Different Bird Feeding question

Gremlin

Gremlin

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Ingrid
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Came home from work and filled all the feeders in the garden, 7 suet balls, peanut feeder, large seed feeder, a couple of trays on the ground, one has meal worms the other has dried fruit.
Looking out the window I can see at least 20 jackdaws, as many starlings, a couple of blackbirds, robin a few house sparrows flitting back and forth, one squirrel that Merlinhas given up chasing for the moment and I can guarantee that in the next 30 mins all bar the peanuts will be gone :eek:
It's costing me a fortune to feed them all, should I keep refilling or let them find food for themselves once it's all empty :shrug:
Occasionally we get a couple of Jays and yesterday the Sparrowhawk sat on the fence just watching the world go by
 
Gremlin said:
Came home from work and filled all the feeders in the garden, 7 suet balls, peanut feeder, large seed feeder, a couple of trays on the ground, one has meal worms the other has dried fruit.
Looking out the window I can see at least 20 jackdaws, as many starlings, a couple of blackbirds, robin a few house sparrows flitting back and forth, one squirrel that Merlinhas given up chasing for the moment and I can guarantee that in the next 30 mins all bar the peanuts will be gone :eek:
It's costing me a fortune to feed them all, should I keep refilling or let them find food for themselves once it's all empty :shrug:
Occasionally we get a couple of Jays and yesterday the Sparrowhawk sat on the fence just watching the world go by
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Tough call Ingrid, at the moment they aint going to starve so you could ease off a bit. I am fortunate to have a piece of land down by the bog garden where I throw any old crap which the jackdaws etc go for. Squirrels, Sparrows and Starlings can be hard to deterre but siting the feeders in amongst some dense foilage will make it harder for the larger birds to get at.
 
That's the strange thing Rich, come winter when you think food would be in short supply, they hardly touch it :shrug:
I spend more on birdfood then I do on the damn dog :eek:
 
Gremlin said:
That's the strange thing Rich, come winter when you think food would be in short supply, they hardly touch it :shrug:
I spend more on birdfood then I do on the damn dog :eek:
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[YOUTUBE]?v=-kdOKk7XAHY[/YOUTUBE]
 
PMSL

Showing your age now :p
 
Gremlin said:
PMSL

Showing your age now :p
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:eek: Thought my headphones had packed in when I whent to listen to it Ingrid, there was a bloody fly trapped in the right side :nuts:
 
Far better then getting flea in your ear Rich :p
 
And I thought I had problems with about 30-40 sparrows a couple of magpies, 4 blackbirds, a couple or crows and a handful of pigeons :lol:.......Oh, and a couple of great tits we see very occasionally.
 
Yep they do that too, pigeons and doves are early evening and clear that up :thumbs:
 
I bought a couple of small bags of Black Sunflower seeds a while back as I had run out of the Hearts. After purchasing a 25kg sack of the Hearts a week after I tipped the one remaining small bag of Black seeds in and mixed them up, wrong move :cuckoo: The Coal tits will flick any of the Hearts out the feeder to get at the ones still in the shells :thinking: You cant win sometimes :lol:
 
Changed my set up recently not so much cost but was inundated with pigeons and gulls and starling by shed load who ate everything in sight.
Got rid of the ground feeder and and stoped putting out wild bird seed.
All I have now is a Nyger feeder got two small feeders with cage around, one has sunflower seed the other has suet pellets and one fat ball feeder.

Result pigeons and gulls rare and the starlings are not so overpowering and I have a better selection of birds :thumbs:

It is difficult to stop feeding but I think they find food and for me it is costing less but the main reason more variety of birds :thumbs:
 
I can help with the pigeon and jackdaw problem: the RSPB do cages that sit round the ground tray and stop any larger birds getting through (i.e. pigeon's and Jackdaws). Nyjer seed feeders will stop all but Goldfinch, Siskin and redpoll feeding on them as the slots to get at the seed are to small for a lot of birds. And caged feeders will stop larger birds feeding on sunflower hearts, suet balls, peanuts etc.

Sadly this wont stop squirrels getting to the food, the only sure fire way to stop them is to make the feeders themselves out of reach. Personally I have all mine hung on a washing line specifically set up for the feeders so its quite high, then at either end there are 2 Vinyls to stop squirrels running along the line to get at the feeders, looks damn ridiculous but it means the squirrels don't empty my seed feeders in a day.

Cant do much about squirrels on the ground feeders though.
 
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MarkEvan said:
I can help with the pigeon and jackdaw problem: the RSPB do cages that sit round the ground tray and stop any larger birds getting through (i.e. pigeon's and Jackdaws). Nyjer seed feeders will stop all but Goldfinch, Siskin and redpoll feeding on them as the slots to get at the seed are to small for a lot of birds. And caged feeders will stop larger birds feeding on sunflower hearts, suet balls, peanuts etc.

Sadly this wont stop squirrels getting to the food, the only sure fire way to stop them is to make the feeders themselves out of reach. Personally I have all mine hung on a washing line specifically set up for the feeders so its quite high, then at either end there are 2 Vinyls to stop squirrels running along the line to get at the feeders, looks damn ridiculous but it means the squirrels don't empty my seed feeders in a day.

Cant do much about squirrels on the ground feeders though.
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I am really not sure about the commercially available cages, they may stop squirrels and the like but the seed feeder cages are too small to stop Starlings poking their heads in and wreaking their normal havoc. This time of year I just feed Nyjer, peanuts, stale bread coated in lard and occasionally seed. Wild birds have got to learn to forage and not get too reliant on garden treats otherwise winter brings starvation, not a pleasant thought.
 
DonnaM said:
I am really not sure about the commercially available cages, they may stop squirrels and the like but the seed feeder cages are too small to stop Starlings poking their heads in and wreaking their normal havoc. This time of year I just feed Nyjer, peanuts, stale bread coated in lard and occasionally seed. Wild birds have got to learn to forage and not get too reliant on garden treats otherwise winter brings starvation, not a pleasant thought.
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Sorry by larger birds I primarily meant pigeons etc, I'm not overly bothered by starlings as we don't have too much of a problem here with them.
I agree completely about having birds learn to forage for themselves and its for that reason I only have a few feeders out in the summer, at the moment it sounds like I have a similar amount out in the garden to yourself and these aren't refilled regularly as there is plenty natural food around.
Winter though can indeed be a difficult time for birds made more so if no food is put out for them, your right in those conditions a lot of birds might indeed starve however I make sure that ample food is available all through winter, I also leave out water as this is just as important for birds as the food.
 
I use one ordinary feeder stuck on a hanging basket hook. Doesn't stop the squirrel as the little b****r just climbs right up the brick wall! I tried one with the cage and no bird used it at all.

I fill mine with fat balls. There's a variety bucket with different sorts in. I tried seed but it was just chucked over the ground and wasted. When it empties I don't always fill it right away. Seems to make them realise they should be moderately careful!
 
You mean like this




works for the larger birds though
 
Exactly and I have the same problem with the squirrel, as you've noted though it does a good job at keeping pigeons, magpies and the like out.
 
My birds have completely stopped going on my feeders since I put a new station up which I got for fathers day! I filled up 3 feeders on sun 1 with hearts the other 2 with seed mix with extra hearts and they've not touched them!
Very odd considering that they wouldn't last 2 days on my old set up!!!
Hoping this is just them getting used to new stuff
 
I wish, I moved the feeder closer to the house after spotting 3 squirrels on it, cured that problem but the other birds are still swarming to it, got several juvenile jackdaws right outside the window now
 
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