this was a problem for me.. i feed the birds and they are a damn pain.. firs teh squirrel ones dont work..they get round it.. they would hook mine of the branch to drop it to ground..
then i was told to stick some black feathers in a cork or something and hang it from the tree.. they think it a dead bird and wont come near.. well it works. took some time to gather them but it works..
i have starling.. 2nd generation.. they loved suet pellets.. so i just fill one feeder up with them for them and they leave rest alone.. i get sparrow hawk.. as in my avatar. a pair alwasy after my birds they are.. normally get them too.
lunarz.. i find that strange about starling.. they do not eat seed at mine.. just suet pellets.. they dont go for anything else and otehr birds dont mind them..
Sorry if you interpret my comment as confrontational, but if you keep your eye on the wider medIa and listen to the less empathic commentators and members of the general public, you will see that 'bunnyhugger' is used with great glee by people who have no concept of the importance of wildlife and would be quite happy to see all wild creatures become roadkill and the inevitable sacrifice in the name of 'progress'.
So the word irritates hell out of me and a lot of others who try to fly the flag for wildlife.
Hi Shrinking Violet. If you are thinking of coming to Tiverton (it was you wasn't it?) ,we get a number of rooks, jackdaws, and the best of all seagulls. We have or did have hundreds of ducks in Tivvy, as we live so close to the river. Our first year one family brought 11 babes in, she and her 2 reliable male ducks. It was lovely, so I thought. So I put out 2 large pot bottoms full of water so they could swim in them. We blocked off the pond, as they brought leeches in which have affected the fish etc. and ate all the plant life we had. But night after night she seemed to come back with less and less ducklings. It upset me so much when eventually she returned one day with none. So now I am afraid I have to discourage them. I am just too soft. As my twitcher brother points out, the rooks etc will be aerating the lawn for you when eating they then look for the leather jackets and bugs in the grass.
Hello Janet - yes, 'twas me that hopes to move Tiverton way. Mind you, the housing market is just so dead atm I could still be here this time next year!
Being close to the coast, we, too get gulls - and I'm always surprised at just how big they are close up. So I guess I'll feel right at home, what the the rooks and all. But ducks - well, haven't had too many of those in the garden. We do get a heron from time to time (at one time s/he nicked half of the fish from the pond). Rooks eating leather jackets - useful (tho' I thought that was usually starlings. Oh, well, Lunarz must have a superb lawn clear of leatherjackets ).
I get rooks (there's a noisy rookery close by) and jackdaws who amaze me with their cleverness, flocks of starlings who clear the leatherjackets from the lawn, a sparrowhawk whose flying skills are jaw-dropping. The occasional squirrel, cheeky and acrobatic, ditto a rat who is attracted to the same things the mice, voles and hedgehogs are. Huge fat wood pigeons and masses of collared doves, of which I can't find anything to praise but they're part of the garden ecosystem (it is generally collared dove feathers I find in a huge pile in the grass). Oh, and a few neighbourhood cats!
I've stopped putting anything that contains suet pellets in the feeders as the starlings chuck everything out but the pellets and empty the feeders in no time. The mix with the pellets goes out in small quantities on the table and I top it up throughout the day. I shoo the pigeons off whenever I catch them over-feeding their faces but they have young to feed too so I'm not over zealous.
We have created an unnatural environment and we need to tolerate 'the wrong kinds of birds' or stop feeding them all together.
After two incidents of rats in my garden, I took the Pest Control man's advice and stopped putting food out for the birds on a regular basis. I did feel mean, but haven't noticed any difference in the amount or variety of birds that visit and nest here. I do leave a lot of seed heads etc for them, and if it is very bleak in the winter I put out a couple of fat balls. Oh, and no more rats!
yes we get rats.. due to railway line at botom of garden.. so i do not put anything out on floor or table.. as theyget it..saw one once trying to get on bird feeder but gave up.. we use air rifle on them.. (yes we checked we are allowed)as we had influx 2 year ago and they were everywhere.. rat man told us to just use poison as we had so many.. he came back and fourth for 3 months..but i hat that as you cant find where they go and die.. at least out way we can dispose of them properly.
i know the starling s feed on suet like pigs at a trough.. but the other birds love them too. robins, blackbird.. sparrows, chaffinchs and thrush when scraps drop to ground.. but the seagull hoovers up any mess so not much left for anyone else..
Thanks everyone for the advice, espeically about the suet - I have now put a couple of brackets on the wall and mounted a seed tray on there full of suet pellets and the starlings are definitely favouring that, which has meant that I have had a return of some of the goldfinch and green finch to the seed feeders, which is great I have also hung a large suet ball feeder at the back of the garden which is also diverting the starlings. As gardeningfantic says, the robins, blackbirds and sparrows are also loving the suet pellets, which again stops them using the seed feeders as much - the blackbirds can be terrors when they decide that a seed feeder is 'theirs'. I am also sprinkling some dried mealworms around the floor every now and then, which are gone in minutes - than goodness for cheap, bulk buying on eBay! Even though the starlings are annoying, I must admit that watching them bring their babies to feed in my garden is still a lovely sight
I had some old hanging-basket frames that I got at a a garage sale, and I have successfully used two of these to create a cage in which to hang the peanut feeder. It's aimed at protecting from squirrels, which don't just take the nuts but will pull apart the whole feeder, or knock it down and hide or remove it.
