Feeding the Birds

valk_scot

Oh, good list of what kitchen scraps you can feed to garden birds is here, about half way down. I never knew they liked cooked potato!

ALWAYS_POOR

I make fat balls, one part suet, one part value dried fruit and one part cereal or bird seed. Put them in the fridge to harden, they love them. I'm now going to try half an apple.

scotrae

Lard, oats, grated cheese, dried fruit and manky apples.

DH went out this morning and I instructed him to get standby supplies - not for us but the birds. He bought a whopping £6 bag of peanuts for them (eek - our grocery budget for this month was only £100 for the four of us!). Even he is taking an interest now after spotting a few visitors at improvised feeding stations and he's just crafted a ball of lard, grapes and peanuts to hang for them. Another new location for them to get used to but at this rate our garden should be quite a mecca by tomorrow!

CCP

Apples definitely seem to be good - I put an over-ripe one out yesterday evening and the blackbirds and redwings have demolished it already.

I'm running low on bird food so tomorrow I'm going to try them on some stale breakfast cereal that's been sitting in the cupboard for several months. I hope the birds like it more than I did, anyway!

ragz_2

I've just sent OH out with some stale banana raisin muffins and a dish of water for the birds, we already have fat balls up, his xmas present to the birdies lol.

He's put it very close to the house though, not sure they'll come that close!

mollythewestie

valk_scot wrote: »

Oh, good list of what kitchen scraps you can feed to garden birds is here, about half way down. I never knew they liked cooked potato!

Thanks for that list, I had completely forgotton about bacon rinds. When we were children, we would fight over who got to take the bacon rinds out for the birdies!

I have just put out some bacon rinds, some apples the were heading for the bin and a dish of fresh water. i think we have a birdseed holder and some seed in the garage, which I will put out tomorrow.

Counting_Pennies_2

I have put out some sweetcorn and made some pop corn, but so far nothing in the last hour.

Have I put them in the wrong place, or will it take them a while to find them.

valk_scot

Counting_Pennies wrote: »

I have put out some sweetcorn and made some pop corn, but so far nothing in the last hour.

Have I put them in the wrong place, or will it take them a while to find them.

In general and especially at this time of year garden birds' main feeding times are in the morning and early afternoon. As it starts getting dark they all go to their roosting places and settle down for the night before they get too chilled. Look out the window at about 10am tomorrow and they should be scoffing away.

valk_scot

My OH has just pointed out we have half a dried up Christmas pud lurking around in the kitchen which no-one wants to eat because it was a very cheap and nasty one. No alcohol, so I think the birdies can have it tomorrow.

I also brought up a couple of sunflower heads from the allotment when I was there today and will hang them up. The birds can both eat the seeds straight from the heads or from the ground when they fall out. It's always worth keeping the sunflower heads for this, also seeds from the Halloween pumpkins or any squash or melons you may buy.

k2tog

Had some cereal languishing in the bottom of a cupboard so put it out for the birds. They seem starving round here and I think the fat ball that we put out for them the other week has frozen solid. They liked the cereal more than the kids did.