I have 3 sunflower heart feeders and 3 suet pellet feeders and have a wide range of birds for ground feeders i have a homemade hanging tray with edges and a wire base that robins and blackbirds can get onto. I hang everything from a rambling rose which goes over our shed roof as they are protected from cats and sparrowhawks.
I made mine @micearguers. The mesh [ yes - keeps the bigger birds and squirrels out] was the shelving from one of those plastic greenhouses. It's just the right size. The odd starling has a go at getting in, but they soon realise it's a bit neat. They're attached to my back fence in among planting. I have four feeders - 2 with sunflower hearts, 1 with seed and 1 with peanuts. The ground feeder was just some battening with a mesh base added and some corner feet. I bought mesh samples which were around 30 cm x 20cm, and made the surround to fit. I have a suet feeder which is hung from the bottom branch of a conifer, and the base is attached to the fence so that all birds can access it. The blackies can sit on the fence.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
We use one of the RSPB no mess mixes in a simple hanging feeder and it’s very popular with a wide range of small birds - Great, Blue and Coal tits, Gold and Green finches, robins, Nuthatch, woodpecker, robin and Blackcaps. The blackbirds, dunnocks and chaffinch regularly hoover up the cast offs but we don’t deliberately put out any feed on the ground.
We also put out a suet coconut which all the tits love including long tailed tits (my favourite). Its also popular with the robins, woodpecker, jackdaws and magpies.
Our feeder hangs in an old apple tree very close to the house so the birds love the amount of cover. I think the level of nearby cover makes a huge difference to how popular a feeder is.
Blackbirds also love fruit and we leave a fair number of windfall apples for them to eat. They sit untouched for quite a while so initially we thought they weren’t interested and tidied them up but this year we left them and it’s December onwards when they start to get steadily eaten.
In the last few years I’ve also resisted doing any winter tidying and have had great fun watching the finches and tits eating all the seeds from the foxgloves, evening primrose, verbena and rudbeckia. It’s more than compensated for the tatty, soggy leaves
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
I've given up on mixed seeds. They just chuck everything out to get at the sunflower hearts. I'm using up a bag by mixing a handful with leftover breadcrumbs and putting it on the ground well away from the house. Anything that wants it can have it. Mostly squirrels,crows , magpies and the odd blackbird
The important thing with seed mixes [apart from using a no mess one] is to choose one that suits the birds in your area. Most people will have some, or all, of the smaller species - robins, dunnocks, sparrows, finches etc, so a mix that suits those birds will generally get eaten. Stick some on the ground, and some in a hanging feeder , and see how readily it gets eaten. Many birds are ground feeders, and many aren't, so that covers both bases.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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The ground feeder was just some battening with a mesh base added and some corner feet. I bought mesh samples which were around 30 cm x 20cm, and made the surround to fit.
I have a suet feeder which is hung from the bottom branch of a conifer, and the base is attached to the fence so that all birds can access it. The blackies can sit on the fence.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
The blackbirds, dunnocks and chaffinch regularly hoover up the cast offs but we don’t deliberately put out any feed on the ground.
Blackbirds also love fruit and we leave a fair number of windfall apples for them to eat. They sit untouched for quite a while so initially we thought they weren’t interested and tidied them up but this year we left them and it’s December onwards when they start to get steadily eaten.
In the last few years I’ve also resisted doing any winter tidying and have had great fun watching the finches and tits eating all the seeds from the foxgloves, evening primrose, verbena and rudbeckia. It’s more than compensated for the tatty, soggy leaves
East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
I'm using up a bag by mixing a handful with leftover breadcrumbs and putting it on the ground well away from the house. Anything that wants it can have it. Mostly squirrels,crows , magpies and the odd blackbird
Most people will have some, or all, of the smaller species - robins, dunnocks, sparrows, finches etc, so a mix that suits those birds will generally get eaten. Stick some on the ground, and some in a hanging feeder , and see how readily it gets eaten. Many birds are ground feeders, and many aren't, so that covers both bases.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...