Any keen bird feeders out there?

166million

Still got lots of mad starlings

googler

WatsonNimrod wrote: »

Has anyone had any success attracting Bullfinches to their feeders? I have a few that flit around in the garden from a wood nearby but they don't come to the feeders. I've tried all the recommended RSPB stuff, jut wondering if anyone has any suggestions?

Cherry & fruit fatballs brought them to our feeding station, but because there's lots of company in the form of robins, tits, chaffinches, etc. the bullfinches didn't stay long.

suki1964

I got a 25kg sack of mixed grain from the farm suppliers for a fiver - the birds love it

Have to report that we now have a pair of buzzards in the trees in the field at the back of us

We havent been feeding the birds so much of late as we just got chickens and their pen had to go where the feeders were so I need to establish a new feeding area for them before the cold weather kicks in

generationgav

We live in a relatively urban area, south of Manchester. Bird feeder been up since January.

Took a good couple of months to get a constant flurry of birds coming - we had lots of starlings, bluetits, doves and magpies.

However in the last month they seem to have gone away, and all we get are the damned squirrels in the morning. The garden is too small to move the feeder far enough away from a fence to stop them.

I understand that the birds will be changing and the winter birds won't be used to the feeder but is there anything we can do to detract the squirrels or attract the birds back to our garden?

Primrose

Birds do moult in the summer which can restrict the amount of flying they do and until end of autumn when the weather gets colder and there are fewer insects around they often disappear from gardens. If your bird feeders are hing from metal poles you can try greasing the poles with Vaseline or cooking oil to make them too greasy for squirrels to climb but they are cunning creatures and generally it doesn't t take them long to find a way around the obstacles placed in their path. We have three bird feeder tubes hanging from a three armed metal pole feeder. We tried greasing the pole to prevent squirrels from climbing up it but they soon learned to overcome the problem by taking a long distance running jump at it and the momentum took them high enough up the pole to be able to climb onto the metal arms from which the feeders hung. We have yet to find a way of preventing them getting at food we put out for the birds. The bird table is always the first easy port of call.

londonTiger

spent £15 on a nut grinder to crush peanuts to feed the birds - they're not having it. still not being touched - i'll give it some time though, it did take about 2-3 weeks for the birds to discover the food source that I put out. So the birds might need time to discover that the peanut is edible now.

Gers

Braithwaite1000 wrote: »

Who is it that is now charging you extra on your delivery Gers? It seems that a lot of online companies charge extra for "Scottish Highland " deliveries. Brinvale Bird Foods claim to have free delivery to all of the UK, they might be worth looking at?

Think it's green fingers though not sure - and I've cleared my cache. They blamed Yodel! I'm not in the Highlands, just Central Scotland albeit on the very edge of the west coast and nearer Oban than Glasgow. One firm wanted to charge me £10.00 for an item costing £6.00 which would have been sent by Royal Mail - which has universal charging.

Thanks for the tip - will have a look.

Gers

For some weeks now I've been leaving suet balls under a metal cage just on the grass (cut down the two big bushes where a feeder was) and have been noticing recently that the cage has been knocked over and whole suet balls missing - not rolled anywhere on the grass. As the garden is fully enclosed it couldn't have been a fox or pine marten or even rooks / crows / ravens.

Just now I glanced out my (new) kitchen window to find the culprit - a lovely lovely red squirrel :j First time I've seen one at this new house though they were at the holiday home about 400 yards away. It was skipping along the roof of the back steadings which make the walled garden.

Now that kind of culprit I don't mind! I'm delighted in fact. Just hope that it keeps coming in. Seeing it has made my mind up for me to get a trail camera installed as the infra-red one aimed at the bird feeders won't do the job.

KxMx

Oooh a red squirrel, wow!

Looking forward to when the birds start visiting again in greater numbers, shouldn't be longer than a few weeks now.

I never call autumn until I see the blackbirds are back

Primrose

Lucky you to have a red squirrel. We have masses of the greys and quite honestly they're a menance pinching all the bird food.