Any keen bird feeders out there?

Gers

Now I'm in my 'new' home I've been stocking the feeding station and get a load of birds using it well. Got a camera set up at the kitchen window so I can watch from the laptop.

I am quite surprised to see how competitive the goldfinches are. They are very robust in chasing off the tits and other finches who approach. As there seems to be at least three pairs of goldfinches the scenes are as gripping as the cat fights in Dallas!

Peanuts are not flavour of the month but the black pumpkin seeds are a big hit.

It's such a pleasure to watch them all, squabbling or not.

Ken68

Good for you Gers, I just get little brown jobs.
Might try the camera thingy.

diluvsdiscounts

I think this is the best year we have had in our garden although we do also have the most feeders ever too. I have 6 nest boxes dotted around and do we have any residents....not one!!
We do have a little gold crest visiting regularly though and lots of finches and two ducks which I'm hoping don't lay their eggs in my garden.

cyclonebri1

andrewf75 wrote: »

A few points:

They haven't spread south, they have spread west - they have always been very common in Wales and Devon/Cornwall as well as Cumbria and Scotland.

They are NOT reaching problem numbers at all. They are reaching natural numbers again now that we have stopped shooting them as much as we used to. Gamekeepers are the problem because they hate anything that might take one of their pheasants/grouse and these birds are of course non-native or intensively managed so these are actually the problem.

Here in Oxfordshire there are more large birds of prey than anywhere in the North or West now. Kites and buzzards are everywhere you look as we don't have grouse moors down here so no-one persecutes them. Its fantastic and even though 6 or more red kites circling over my garden is completely normal I never get bored of seeing them.

Ok, I take that as the view of the RSPB, anti anything that could affect bird life.

Let me make it clear I said I like them, but I'm an angler, a shooter, but I'm also a bird enthusiast.

So "they haven't spread south, they have spread west" .
So where have all the buzzards in derbyshire come from????

Maybe it's as a result of all the "Intensive" pheasant rearing you mention, ie, provide food and predators will come for it.
Who's helping the buzzards most, you or the game rearers?? that really is the question.

No one persecutes them here either, but, time moves on. Man makes greater inroads and does affect the balance of nature regardless of what you or anyone else accepts.
So trying to reintroduce wildlife into an area that has proved unsuitable in the past really does have it's problems, if part of that landscape in farmed for game it's even worse.

But these birds haven't been reintroduced, they have extended their range to where they can survive best, that's a testament to improving conditions, things will balance out.

Right off to hug another tree right now, :D;)

andrewf75

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

So where have all the buzzards in derbyshire come from????

as I said from the West. 20 years ago you could draw a line down the middle of the country, west of it were buzzards, east of it there weren't. Now they have spread all over. In Derbyshire you're probably the same as here in Oxfordshire - you used to be east of the line and have witnessed first hand the recolonisation.

Appreciate what you're saying re. the pheasants shooting providing food and I'm sure it does, but mostly its just a return to natural populations.

cyclonebri1

andrewf75 wrote: »

as I said from the West. 20 years ago you could draw a line down the middle of the country, west of it were buzzards, east of it there weren't. Now they have spread all over. In Derbyshire you're probably the same as here in Oxfordshire - you used to be east of the line and have witnessed first hand the recolonisation.

Appreciate what you're saying re. the pheasants shooting providing food and I'm sure it does, but mostly its just a return to natural populations.

Errr No, you said they had spread West, IE, from the East that was my point. Nowhere you mentioned was East of here.

The rest we agree over:T

andrewf75

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Errr No, you said they had spread West, IE, from the East that was my point. Nowhere you mentioned was East of here.

The rest we agree over:T

ah, sorry! meant spreading east/from the west

cyclonebri1

andrewf75 wrote: »

ah, sorry! meant spreading east/from the west

:T:T:T:TThat was the issue, cheers, we agree:T:T:T:T:rotfl:

Gers

Just logged onto my bird cam and saw crows or ravens taking from the peanut feeder! They sit and look at it for a while and then fly up, stick their beaks through the little hole, get a nut and then fly off.

Not sure whether I'm outraged or impressed.

Gers

Gers wrote: »

Just logged onto my bird cam and saw crows or ravens taking from the peanut feeder! They sit and look at it for a while and then fly up, stick their beaks through the little hole, get a nut and then fly off.

Not sure whether I'm outraged or impressed.

Ravens still chancing their beaks sometimes. The second I bang on the window they fly off and a cloud of little birds swoop down. Now got siskins joining the goldfinches, assorted tits and other finches. Got the swallows and swifts flying around the house so need to keep windows more closed otherwise they end up inside the house.

Peanuts are being left as the sunflower seeds/hearts get all the attention. Even mealworms are being largely ignored.

It's such a pleasure to watch them all.