I am in Lincolnshire. Perhaps I should add that we have virtually all native birds including every summer swifts that seem to return to the same nests each year. Wild birds occasionally they fly into the kitchen. My chickens wait patiently under the feeders to pick up dropped feed.
I think I must be one of the few lucky people who have to actually try to discourage so many birds coming to my feeders. We have geat tits, blue tits, coal tits, long tail tits, nuthatches, lesser spotted woodpeckers, green finches,to name but a few but our main visitors are bull finches. Sometimes as many as five or six of these at one time. I only feed sunflower hearts, niger seed and peanuts and the only time I use cheaper so called 'wild bird' food is for the number of pheasants that always appear in late winter. OK so we live on the edge of a wood, that obviously helps but sometimes, as a pensioner, with the cost of the seed, I feel that the birds are eating so much that I leave the feeders empty for a day, simply to discourage so many coming, with the hope that they will look for an alternative. When the young birds fledge they immediately start copying the parents and sit on the feeders while the parents feed them from the contents. I wonder sometimes if they ever eat anywhere else? As there are five feeders right out side our window, visitors come and spend all their time just watching the birds
sarah’s pondlife – goldfinches love eating nyjer seed. You’ll probably get them in the garden if you have a nyger feeder. They are very beautiful.
Walter b – sorry to hear that. It sounds like your small birds have been frightened off by the presence of the sparrowhawk, especially if it’s nesting in your garden. While it is sad, sparrowhawks are a natural part of the ecosystem and are a sign of a healthy bird population.
Clematis – are the pigeons using your feeders? It could be that the feed you use has a lot of barley in it, and so is favoured by pigeons, which scare off the blue tits. You could try changing the feed you use. If you have a bird bath, you could put a hanging basket frame over it to prevent the pigeons from getting in it. But remember that pigeons need to eat and wash too.
Bookworm 4 – birds often only come to our feeders when there is nothing else available. Blackbirds and thrushes will choose berries over supplementary food. It could be that this year there are more berries available than last year. It’s also quite mild at the moment (well it is where I live), so the soil will be soft enough for birds to forage for worms and insects. They should come when it’s colder.
Jackienock – wow that’s a lot of birds! I know it can get very expensive – especially of you’re on a pension – but if birds come to rely on you in winter, leaving the feeders unfilled could harm them. They use up a lot of energy just flying to feeders, so if they then have to find other sources of food, they are wasting valuable daylight hours and may not eat enough fat to survive the night. You could try feeding them kitchen scraps as well, and – if you don’t already - grow sunflowers and teasels, leaving them to go to seed for the birds, and also berrying plants such as holly, honeysuckle, pyracantha and cotoneaster. This should take the pressure off you a bit!
i live in North Wales,and have had great pleasure for the past two years feeding the birds.this autumn however a flock of starlings (twenty or more)come in and eat the feed,peanuts,and the fat balls.I dont mind giving them some food but the smaller birds stay up in the trees,R.s.p.b. suggested stop feeding for two weeks.I am a pensioner so can't afford to be putting feed out 3 or 4 times a day,any other suggestions please.
I should point out from my previous message that I don't discontinue feeding in the winter. This is something that I practice during late summer when there should be plenty of other food available. The number of great tits visiting after they have fledged is unbelievable; every nest in the area must come here. Early in the season we usually get a visit from siskins who can also consume a vast amount though thankfully they do move on. This year we had a visit from one redpoll, a new visitor to me and on a previous year we had a flock of bramblings that at first I thought were more chaffinches until I noticed some strange differences. Occasionally we get a pair of blackcaps and there are just a few goldfinches. Dunnocks a plenty but sadly not one single house sparrow. We have actually had the sparrow hawk sitting right outside on the top of the feeder pole after an unsuccessful strike and a buzzard frequently sits in the trees just behind us. I was watching the pheasants feeding one morning when suddenly a fox appeared like a snake crawling on his belly. In a flash he was there and grabbed a pheasant, then retreated into the undergrowth. We have also had a badger right outside the house. Thankfully we don’t have rats but we do have mice and voles and I have a picture of a mouse sitting in the feeding tray, eating something in his paws. Don’t know if I can put a picture on this blog?
I have tried a variety of good-quality feeds, including peanuts and nyjer seeds, but the only varety that seems to go down well with my birds is sunflower hearts. I get mixed flocks of greenfinches and goldfinches, blue tits, great tits and coal tits, and one house sparrow visits regularly. I saw a greater spotted woodpecker for the first time the other day. The summer blackbirds have left, and the winter ones are just starting to appear. Wood pigeons, town pigeons and collared doves all queue up to eat the scraps that fall on the lawn, so never have a problem with rats. I live on the NW coast, near Blackpool.
I made a mash of porridge oats mixed with a cooking oil left over from deep-frying which has certainly proved popular amongst the blue tits and sparrows...