I'm now considering making a second one to protect the fatballs from the jackdaws and magpies, who demolish them in no time, but I can't decide whether I'm just bieng soppy in wanting the tits and finches to have first peck at them.
Posts
this was a problem for me.. i feed the birds and they are a damn pain.. firs teh squirrel ones dont work..they get round it.. they would hook mine of the branch to drop it to ground..
then i was told to stick some black feathers in a cork or something and hang it from the tree.. they think it a dead bird and wont come near.. well it works. took some time to gather them but it works..
i have starling.. 2nd generation.. they loved suet pellets.. so i just fill one feeder up with them for them and they leave rest alone.. i get sparrow hawk.. as in my avatar. a pair alwasy after my birds they are.. normally get them too.
lunarz.. i find that strange about starling.. they do not eat seed at mine.. just suet pellets.. they dont go for anything else and otehr birds dont mind them..
Lunarz,
Sorry if you interpret my comment as confrontational, but if you keep your eye on the wider medIa and listen to the less empathic commentators and members of the general public, you will see that 'bunnyhugger' is used with great glee by people who have no concept of the importance of wildlife and would be quite happy to see all wild creatures become roadkill and the inevitable sacrifice in the name of 'progress'.
So the word irritates hell out of me and a lot of others who try to fly the flag for wildlife.
Joe
Hi Shrinking Violet. If you are thinking of coming to Tiverton (it was you wasn't it?) ,we get a number of rooks, jackdaws, and the best of all seagulls. We have or did have hundreds of ducks in Tivvy, as we live so close to the river. Our first year one family brought 11 babes in, she and her 2 reliable male ducks. It was lovely, so I thought. So I put out 2 large pot bottoms full of water so they could swim in them. We blocked off the pond, as they brought leeches in which have affected the fish etc. and ate all the plant life we had. But night after night she seemed to come back with less and less ducklings. It upset me so much when eventually she returned one day with none. So now I am afraid I have to discourage them. I am just too soft. As my twitcher brother points out, the rooks etc will be aerating the lawn for you when eating they then look for the leather jackets and bugs in the grass.
Hello Janet - yes, 'twas me that hopes to move Tiverton way. Mind you, the housing market is just so dead atm I could still be here this time next year!
Being close to the coast, we, too get gulls - and I'm always surprised at just how big they are close up. So I guess I'll feel right at home, what the the rooks and all. But ducks - well, haven't had too many of those in the garden. We do get a heron from time to time (at one time s/he nicked half of the fish from the pond
). Rooks eating leather jackets - useful (tho' I thought that was usually starlings. Oh, well, Lunarz must have a superb lawn clear of leatherjackets 
).
I get rooks (there's a noisy rookery close by) and jackdaws who amaze me with their cleverness, flocks of starlings who clear the leatherjackets from the lawn, a sparrowhawk whose flying skills are jaw-dropping. The occasional squirrel, cheeky and acrobatic, ditto a rat who is attracted to the same things the mice, voles and hedgehogs are. Huge fat wood pigeons and masses of collared doves, of which I can't find anything to praise but they're part of the garden ecosystem (it is generally collared dove feathers I find in a huge pile in the grass). Oh, and a few neighbourhood cats!
I've stopped putting anything that contains suet pellets in the feeders as the starlings chuck everything out but the pellets and empty the feeders in no time. The mix with the pellets goes out in small quantities on the table and I top it up throughout the day. I shoo the pigeons off whenever I catch them over-feeding their faces but they have young to feed too so I'm not over zealous.
We have created an unnatural environment and we need to tolerate 'the wrong kinds of birds' or stop feeding them all together.
yes we get rats.. due to railway line at botom of garden.. so i do not put anything out on floor or table.. as theyget it..saw one once trying to get on bird feeder but gave up.. we use air rifle on them.. (yes we checked we are allowed)as we had influx 2 year ago and they were everywhere.. rat man told us to just use poison as we had so many.. he came back and fourth for 3 months..but i hat that as you cant find where they go and die.. at least out way we can dispose of them properly.
i know the starling s feed on suet like pigs at a trough.. but the other birds love them too. robins, blackbird.. sparrows, chaffinchs and thrush when scraps drop to ground.. but the seagull hoovers up any mess so not much left for anyone else..
Thanks everyone for the advice, espeically about the suet - I have now put a couple of brackets on the wall and mounted a seed tray on there full of suet pellets and the starlings are definitely favouring that, which has meant that I have had a return of some of the goldfinch and green finch to the seed feeders, which is great
I have also hung a large suet ball feeder at the back of the garden which is also diverting the starlings. As gardeningfantic says, the robins, blackbirds and sparrows are also loving the suet pellets, which again stops them using the seed feeders as much - the blackbirds can be terrors when they decide that a seed feeder is 'theirs'. I am also sprinkling some dried mealworms around the floor every now and then, which are gone in minutes - than goodness for cheap, bulk buying on eBay! Even though the starlings are annoying, I must admit that watching them bring their babies to feed in my garden is still a lovely sight 
I had some old hanging-basket frames that I got at a a garage sale, and I have successfully used two of these to create a cage in which to hang the peanut feeder. It's aimed at protecting from squirrels, which don't just take the nuts but will pull apart the whole feeder, or knock it down and hide or remove it.
I'm now considering making a second one to protect the fatballs from the jackdaws and magpies, who demolish them in no time, but I can't decide whether I'm just bieng soppy in wanting the tits and finches to have first peck at them.