Any keen bird feeders out there?

Primrose

The main food of bullfinches is berries, seeds, insects and fruit tree buds and there is probably plenty of natural food for them around at the moment. We rarely see a bullfinch in our garden sadly and I have never seen one use a bird feeder but if you have seeds in yours you may just have to be patient.

Generally once birds get the hang of something they will return but can be a little suspicious of something new until they get used to it. they are pretty birds, especially the males.

Cuilean

I'm not sure if this is a sad ending or not. Opposite the tree with all the feeders, there's a large out-of-control hedge with yellow flowers. I think it's a Hypericum, but I could be wrong. We were going to chop it down, but never got round to it. Turns out our procrastination was probably a good thing, because there's an active sparrow nest in it. How do we know this? Because at the weekend, my husband dragged the dog in after he found her chasing a fledgling around the garden. Youngster was unharmed but exhausted, and made its way back to under the hedge. We scattered some bird seed, put down some water on a garden tray, and put up a section of chicken wire around the tree to protect it. Mummy sparrow hopped down a few times.

Later on in the afternoon, we were sitting on our patio at the other end of the garden when mummy sparrow appeared with something in her beak. She was very vocal. I joked to hubby that she was thanking him for saving her baby. Then we looked down, and baby sparrow was sitting next to hubby's sunlounger. It had somehow escaped the chicken wire and made its way down the entire length of the garden. We packed up our stuff and went inside to let the sparrows sort themselves out.

We've not seen the sparrow baby since. The nest is still in the hypericum, and there's chirping coming from it. Our dog has only been into the garden under close supervision since, and the chicken wire has remained up. I really hope that it found its flight wings and got back to the nest, or managed to fly away and start out on its own. There is only one cat in the neighbourhood, and the thought of it getting its claws on the baby sparrow is quite sad.

Braithwaite1000

If the parents were still checking on the fledgling it is most likely that it has survived, especially if it managed to get underneath the hedge and was capable of heading around the garden on its own.
If you fill a feeder with red millet or a sparrow mix you'll probably end up seeing the youngster feeding in your garden again.

Gers

Just now I heard a strange tapping noise coming from the back garden - the door is open as, despite the rain it's not cold out, and couldn't think what was making it.

Turned out to be a blue tit pecking at the feeder case, insistently tapping at it as if it force any trapped seeds down the tube. Very clever.

I took the hint and went out into the rain to refill the feeders.

londonTiger

How long does your 50 fatball/suet ball tub typically last?

I live in the city (zone 2 in London), there aren't a lot of birds about. I've just started bird feeding so I can't get a true reflection of the feed rate as I'm sure more birds will discover this food source. At the moment I'm going through 2 fatballs a week.

Is this typical?

I have pet fish, cat and now started feeding wild birds, Idon't want to come across hard financial times in future and struggle to feed my pets and wild birds. So need to work out how much i'd typically need to spend on wild bird food.

cally6008

I have one fat ball feeder which holds 4 in it
I budget for 4 x 7 = 28 ..... = £2-45 for 5 packs of 6 from B&M at 49p each

Gers

Not sure I can calculate the cost - in spring I fill the feeders when necessary as the birds are feeding the young on the wildlife. In summer I fill the feeders much less as there are plenty of midges (in my garden especially) and other natural food around. It's only in the middle of winter that I fill the feeders every day. Last winter was just awful here, mind you summer has seen an increase of 183% of the usual rainfall here so I've been feeding more than during a normal summer.

Braithwaite1000

I don't know exactly how fat balls many I get through in my garden, but there are plenty of websites that offer 100 fat balls for less than £20 (including delivery), if you're only using 2 a week a single box should last about a year.

Horseygirl123

The cost of feeding the birds has become a bit of a worry to me. I spend about £70-£80/month on fat balls/suet pellets/sunflower hearts and bird seed. These are bought in bulk off the internet. I have never seen so many different types of birds. A friend who is a keen bird watcher loves to come and see all the different birds on the feeders. I refill the feeders every morning and you can guarantee by lunchtime they're empty but I don't refill until the next morning.

I'm not sure whether to just half fill them daily or fill them every other day or just to stop altogether and hope they move on to wealthier neighbourhoods!

Braithwaite1000

Wow Horseygirl, those must be some pretty big bags you get if you're spending that much a month!
How many feeders do you put out at once? You could always take a few down and see if that helps in reducing the amount of food you get through.