Any keen bird feeders out there?

ljonski · 1 July 2015 at 12:02PM

You can also plant bird friendly plants/ bushes trees in your garden. Should be a good supply of berries this autumn including rose hip in my garden

WatsonNimrod · 4 July 2015 at 7:54AM

One thing that's free and easy for the lazy minded of us (!) is to let a small corner of your garden go wild.

I accidentally did this a few years back and was totally amazed at the birds that seemed to be attracted to that part of the garden, in fact it got me into putting out feeders etc.

I started with the very basics, I made my own nut feeders by watching a you tube clip for a few quid out of old wire mesh. I then graduated to buying feeders out of pound land and home bargains but you have to be careful with those as some are a waste of money. You also don't have to spend a fortune on food, buying in bulk over the long term is cheaper, but for a few quid a week I tend to pick up a few bags of seeds and nuts from the pound shops or the discounters. Again check on the quality, but I find it stands up to some of the premium stuff I was ordering. Fat balls are just fat balls at the end of the day as are sunflower hearts!

I hope that doesn't sound patronising, it's just to illustrate that you can do it for just a few quid a week.

Cuilean · 6 July 2015 at 2:23PM

Me again, back with an update. I took everyone's advice, and have now got what I hope is the bird equivalent of Tesco in my garden. I have gone so mad with it that I ran out of branches on my tree to hang the feeders on, and had to buy one of those bird feeding stations, which arrived today. Now we have a sunflower heart feeder, a seed feeder, a nut/suet pellet feeder, a peanut feeder, a hanging tray, a water bowl/tray, and a suet ball feeder. There's a new bird box on the wall of the garage, but we've missed the boat a bit on nesting season, so I don't expect there to be any action.

We've gained visitors in the form of a few goldfinches, a robin, a few blackbirds, and shed loads of sparrows, starlings and pigeons. I'd really like to encourage the blackbirds (They're a personal favourite) but I understand they're ground/table feeders, and if I put food on the ground, or less than two feet above it, the dog eats it. This also makes a bird table difficult, because she'll just jump at it until it falls over. I've sent off for a hanging bird table now, and I hope that will encourage the blackbirds a bit more. Any suggestions for encouraging the blackbirds?

REEN · 6 July 2015 at 3:12PM

Blackbirds like berries. In my garden they eat honeysuckle, rowan, amelanchier, pyracantha, cotoneaster and strawberries.

Fay · 7 July 2015 at 7:37AM

Blackbirds are also great cleaners so any seed that is dropped by other birds from the feeders will be eaten by blackbirds. They do love berries though like Reen said, my pyracantha is usually full of them come autumn!

Braithwaite1000 · 7 July 2015 at 10:14AM

If you have any sturdy hedges you could always place a shallow dish on top of the hedge containing food for the blackbirds. As mentioned already they enjoy berries, they do not however like hard seeds such as black sunflowers as they are incapable of removing the husks. Providing softer feeds with rolled grains is ideal, they also enjoy chopped apple.

cyclonebri1 · 7 July 2015 at 2:08PM

Keep bobbing in and out of this 1 so;
Not my actual bird table, but my wilder version.

Out fishing before daylight today, just as it was coming half light, possibly 4:30am, the biggest bat I have ever seen in the UK crossed my field of vision in 1/2 silhouette over the river. It was over 12" wingspan.

About 1/2 a second later a bat with a 3 ft span followed it. Getting worried now.

But now, still 1/2 light it was a grey heron totally unaware of me.

However within the rest of that same second a barn owl silently crossed in the opposite direction, amazing.

To cap it all for only the second time in my life I had a kingfisher settle on 1 of the rods for several confused seconds before it realised it's mistake.

Priceless, and the rspb don't like us anglers.