Any keen bird feeders out there?

cally6008

Just one word, wow

Primrose

Lucky you! We just have a solitary pair so they're rather precious

Dragonqueen

Think we are lucky too as we get inundated with Goldfinches too.
We have a regular Great Spotted Woodpecker and a Green Woodpecker too, along with starlings, sparrows, Dunnocks, Long Tailed Tits, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Greenfinches, Blackbirds, Song Thrushes, Sparrowhawks (male and female), Robins, Wrens, Woodies, Collared Doves, Jackdaws, Rooks, Crows, a family of Magpies, who bring the youngsters which is a comical sight, Jays, a solitary Red Kite and several more I have forgotten - we write down all sightings in the garden, and the list is growing all the time - and at night we are surrounded by Tawny Owls calling.....so we called our home "Owls' Hoot"!
We also have 3 pheasants, a couple of grey squirrels and a Peacock who wander in and out as they please, along with the Hedgehogs, Fox and Deer.
We have two nests of House Martins too who return around May 1st and last year fledged 3 lots of chicks before leaving!
We have 6 cats too......and they leave the birds alone.

Must add - Wilkos is great for food - and we make some of our own suet treats for a log we drilled out.

Gers

Great picture!

Gold finches seem to have had a successful year. Or that they're telling their friends about food sources. Lovely to see.

Fay

I'm happy our nuthatches and black caps have come back. The tits still visit in abundance (great, blue, coal and long tailed) and the robins. We are also still getting dunnocks, sparrows, wrens and the woodpecker. I've only seen a couple of goldfinches this year so not sure where they are all hanging out!

Happygreen

Field Fare sharing the fallen apples with the blackbirds. Lovely bird!

Gers

During this very cold weather up here the birds are happily feasting on blocks of lard, soaked currants, pieces of apple as well as the usual peanuts and sunflower seeds / hearts.

As a Christmas present I was given a very large sack of mixed stuff for birds which I'd never used before. The contents smelled vaguely of aniseed. The chaffinches are loving it. Blackbirds being a bit sniffy about it and the tits not even looking at it! Goldfinches focussed on nyger seeds.

Yesterday I saw the woodpecker also eating the lard and, a first for me, saw the solitary robin attempting to eat from the peanut feeder. I'm not sure if he was successful as he flew off just a few seconds after I spotted him.

The squirrel has (eventually) figured out how to use the proper feeder with his / her head, I could watch it for ages.

Incidentally I often throw out handfuls of whole monkey nuts and they disappear very fast though I've never seen which birds take them, does anyone know which ones are the most likely.

So much pleasure in such a small garden.

Primrose

Alas we are currently suffering an infestation of rats. Local neighbour keeps racing pigeons and we're wondering whether the grain they're being fed is encouraging them. Anyway it has become so bad that we've been forced to call in the Council's pest control services and they've made it a condition of their service that all our bird feeding devices are removed for the duration of their six week contract servicing the bait boxes.


So at the coldest time of the year we've been forced to remove all the bird feeders. We feel really guilty about this as we seem to be the only local people birding the birds and they have obviously been valuing our services. However, the rats have become so aggressive that they've been chasing the ground feeding birds around the lawn and attacking them so we've had no alternative. Nature is red in tooth and claw!