Bird Food.

sutton.langley · December 2023

As winter has arrived, I have just started to introduce a small variety of food for my usual garden birds. This being nuts, worms and the usually popular sunflower hearts. Though there has been some interest, nothing like one would expect, considering the frozen ground recently. Have others been surprised likewise, or are the birds more hungry elsewhere.

Dovefromabove · December 2023

It takes a while for the word about a new restaurant to get around …

Buttercupdays · December 2023

Snap Pansyface!

Well almost - we have goldfinches, not long tailed tits and the addition of lots of semi-wild mallard. Many of them grew up here, though the terrace pair, Kevin and Deirdre, have stayed constant for several years.

There are ravens too and always a buzzard or two flying above. I'm blessed if I Know what they all find to eat in our small corner of the world, but it gives me the incentive to carry on doing what seems to be the right thing

Butterfly66 · December 2023

I’m glad I’m not the only one who names some garden visitors. We have a regular pair of collared doves, Ernest and Albertine 🙂

Edited to add the Goldfinches are too numerous to name so are simply the gang

Bilje · December 2023

The named birds made me smile. We’re in a very urban area and only get what I’d call ordinary birds..goldfinches are my favourite because they look almost exotic. We’ve named birds but they’re not always the same ones…..any wood pigeons are called Hoover and Vax because that’s what they do😀

Zoe P2 · 9 February

No berries left!

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030279/uploads/editor/os/mqrbvcffrexp.png

Obelixx · 10 February

We feed our garden birds all year round tho the amount takes varies thru the year. They also get fresh water which they use for drinking but not bathing. I'm thinking of making a splash pool for that.

They get loose seed on the ground, fat balls with seeds in feeders - minus netting and, when I can get them, fat blocks with peanuts or mealworms. I don't get the fruit ones as there's plenty of hedgerow round here plus berried shrubs in the garden.

Having gone form small beginnings we now have a colony of sparrows as well great and blue tits. We now get over a dozen collared doves from the original pair and have recently acquired a family of greater spotted woodpeckers. Robins are about but almost as shy as the wrens. We get occasional goldfinches but never on the feeders.

All this activity means we now have a regular sparrowhawk but so far only a couple of stupid wood pigeons have succumbed. There are also falcons and buzzards, herons, cattle egrets and a whole host of birds heard but not seen and identified by Merlin.

Feeding in the open is important so predators such as cats can't pounce unseen but it's also important to have shrubs or trees nearby so little 'un can hide from avian predators. Keeping the feeders clean is also imporant to ward off diseases such as the one that has almost wiped out greenfinches.

Redwing · 10 February

Just a reminder to keep your feeders regularly cleaned, especially now as bird flu is rampant. I feed all year but considerably reduced in the summer months. I will be interested to see if/when RSPB feeding recommendations change in future in the light of the bird flu epidemic. For now I still feed them.

clematisdorset · 10 February

That is a good reminder, @Redwing . I try to space my feed into different areas, so that the birds don't all congregate in the same areas. I hope this aids hygiene. The blackbirds, robins, tits, sparrows, finches and woodpigeons and doves seem to keep to themselves mainly. I would hate to be giving bird flu a hand.

Bird Food.

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