit pellet fortified with vitamins & minerals generally fed to cage & aviary birds during breeding or moulting)
It should be available from most pet shops or online.
I also feed Marriages Basic Dried Mealworms & Shrimps, which the blackbirds and robins love and again, I just put out a small quantity at a time.
The blackbirds & robins follow me about the garden, so I give them the mealworms then, on the ground.
I also give some suet balls, but only Suet To Go ones. They demolish these really quickly, with no waste. Suet To Go suet balls are pure suet, mixed with a little wheat flour, seeds and insects, wheras many other suet balls are actually heavily bulked up with a lot of flour and ground chalk - these just fall to bits as soon as it rains and leave a mess under the feeders. Suet To Go are available in bulk boxes of 150, relatively cheaply and again, should be available from most pet shops or online.
Yesterday the starling met up here in the field, thousands of them and took off, a great black waving sheet in the sky, beautiful to watch but I’m glad theyve gone, it was costing me a fortune for bird feed, there’s still food, seed, peanuts and fat balls suet block in the feeders this morning.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Under the apple tree are numerous wind-fall apples plus an area of melted snow - this is proving to be a banquet for the birds today. I counted half a dozen Fieldfares!
Apologies for for poor quality picture - it was taken on my phone with the binoculars in front!
Last winter I used peanut feeders bought from Wilkinsons. They are cleverly designed as regards
cleaning, but this year so far, I am bothered to witness a reluctance of the tits to use them. Much preferring the cheaper "square" spaces design. It appears their beaks cannot reach the nuts. Have
Hi all bird lovers & 'feeders'! This year I purchased a huge carton of suet balls, at bargain price. I hang them in my little crab apple tree 'Evereste', much to the delight of all the little garden birdies. However I'm somewhat fed up (pun intended) with the behaviour of the sparrows who come in their masses, eat the balls in no time and scare away the shy blue tits (and great tits) which I much prefer to watch. The balls are clearly labelled in various languages including French "Boule mésanges", which should keep the sparrows away but doesn't. As we all know birds can't read.
I have devised an ingenuous stratagem which does work. Those balls come individually wrapped in a green net and a plastic envelope. I cut the bottom of the plastic envelope and hang the top together with the top of the green net onto a wire hook. Et voilà. The clever tits soon find out how to hang to the bottom of the net whilst the dumb sparrows are kept away.
Great tit (?)
Double shot!
Blue tit
I also provide a garland of peanuts, strictly for the tits. The sparrows cannot cling to them, the chaffinches try but soon give up.
If I could respectfully suggest that people remove that net bag and use a feeder, I’ve had to rescue many birds with feet and beaks caught in the netting.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Posts
I feed my wild birds on Albert E. James's No Grow VAM Garden Friendly Wild Bird Food - I know, it's a bit of a mouthful!
It's a really good mixture that doesn't sprout and the birds clear it quickly with no waste, so provided that I only put out small amounts at a time, no problem with the rats.
It contains cut maize, pinhead oats, sunflower hearts, peanut chips, cut peas, Nutribird B18 extruded complete feed with vitamins & minerals and marine oil.
(Nutribird B18 is a cereal, seed and fruit pellet fortified with vitamins & minerals generally fed to cage & aviary birds during breeding or moulting)
It should be available from most pet shops or online.
I also feed Marriages Basic Dried Mealworms & Shrimps, which the blackbirds and robins love and again, I just put out a small quantity at a time.
The blackbirds & robins follow me about the garden, so I give them the mealworms then, on the ground.
I also give some suet balls, but only Suet To Go ones. They demolish these really quickly, with no waste. Suet To Go suet balls are pure suet, mixed with a little wheat flour, seeds and insects, wheras many other suet balls are actually heavily bulked up with a lot of flour and ground chalk - these just fall to bits as soon as it rains and leave a mess under the feeders. Suet To Go are available in bulk boxes of 150, relatively cheaply and again, should be available from most pet shops or online.
Yesterday the starling met up here in the field, thousands of them and took off, a great black waving sheet in the sky, beautiful to watch but I’m glad theyve gone, it was costing me a fortune for bird feed, there’s still food, seed, peanuts and fat balls suet block in the feeders this morning.
Under the apple tree are numerous wind-fall apples plus an area of melted snow - this is proving to be a banquet for the birds today. I counted half a dozen Fieldfares!
Apologies for for poor quality picture - it was taken on my phone with the binoculars in front!
Hello AuntyRach,
Those are very cute and serious looking birds there.
I haven't spotted these fellows before so happy to see them enjoying the feast!
https://ww2.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/f/fieldfare/index.aspx
Lucky you, AuntyRach...I've never had any in the garden, but I do sometimes see the odd flock flying overhead, they are a very smart bird.
Last winter I used peanut feeders bought from Wilkinsons. They are cleverly designed as regards
cleaning, but this year so far, I am bothered to witness a reluctance of the tits to use them. Much preferring the cheaper "square" spaces design. It appears their beaks cannot reach the nuts. Have
others noticed this, I wonder?
Hi all bird lovers & 'feeders'! This year I purchased a huge carton of suet balls, at bargain price. I hang them in my little crab apple tree 'Evereste', much to the delight of all the little garden birdies. However I'm somewhat fed up (pun intended) with the behaviour of the sparrows who come in their masses, eat the balls in no time and scare away the shy blue tits (and great tits) which I much prefer to watch. The balls are clearly labelled in various languages including French "Boule mésanges", which should keep the sparrows away but doesn't. As we all know birds can't read.
I have devised an ingenuous stratagem which does work. Those balls come individually wrapped in a green net and a plastic envelope. I cut the bottom of the plastic envelope and hang the top together with the top of the green net onto a wire hook. Et voilà. The clever tits soon find out how to hang to the bottom of the net whilst the dumb sparrows are kept away.
Great tit (?)
Double shot!
Blue tit
I also provide a garland of peanuts, strictly for the tits. The sparrows cannot cling to them, the chaffinches try but soon give up.
If I could respectfully suggest that people remove that net bag and use a feeder, I’ve had to rescue many birds with feet and beaks caught in the netting.
I would second the last letter always decant into a feeder, they can bite off pieces of plastic as well.