What I use which appears to be very popular with birds is a half coco-nut shell with some sort of suet and seed mix in (available from garden centres etc.). This attracts starlings, house sparrows, blue tits and great tits. Also, a peanut feeder generally attracts the blue tits and house sparrows in my garden.
If you are looking to attract a wider range of birds though I would suggest buying a bird feeding table which can be loaded with seed mixes, suet pellets and dried mealworms (if you don't mind them) as this would have the possibility to attract not only the small birds but larger ones as well however this can be quite costly.
Hi Wildlife gardener 123 have you ever been troubled with rats.
i have a dilemma which is that I have a peanut feeder that only allows small birds to feed off them and I get blue tit and sparrows and occasionally a robin will have a go.
the feeder is hung in the middle of an arch which gives the birds some protection whilst they feed and they love it.
The other day I was shocked to see a rat which had got into the feeder and happily eating the peanuts.
Not wanting to attract rats, my dilemma is do I take away the nut feeder and so spoil my enjoyment of feeding little birds or leave it there and worry about feeding the rat ?
I have never had any Rats however I have had a mouse before on my peanut feeder. And so I eventually just moved the feeder to a new site in the garden where it found it more difficult to find. I do not think that I would stop feeding the birds completely but make sure that you do not move the feeder any closer to the house or the Rat may invite itself in (I think that this is what happened with the mouse).
If possible I would just find a new site for the feeder and monitor the Rats to see if they find it again. If they do you may need to try other solutions. The RSPB website sell this squirrel guard for pole feeders - http://shopping.rspb.org.uk/squirrel-guard-pole-mounted-cone.html - (like the one that Dovefromabove mentioned before) and it is supposed to stop squirrels from getting up the pole (I'm not sure if it would work for Rats though).
Niger seed will appeal more to the smaller finches like Goldfinches and Linnets.One of the likely reasons why Goldfinches have shot up in numbers is down to good people like you guys putting it out so please don't stop
I can remember donkey's years ago in the winter of 1978/79 when I was a kid,we had Bramblings visit our garden.This is generally uncommon but if the winter is severe they can sometimes visit gardens in search of food.Where we live now we occasionally get Yellowhammers in the winter though they tend to feed off the ground on seeds dropped by birds on the feeders.
We had a tall pole a few years ago and one day I noticed some muddy streaks. What could that be? I wondered. Well, it was a rat running up it as if it had crampons on! If you feed the birds and there are rats nearby, they will give it their best shot. I dismantled the pole, hung the food in the hawthornes at the back of the garden and put some bait bags down a hole I found. I haven't seen any for a while now, although I have to admit that they don't really worry me, unless they turned up in, or too close to the house.
I used to feed the birds at work and we had the shepherd's crook poles I mentioned - young squirrels found a way of shinning up the pole - until I smeared it with cooking oil - the looks on their faces as they leapt onto the pole and then slid down was priceless
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Hi everyone, Ive hung feeders off the guttering on my conservatory and also have one that sticks to the window with suckers. I dont get anything exciting, mainly sparrows and robins but was quite amused the other day to see a pidgeon stuck inside the one that sticks to the window he had a good feed and then managed to sqeeze out. Ive also got a bird house hanging in a nearby tree and the squirrel generally enjoys a feed from that after leaping round the garden plant to plant like mission impossible. We do have sparrow hawks in the area (they occasionally sit on my fence) so I suppose they might keep some birds away. This year we have a female duck (Ive called her Doris) who seems to be regularly roosting in the ivy covered tree trunk in the centre of my garden. She regularly falls out but doesnt seem to be put off and regularly sits on the lawn next to me eating fat balls. Would love to attract other balls but I think the squirrels would eat anything I put on a bird table, might get one and try the greasy pole trick.
Posts
What I use which appears to be very popular with birds is a half coco-nut shell with some sort of suet and seed mix in (available from garden centres etc.). This attracts starlings, house sparrows, blue tits and great tits. Also, a peanut feeder generally attracts the blue tits and house sparrows in my garden.
If you are looking to attract a wider range of birds though I would suggest buying a bird feeding table which can be loaded with seed mixes, suet pellets and dried mealworms (if you don't mind them) as this would have the possibility to attract not only the small birds but larger ones as well however this can be quite costly.
Hi Wildlife gardener 123 have you ever been troubled with rats.
i have a dilemma which is that I have a peanut feeder that only allows small birds to feed off them and I get blue tit and sparrows and occasionally a robin will have a go.
the feeder is hung in the middle of an arch which gives the birds some protection whilst they feed and they love it.
The other day I was shocked to see a rat which had got into the feeder and happily eating the peanuts.
Not wanting to attract rats, my dilemma is do I take away the nut feeder and so spoil my enjoyment of feeding little birds or leave it there and worry about feeding the rat ?
My daughter lives in a town centre near a river and recently she discovered that rats were eating the food she puts out for birds.
She's now feeding the birds using only feeders hanging on one of these poles http://shopping.rspb.org.uk/shepherd-s-crook-feeder-pole.html and hasn't seen a rat for some months.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I have never had any Rats however I have had a mouse before on my peanut feeder. And so I eventually just moved the feeder to a new site in the garden where it found it more difficult to find. I do not think that I would stop feeding the birds completely but make sure that you do not move the feeder any closer to the house or the Rat may invite itself in (I think that this is what happened with the mouse).
If possible I would just find a new site for the feeder and monitor the Rats to see if they find it again. If they do you may need to try other solutions. The RSPB website sell this squirrel guard for pole feeders - http://shopping.rspb.org.uk/squirrel-guard-pole-mounted-cone.html - (like the one that Dovefromabove mentioned before) and it is supposed to stop squirrels from getting up the pole (I'm not sure if it would work for Rats though).
I hope this helps.
Thanks Dovefromabove and Wildlife Gardener 123 I will investigate.
Niger seed will appeal more to the smaller finches like Goldfinches and Linnets.One of the likely reasons why Goldfinches have shot up in numbers is down to good people like you guys putting it out so please don't stop
I can remember donkey's years ago in the winter of 1978/79 when I was a kid,we had Bramblings visit our garden.This is generally uncommon but if the winter is severe they can sometimes visit gardens in search of food.Where we live now we occasionally get Yellowhammers in the winter though they tend to feed off the ground on seeds dropped by birds on the feeders.
We had a tall pole a few years ago and one day I noticed some muddy streaks. What could that be? I wondered. Well, it was a rat running up it as if it had crampons on! If you feed the birds and there are rats nearby, they will give it their best shot. I dismantled the pole, hung the food in the hawthornes at the back of the garden and put some bait bags down a hole I found. I haven't seen any for a while now, although I have to admit that they don't really worry me, unless they turned up in, or too close to the house.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Hi everyone, Ive hung feeders off the guttering on my conservatory and also have one that sticks to the window with suckers. I dont get anything exciting, mainly sparrows and robins but was quite amused the other day to see a pidgeon stuck inside the one that sticks to the window he had a good feed and then managed to sqeeze out. Ive also got a bird house hanging in a nearby tree and the squirrel generally enjoys a feed from that after leaping round the garden plant to plant like mission impossible. We do have sparrow hawks in the area (they occasionally sit on my fence) so I suppose they might keep some birds away. This year we have a female duck (Ive called her Doris) who seems to be regularly roosting in the ivy covered tree trunk in the centre of my garden. She regularly falls out but doesnt seem to be put off and regularly sits on the lawn next to me eating fat balls. Would love to attract other balls but I think the squirrels would eat anything I put on a bird table, might get one and try the greasy pole trick.
I obviously meant attract othe birds not balls, much check my posts before submitting!