The bird that delights me with its song in the Bristol Botanic Garden is the goldcrest, our smallest bird. In the spring the young take no notice of people and hop round the yew hedges at a terrific speed, so small you can hardly distinguish them from a bumblebee except for the colour. The adult birds tend to feed up in the tall conifers but are more visible and their song carries for a very long way.
I came down this morning to find literally hundreds of bluetits in our garden. Now we live behind a park so that might be the reason. They were flying from trees nearby and perching on our fences and hedges and flying in front of the windows. I've never seen so many birds, and we have a box of a garden and don't have a feeder, bird table or even a little pond for them to splash about in. But... we do have a little (ballerina?)apple tree and we always tend to leave a few apples on the tree (largely because the birds always get to them first). And I believe it was the rich ripe apples that have been attracting them in droves. I've even seen a sparrowhawk in our garden (we live in Kent), a robin, wood pigeons and a variety of fawn coloured birds about the same size as blue tits, I am unable to identify as yet (sorry). But what a spectacle. If anyone has fruit trees, leave some of the produce out for the birds. They love it.
Posts
Perhaps I should add that we have virtually all native birds including every summer swifts that seem to return to the same nests each year. Wild birds occasionally they fly into the kitchen. My chickens wait patiently under the feeders to pick up dropped feed.
We have geat tits, blue tits, coal tits, long tail tits, nuthatches, lesser spotted woodpeckers, green finches,to name but a few but our main visitors are bull finches. Sometimes as many as five or six of these at one time.
I only feed sunflower hearts, niger seed and peanuts and the only time I use cheaper so called 'wild bird' food is for the number of pheasants that always appear in late winter.
OK so we live on the edge of a wood, that obviously helps but sometimes, as a pensioner, with the cost of the seed, I feel that the birds are eating so much that I leave the feeders empty for a day, simply to discourage so many coming, with the hope that they will look for an alternative.
When the young birds fledge they immediately start copying the parents and sit on the feeders while the parents feed them from the contents. I wonder sometimes if they ever eat anywhere else?
As there are five feeders right out side our window, visitors come and spend all their time just watching the birds
Walter b – sorry to hear that. It sounds like your small birds have been frightened off by the presence of the sparrowhawk, especially if it’s nesting in your garden. While it is sad, sparrowhawks are a natural part of the ecosystem and are a sign of a healthy bird population.
Clematis – are the pigeons using your feeders? It could be that the feed you use has a lot of barley in it, and so is favoured by pigeons, which scare off the blue tits. You could try changing the feed you use. If you have a bird bath, you could put a hanging basket frame over it to prevent the pigeons from getting in it. But remember that pigeons need to eat and wash too.
Bookworm 4 – birds often only come to our feeders when there is nothing else available. Blackbirds and thrushes will choose berries over supplementary food. It could be that this year there are more berries available than last year. It’s also quite mild at the moment (well it is where I live), so the soil will be soft enough for birds to forage for worms and insects. They should come when it’s colder.
Jackienock – wow that’s a lot of birds! I know it can get very expensive – especially of you’re on a pension – but if birds come to rely on you in winter, leaving the feeders unfilled could harm them. They use up a lot of energy just flying to feeders, so if they then have to find other sources of food, they are wasting valuable daylight hours and may not eat enough fat to survive the night. You could try feeding them kitchen scraps as well, and – if you don’t already - grow sunflowers and teasels, leaving them to go to seed for the birds, and also berrying plants such as holly, honeysuckle, pyracantha and cotoneaster. This should take the pressure off you a bit!
Kate
Early in the season we usually get a visit from siskins who can also consume a vast amount though thankfully they do move on. This year we had a visit from one redpoll, a new visitor to me and on a previous year we had a flock of bramblings that at first I thought were more chaffinches until I noticed some strange differences.
Occasionally we get a pair of blackcaps and there are just a few goldfinches. Dunnocks a plenty but sadly not one single house sparrow.
We have actually had the sparrow hawk sitting right outside on the top of the feeder pole after an unsuccessful strike and a buzzard frequently sits in the trees just behind us.
I was watching the pheasants feeding one morning when suddenly a fox appeared like a snake crawling on his belly. In a flash he was there and grabbed a pheasant, then retreated into the undergrowth. We have also had a badger right outside the house. Thankfully we don’t have rats but we do have mice and voles and I have a picture of a mouse sitting in the feeding tray, eating something in his paws.
Don’t know if I can put a picture on this blog?
nicholas e, SE Sweden
I've never seen so many birds, and we have a box of a garden and don't have a feeder, bird table or even a little pond for them to splash about in. But... we do have a little (ballerina?)apple tree and we always tend to leave a few apples on the tree (largely because the birds always get to them first). And I believe it was the rich ripe apples that have been attracting them in droves.
I've even seen a sparrowhawk in our garden (we live in Kent), a robin, wood pigeons and a variety of fawn coloured birds about the same size as blue tits, I am unable to identify as yet (sorry). But what a spectacle.
If anyone has fruit trees, leave some of the produce out for the birds. They love it.