Any keen bird feeders out there?

diluvsdiscounts

If you have lots of patience and a good set of binoculars you should be able to spot the tawny in the day time if its that close by,it will probably just be sat quite high up in one of the trees it visits in the evening.
Little owls are one of the few you will see in the daytime we often see one on the journey taking DD to work it sits on a lamp post watching the world go by.
I have always believed you need to be up just before dawn to see a barn owl but I have never mastered it(I've been up looking just never seen one) but as Chris has said we have seen a few flying past the car in the evening.
It's amazing once your tuned in how much you do see around you.

chickaroonee

I definitely agree with your last line! I used to walk around with my eyes closed it feels like, now I pay attention more it is amazing what you can see. Saw a kestrel the other day just next to the road when I was driving.

I definitely need a decent set of binoculars, mine are rubbish and that combined with my glasses means I don't really use them. I need my eyes lasered but it seems a lot of money to spend so I can see the birds better

We live in the country but in a small town so didn't expect so many owls, but there are some tall trees near our house so they must be in there. In particular, there are some really tall ones in about 10 metres in front of the house and I think they spend a lot of time there, by the sound of them anyway.

[Deleted User]

chickaroonee wrote: »

I definitely agree with your last line! I used to walk around with my eyes closed it feels like, now I pay attention more it is amazing what you can see. Saw a kestrel the other day just next to the road when I was driving.

I definitely need a decent set of binoculars, mine are rubbish and that combined with my glasses means I don't really use them. I need my eyes lasered but it seems a lot of money to spend so I can see the birds better

We live in the country but in a small town so didn't expect so many owls, but there are some tall trees near our house so they must be in there. In particular, there are some really tall ones in about 10 metres in front of the house and I think they spend a lot of time there, by the sound of them anyway.

Ditto me re the binoculars and the glasses - very frustrating. If anyone can recommend how to choose a decent pair of binoculars, I can put them on my Xmas list !

ljonski

These are what i have and they are very good and very cheap atm. HTH
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Olympus-10-DPC-Silver-Binoculars/dp/B00006G33O/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1377852722&sr=1-1&keywords=olympus+10+x+21+dpc+i

melanzana

I only feed in deepest icy winter.

Porridge oats, grated cheese and dried fruits, raisins etc.

Gone in a flash.

I have a nest of greenfinch every year in an outlet pipe on the back wall. I sit there for ages watching the antics. Magic almighty!

chickaroonee

melanzana wrote: »

I only feed in deepest icy winter.

Porridge oats, grated cheese and dried fruits, raisins etc.

Gone in a flash.

I have a nest of greenfinch every year in an outlet pipe on the back wall. I sit there for ages watching the antics. Magic almighty!

Put some cheese out today (my daughter's lunch she hadn't eaten!) and about 20 birds descended on it instantly. It's such a favourite isn't it.

melanzana

chickaroonee wrote: »

Put some cheese out today (my daughter's lunch she hadn't eaten!) and about 20 birds descended on it instantly. It's such a favourite isn't it.

Indeed it is! I never would have thought so, only I had some left over, like yourself, a couple of years ago, and noticed all the other stuff was left, and the cheese was well and truly scoffed! So from then on, I keep the leftover cheese bits from anything, and freeze em all year long in my birdie dish, and out it goes in the icy times.

They love porridge too, moistened though and with raisins aswell, which I soak overnight for the birdies. I am a birdie Mama!

shegar

Chris25 wrote: »

aah, how sweet.

I've never actually seen a tawny owl, only it's silhouette

Several years ago, I was out near Minsmere in Suffolk and a barn owl, picked out in the headlights, flew in front of (rather than across) our car, for what seemed miles along the road

I only live a few miles from Minsmere and too right what you say about owls, they do that a lot here on the country back roads, feels as if its miles they fly just in front of you , and its a beautiful sight indeed...........

Ive got a resident hedgehog, and he goes under the bird feeders every night and get a real good meal of birds food spillage, I go out every night with the torch and watch him tuck in , and exciting little chap to watch ..........

cestlavie

goldfinches are eating me out of house and home. try and get nyger seed on offer when i see at wilko. happy to see the blue tit has sussed how to eat niger seeds to. i'd love to put peanuts out for him and the woodpecker, but a bleedin squirel keeps eating the lot. its a supposedly a squirrrel prrof cage fedde4r but the squirrels easily squeeze thru the rail. sunflower seeds get put out on table close to house so i can see who goes there (and head off squirrell) really happy to see birds have doubled in very small garden over last year

diluvsdiscounts

We have a squirrel (grey) and I know people have a very different opinion of them. I don't mind them I quite enjoy watching it actually. It doesn't eat the peanuts but hangs upside down on the suet block and it pinches the plums off the tree.
Goldfinches are lovely I love the way they just sit there for a good ten minutes just grazing!! I have managed to hang their feeder quite near to the patio and they sit there feeding whilst I'm sat there watching.