Dont forget to feed the birds this christmas

frosty

We have hundreds of birds in the garden,I have just counted 42 wood pigeons,38 blackbirds,2 male pheasants,a big flock of starlings(too many to count)5 robins,4 thrushes and heaps and heaps of crows.We dont seem to have many tits,mostly ground feeders.Last night at Tesco I managed to buy 50 loaves at 10p each,so that should keep them going for a while.We buy bird seed in large sacks,I also make heaps of fat balls for them.The poor things are so hungry.I forgot we also have a heron that sits by the pond drooling at our fish.We leave the pump going all winter so the pond doesnt freeze and the birds can have a drink by the waterfall.

Kazipoo

We get lots of nice little sparrows and tits, the odd occasional blackbird and thrush, a heron sits watching the pond from time to time and a few robins, so we always keep the bird tables well stocked.

This morning the other half made some fat balls with unsalted peanuts, wild bird seed (free from a link from this forum) dried fruit and pork dripping and placed them on the tables and in the feeders... the robins seemed to love it, but no-one else has been brave enough yet!!

stardrops42

I'm always feeding the birds, we always have a supply of the little fat trays with bugs etc mixed in. We also have a seed feeder, fat balls and clean water for them everyday. We have a little robin thats seems to be in our garden everytime I look out plus blue, great, long tailed tits, chaffinches and wrens etc. I love to watch the birds, I could watch them for hours.

cajef

HotLegs wrote: »

I hung out a bag of peanuts for them weeks ago and they haven't touched them.

From the RSPB website

Mesh bags – a warning

Peanuts and fat balls are regularly sold in nylon mesh bags. Never put out any food in mesh bags. These may trap birds’ feet and even cause broken or torn off feet and legs. Birds with a barbed tongue, eg woodpeckers, can become trapped by their beaks.

YorkiePud_3

I feed the birds daily, and like some of the posters on here, get regular visitors (a lot are recognisable by missing feathers etc!) .... I buy Webbox, the chub dog food, slice it then cut it into cubes.
It has a very high water content so at least the birds get some moisture from that if they come before I have chance to defrost the water in the bird bath!

I butter 20 slices of bread a day (I kid you not!!) with peanut butter, (got to be the smooth though ... not the one with chopped peanuts in because smaller birds might choke on that), slice and chop it up small and throw that out too and ALL the birds eat that, from wood pigeons to wrens, robins to blue tits ... I know there is no nutrition whatsoever in bread but at least with the peanut butter having a high fat content they are getting a good boost.

I also chop up raisins into small bits and throw those out now and then ... red leicester cheese is a favourite, so too is a jar of Del Monte fruit cocktail (in fruit juice, not the syrup) chopped up small.

I mix Bill Oddie "Really Wild" bird seed with the Bill Oddie "Mealworm Crumble" and some cheap sunflower hearts, throw in a couple of hand fulls of dried mealworms (£1.99 a tub from B & M - same size tubs are £3.99 elsewhere!) and they get that in the bird table every day.

I also have two metal arch feeders in the garden which hold 9 fat balls but I buy the really large fat balls that are about 6 inches across ... if I put smaller ones out I get so many birds coming for them that they finish them in no time! The starlings love them and eat peacefully, side by side with the smaller birds.

Mine is only a small back garden but I get blackbirds, dunnocks, robins, blue tits, long tailed tits, coal tits, robins, goldfinches, wood pigeons, collared doves, starlings (my favourite birds ... they keep bringing their babies into the garden each year, teaching them which food to go for! Such gorgeous fluffy things ... a bit like tiny penguins!), waxwings, chaffinches, black headed gulls (winter plumage though at the moment, so just a patch of black either side of their heads) ... I even had some sort of lovebird visiting for a few days too (must have been an escapee) .... but after trying all manner of different foods and seeds, these are the ones that do the trick here! Each time I pull up outside my house it is like an air squadron as all the birds swarm, fly onto the roof of my house and wait for me to put something out for them!!

Uh-oh .. just worked out how much I spend a week on supplies for the birds ... wish I hadn't now!!!! Didn't realise it was that much! *LOL*

torbrex

I feed the birds all year round and one blackie even chaps on my window if I have forgotten to refresh the feeders.

Rummer

I would love to feed them but I have an awful feeling one of my four cats would eat them!

worried_jim

I've been feeding the birds to the cats so the cats are very happy and I feel like I've done my bit.

juno

YorkiePud wrote: »

I also chop up raisins into small bits and throw those out now and then ... red leicester cheese is a favourite, so too is a jar of Del Monte fruit cocktail (in fruit juice, not the syrup) chopped up small.

Oooh, that's a great idea! I have some small fruit pots that I don't like, so I shall feed them to the birds. I also have some "smart price" raisins which are vile.

DaisyFlower

We have been feeding ours daily, they love the suet pallets and the meal worms but dont seem to be eating the suet filled coconuts. Will try some cheese next time as never realised they would eat that.