All the birds here eat the suet - balls,blocks and chopped up pieces. They ain't fussy We just have all the usual garden birds - sparrows, blue, great and coal tits, robins, goldfinches, blackbirds, starlings, corvids etc, so could it be the species of birds you have visiting?
The squirrel eats them too, and he loves the sunflower hearts.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Hi all. New here and just been looking through the posts.
We have lots of birdy visitors to our garden. We give the usual, suet balls, mixed seeds, suet pellets, sunflower seeds. We have found different birds like different things.
The fat balls. We have hardly gone through many all winter and over the past few weeks a lot. I did catch a crow with one in his beak flying off the other day Haha!! That could be the reason why the demand has gone up.
Last winter, I made homemade fat balls for birds to feed the birds in the garden. It's a very fun and cheap thing to do to encourage more birds to visit my garden. But instead of using lard as the main source of fat, I used peanut butter and suet instead. The birds seem to like it. It is also a great food for birds all year round and especially in winter.
Lard (pork fat, and similar soft fats like chicken and turkey) is not really suitable for feeding to birds ... it doesn't set hard and makes their beaks greasy which they then wipe on their plumage ... this makes their feathers clump together and reduces their insulation ... it causes real problems for birds, particularly the smaller ones.
Dripping (beef fat, and similar hard fats like lamb, mutton etc) set hard without being so greasy and the birds are able to peck at them without getting greasy beaks. Much better.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I have read that they are on the increase in some places because lockdowns have displaced them. They can't find food in tourist areas for example and so they move on to form new colonies elsewhere.
I'm with Dove on the soft fat issue for birds, it's been well documented for a while now that soft fats are too greasy for them, I would have thought also that the salt and sugar content in peanut butter isn't good for them either.
I'm with Dove on the soft fat issue for birds, it's been well documented for a while now that soft fats are too greasy for them, I would have thought also that the salt and sugar content in peanut butter isn't good for them either.
I think most peanut butteryou get nowadays is just peanuts, nothing added.
“Every day is ordinary, until it isn't.” - Bernard Cornwell-Death of Kings
@pansyface We have them here in Wales too,I saw 5 or 6,mainly younsters a few days ago,it just used to be the odd one. We have stopped putting out fat and suet blocks as that was what they were going for,even climbed a tree to chew through the plastic container. Unfortunately the weather's been too dire to get out there and block up holes in the wall.Also need to find something tubular to put the poison in. OH seems to think other animals might get into plastic cut down bottles.
The whole truth is an instrument that can only be played by an expert.
Posts
We just have all the usual garden birds - sparrows, blue, great and coal tits, robins, goldfinches, blackbirds, starlings, corvids etc, so could it be the species of birds you have visiting?
The squirrel eats them too, and he loves the sunflower hearts.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
We have lots of birdy visitors to our garden. We give the usual, suet balls, mixed seeds, suet pellets, sunflower seeds. We have found different birds like different things.
The fat balls. We have hardly gone through many all winter and over the past few weeks a lot. I did catch a crow with one in his beak flying off the other day Haha!! That could be the reason why the demand has gone up.
Dripping (beef fat, and similar hard fats like lamb, mutton etc) set hard without being so greasy and the birds are able to peck at them without getting greasy beaks. Much better.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Luxembourg
https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/28017413886
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
We have them here in Wales too,I saw 5 or 6,mainly younsters a few days ago,it just used to be the odd one. We have stopped putting out fat and suet blocks as that was what they were going for,even climbed a tree to chew through the plastic container.
Unfortunately the weather's been too dire to get out there and block up holes in the wall.Also need to find something tubular to put the poison in. OH seems to think other animals might get into plastic cut down bottles.