Please think of the birds

[gruntygiggles]

Yep, it's that time of year again. I have just done my morning shift feeding the birds and had to break a layer of ice over their water dish.

Please remember people, they need our help through the cold days and nights with good quality, high calorie bird food.

If Maria can come along and give tips, I think we'd all appreciate it, but you can start with wild bird seed, peanuts, sunflower hearts, suet and fat balls. Use up your leftover bread by melting some lard and pouring over stale breadcrumbs and mixing with seed. Suet is great as are fat balls as they all give the birds lots of energy to keep themselves warm

Don't let any of the food sit out if it has gone mouldy...it can kill them and please make sure they have fresh water that is not frozen

Thank you on behalf of garden birds everywhere

I think about Birds all the time!

[Littlepeahead]

Saw the robin back in the garden on Sunday for the first time so I'd better buy some mealworms for him. I wonder if the blackbird that attacks my cat will be back this year, he's a noisy little git in the spring and poor Cromarty is very nervous of going into the garden when he's out there at full volume. My cat is a wuss.

[gruntygiggles]

Originally Posted by Littlepeahead

Saw the robin back in the garden on Sunday for the first time so I'd better buy some mealworms for him. I wonder if the blackbird that attacks my cat will be back this year, he's a noisy little git in the spring and poor Cromarty is very nervous of going into the garden when he's out there at full volume. My cat is a wuss.

Haha - you can get food specially for Robins now with mealworms and everything else in. I LOVE blackbirds. Luckily they are scared of the dogs, but I love all the posturing and tail flicking...lol.

Good thread GG

I nearly froze all my fingers off yesterday morning replenishing the bird feeding station in the garden! Hope they're appreciating the pain and lack of feeling (in my fingertips) that's involved

As for tips on feeding, you've covered pretty much everything Grunty! We have a pot in the kitchen for the birds, all the scraps get chucked into it (now we have no dog to spoil ) and also any leftover fat from frying sausages, bacon etc. If the fat is solid when you come to give it to the birds then I just whazz it in the microwave for a few seconds and mix it up with everything in the pot plus seed.

Tip is to not put everything in feeders, leave a bit of food in a dish weighed down with a stone (but elevated off the ground, we have a little wall to sit it on) if you don't have a bird table. Birds like robins and dunnocks tend not to feed off feeders as much as the tits, preferring to peck about on the floor. Mealworm supplements are very popular too but not for the squeamish

I get so much enjoyment watching them from the conservatory while I eat my brekkie and lunch. We now have a lovely little crowd of birds making the most of the food: dunnocks, house sparrows, coal blue and great tits, blackbirds, a very territorial pair of robins, the odd thrush and goldfinch. The house sparrows never used to venture near the feeders, always too shy and instead used to hop and squabble in the bush nearby. Now we have a small crowd of them that squabble over the feeders instead Even a little wren came out yesterday to say hello And I swear the blue tits are getting rounder and rounder the more I see them!

[embee]

I have feeders up all year. The opinions seem to have shifted a bit, some used to say you shouldn't feed during the summer but it appears now that it's fine, these things come in and out of fashion!

I use sunflower hearts and black sunflower, the bigger finches (greenfinch/chaffinch) seem to prefer the black ones and they are cheaper! The hearts are demolished by goldfinches, I get them in flocks of a dozen to 20 at a time, lovely little things. Goldfinches also like nyger (niger/thistle) and the useful thing is that they are the only ones which can get them out of the feeders with the very small holes, so they do tend to last longer between refills.

I've noticed that the robins in my garden have "learnt" to take from the feeders, they never used to but will now.

One slight fly in the ointment is that a sparrowhawk seems to have moved in, it perches in my ash tree regularly which doesn't go down well with the little birds! Still, they have to live aswell.

I've just ordered another load from Brinvale , trying some different mix this time. Brinvale can be thoroughly recommended, postage is free above 10kg and when they say next day delivery they mean it, so far totally reliable.

