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Talkback: Feeding the birds

Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
in Talkback
We have spent many happy hours watching lots and lots of blackbirds feasting off our crab apples, especially during the snow as they were so visible and well above the 12 ins of snow!!
Norfolk.
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  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    At the moment I have 6 feeders hanging from my rotary drier which is near my kitchen window so I can happily watch all the birds. I give them peanuts, sunflower hearts, mealworms,suet and cereal cakes and fat balls.I live near a stream so get a wide variety of birds
    in-robins,tits,sparrows,nut hatch, goldcrest to name some. I also get lots of long tailed tits-they come in large numbers with about 6 hanging from each feeder. I notice that when they are in the other birds hang back on the sidelines and then nip in when they get a chance.Fot the 'ground' feeders I put their food in trays on top of the barbecue or patio table so that my Labrador cannot help them eat their feast! Happy New Year to you all
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I only have three feeders halfway down my garden,containing peanuts,fatballs and seed with a safe haven of privots on both sides in case cats happen to show their face and like Josephine i also get various tits feeding, blackbirds,the odd siskin now and again and house sparrows that seem to fly in from all directions. I have a nesting box on the side of my garage with a pair of blue tits going in and out so hopefully they will use this to bring up their young this year. It will be nice to sit on the garden seat and watch the parents flying in and out with food in their beaks feeding the young.Wishing you all a happy new year
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Our garden is a battle ground at the moment! I gave my husband assorted feeders & food for the birds this Christmas. There are regular stand-offs between blackbirds and robins. Watching their posturing is very interesting. Dunnock, bullfinch & tit varieties are much more polite & wait their turn.
    A pair of robins always appears when I feed my big Clydesdale horse. They like the soaked sugarbeet!
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I'm feeling guilty now as i have recently cut down a huge bush full of berries in my garden.........and feel i've denied the birds a winter feast...will buy fat
    balls at the first opportunity
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    As well as plenty of birdlife, we seem to be inundated with squirrels. Three at the last count. They're the best fed squirrels around here!
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Ive invested in two squirrel proof bird feeders to try and hold my three resident squirrels at bay. However, they seem to have outsmarted the manufacturers to the feeder as they appear quite happy hanging upside down on the feeder and tucking in quite nicely
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I am having the same problem with squirrels. I even bought a squirrel feeder and keep it well stocked with squirrel food, but they seem to prefer the challenge of getting to the bird feeders. They've managed to get the feeder with the fat balls down and have demolished them within a day!
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    The beginning of the year has seen the return of Redwings to our garden. These birds have visited our garden for the last four years to strip our Cottoneaster tree of its fruit, which takes them less than a week, and then their gone until next year (hopefully). Our resident Song-thrush, which is of course a relative of the Redwing, stays at the other end of the garden while her relatives, about thirty in number, clear the berries at an amazing rate. There is fruit left on only the lower branches at the moment, and I guess another day or two will see our guests complete their task and depart.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    ...ooh, and a whole lot of long-tailed tits have just turned up to feed on the crushed fat balls I put out only minutes ago....and the blackbirds are already ripping out the flesh of the halved apples (my lap top is in the bay window right now!)
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    The blackbirds have stripped off huge crops of berberis and cotoneaster- but neighbours' cats make them reluctant ground feeders. Also, last year a rat became so convinced that the patio and garden seed etc was for him/her that it peered through the patio window one day. It's now gone but we don't want it back- how best to feed the blackbirds?
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