Forum home› Wildlife gardening
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

The mesh and water trays on a feeding station - worth using?

FlyDragonFlyDragon Posts: 834
in Wildlife gardening
I set up my new feeding station last night, a few great tits visited pretty quickly, very pleased!

This morning though, the water was full of sunflower hearts and bits of peanut and the mesh tray had been tipped over by a magpie in order to tip all the mealworms onto the floor and he was having a great time hoovering them all up and scaring the little birds away!  

Do people generally bother with the water and mesh trays?  I don't mind refiling the water every day if its genuinely useful to the birds, but I don't want magpies and woodpigeons monopolising the whole area.  I could take the tray away and hang a mealworm feeder from the loop maybe?

Here's my station anyway!


Posts

  • Singing GardenerSinging Gardener Posts: 1,237
    I don't use the water dish - the birds just ignored it and I have water elsewhere in my garden. I do use the mesh tray though.
  • FlyDragonFlyDragon Posts: 834
    What do you put in it?
  • Singing GardenerSinging Gardener Posts: 1,237
    I put a robin and softbill mix on the mesh tray. It mostly gets eaten by pigeons though!
  • Dirty HarryDirty Harry Posts: 1,048
    I had good intentions with such things but the crows soon used these as platforms.

    I now hang 3 feeders off it and have a couple of ground tables and bird baths separate.

    Might work for you though, I'd give it a go first.
  • bullfinchbullfinch Posts: 692
    I have a very similar feeding station to yours, @FlyDragon. I took the water tray and mesh bowl off very quickly, as pigeons were sitting on them and gobbling up as much as they could 🙄
  • FlyDragonFlyDragon Posts: 834
    Yeah it’s becoming obvious it won’t work, there’s a great big bloody jackdaw on there now!  
  • ButtercupdaysButtercupdays Posts: 4,546
    edited May 2020
    I made loops with garden wire and used longer strands to suspend the mesh tray from a tree branch. It is only a slender branch and the tray swings easily. The robins, blue tits and chaffinches all use it. It took the blackbird a little longer but now he uses it too. It has removed the food from the reach of the rat that had managed to climb to the tray when on the birdfeeder and wouldn't take the weight of a larger bird, even if it tried to fit on the tray.
    There's little left to scavenge from dropped seed after the stock doves, pheasants and ducks have been busy :)
Sign In or Register to comment.