[gruntygiggles]

Haha, yep, we have some rather round blue tits here as well. Saw the first dunnock this morning on the ground under the feed station. We have so many blue, coal and great tits in the garden it's unreal. The long tits, about 20 of them come thorugh for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon and I just love them. We have 2 pairs of blackbirds in the garden, one at the top and one at the bottom, so when a strange blackbird comes in, it's like WWIII out there. There's a male robin in our garden and one next door, so they can get quite raucous as well. The buzzard has been sat on top of the telegraph pole all morning looking for rabbits, the pheasants are all over the field and one ran/flew up the garden making a racket and frightening all my little birdies .

I'm like you Maria...I could honestly sit and watch them all day long.

Originally Posted by gruntygiggles

Yep, it's that time of year again. I have just done my morning shift feeding the birds and had to break a layer of ice over their water dish.

Please remember people, they need our help through the cold days and nights with good quality, high calorie bird food.

If Maria can come along and give tips, I think we'd all appreciate it, but you can start with wild bird seed, peanuts, sunflower hearts, suet and fat balls. Use up your leftover bread by melting some lard and pouring over stale breadcrumbs and mixing with seed. Suet is great as are fat balls as they all give the birds lots of energy to keep themselves warm

Don't let any of the food sit out if it has gone mouldy...it can kill them and please make sure they have fresh water that is not frozen

Thank you on behalf of garden birds everywhere

Love the pic gg,

How do you add a pic to your thread?

Phil..

Originally Posted by embee

Goldfinches also like nyger (niger/thistle) and the useful thing is that they are the only ones which can get them out of the feeders with the very small holes, so they do tend to last longer between refills.

I've noticed that the robins in my garden have "learnt" to take from the feeders, they never used to but will now.

I was surprised to see a dunnock eating from the niger seed feeder yesterday! And the blue tits occasionally grab a seed or two, must copy the coal tits as they both take a seed and end up hammering it like mad to open it, not having the finch bill to just crack them open. I need to get one of the smaller niger feeders, I get a problem with the seeds sprouting and clogging up the larger feeder because of the moisture...need to get round to it!

Originally Posted by gruntygiggles

We have so many blue, coal and great tits in the garden it's unreal. The long tits, about 20 of them come thorugh for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon and I just love them.

The long-tails haven't turned up round here yet, they move up a little bit later in winter. Saw a few in summer though, real treat when they do arrive

Watch out for waxwings at the moment if you have any berry trees in the garden, there's an influx of them down the UK at the moment, loads more than usual coming in from Scandinavia, they've been in our area but I've not been so lucky! Beautiful birds, really want to see one

[gruntygiggles]

Originally Posted by embee

I have feeders up all year. The opinions seem to have shifted a bit, some used to say you shouldn't feed during the summer but it appears now that it's fine, these things come in and out of fashion!

I use sunflower hearts and black sunflower, the bigger finches (greenfinch/chaffinch) seem to prefer the black ones and they are cheaper! The hearts are demolished by goldfinches, I get them in flocks of a dozen to 20 at a time, lovely little things. Goldfinches also like nyger (niger/thistle) and the useful thing is that they are the only ones which can get them out of the feeders with the very small holes, so they do tend to last longer between refills.

I've noticed that the robins in my garden have "learnt" to take from the feeders, they never used to but will now.

One slight fly in the ointment is that a sparrowhawk seems to have moved in, it perches in my ash tree regularly which doesn't go down well with the little birds! Still, they have to live aswell.

I've just ordered another load from Brinvale , trying some different mix this time. Brinvale can be thoroughly recommended, postage is free above 10kg and when they say next day delivery they mean it, so far totally reliable.

I get a real sinking feeling when I see the sparrowhawk in the tree. On one hand, I can go in our bathroom, stand at the door and be about 10ft away from it, so it's amazing to be able to spy on it spying on the birds, but I'd rather not see it succeed....just do it when I'm not looking...lol.

I don't feed all year here because food is so abundant, but I used to when I lived in Bristol as wild food sources were not as readily available.