Do you feed the birds?

viv1969

viv1969

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If you do, when do you begin?

I've noticed that locally a lot of the berries are now gone (some of them had rubbish yealds anyway due to the excess of summer rain), so I decided today to put some goodies out for the feathered visitors (and we get alot).

We're lucky to have a whole range of visitors, which has recently been increased by the fairly regular visits by the green parakeets which are becoming more and more common in the southeast.

So they're out there now...feeding thier faces and placing orders for future reference :lol:
 
Feed the garden birds once a day every day summer or winter. The herons help themselves to my fish now and again so I've put netting on the pond now.
 
Funny enough I was enjoying a daiquiri last night sat outside a lovely bar in a nice public square. There was a sign up saying it was against the law to feed the pigeons, punishable by a fine of 601.01€.
What a random figure!
No, I don't feed them.
 
pepi1967 said:
Feed the garden birds once a day every day summer or winter. The herons help themselves to my fish now and again so I've put netting on the pond now.
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No ponds here, though we do get a rather large puddle on the bottom patio now and again :lol:
 
I feed them pretty much all year round.
 
Ricardodaforce said:
Funny enough I was enjoying a daiquiri last night sat outside a lovely bar in a nice public square. There was a sign up saying it was against the law to feed the pigeons, punishable by a fine of 601.01€.
What a random figure!
No, I don't feed them.
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Now that IS a pretty random figure. I wonder how thay came to that amount? :thinking:
 
I feed all year round costs me a fortune in feed but its worth it.
I'm in the middle of a large town so I don't get a huge range of birds. I have on occasions had over 70 goldfinches there at the same time which was quite a sight especially for where I live My other main visitors are house sparrows and the occasional blackbirds, dunnocks, coal tits, blue tits, robins and of course starlings and the ever present pigeons.

I have a couple of feeders with sunflower hearts, 3 Niger seed feeders, a mixed seed feeder and a fat ball feeder. I also have 2 ground feeders protected by cages to prevent the pigeons eating everything.
 
What do you feed them?

When i go to do the weekly shop, if i have old bread i go and feed the ducks on the local pond.

Have thought about putting some feeders up on there, out of the way of Joe Public to try and get a few different birds in.

We have no garden so it's quite enjoyable to feed them.
 
They need lots of fat in the winter to keep them warm like, grated cheese, bacon rind cut into small pieces plus currants and sultana's all year round.
 
I have them coconut shells filled with fat and seeds, seed feeders and throw out handfulls of dried meal worm for them in the mornings. Through the frosty spell, I gave them fresh water a couple of times a day due to it freezing solid
I've also been known to leap out the house yelling as a cat prowls around, certainly surprises anyone in the livingroom at the time :-)
 
A squiggle obliterated our feeders a while ago - and the magpies finished them off. Went and got some new ones last week when it turned super cold here and I also noticed a total lack of berries. We've got a seed feeder, nut feeder and some of those fat ball / cocnut things again now.

One thing I am concerned about is my container ponds that I started this summer - at least one frog has been living in there and I'm not sure what to do about it freezing over. I had a look for my froggy friend today (I've named him Norman) and couldn't see him so he may well be at the bottom or have hopped off to somewhere else...

Should I try to maintain a hole in the ice when they do freeze over?
 
I feed all year round,mixed seed mostly and fat balls and scraps, niger seed,the pheasants eat quite a lot of it but we may have to have one of those for Christmas dinner if we get snowed in (prefer turkey though)
 
Daysleeper40 said:
A squiggle obliterated our feeders a while ago - and the magpies finished them off. Went and got some new ones last week when it turned super cold here and I also noticed a total lack of berries. We've got a seed feeder, nut feeder and some of those fat ball / cocnut things again now.

One thing I am concerned about is my container ponds that I started this summer - at least one frog has been living in there and I'm not sure what to do about it freezing over. I had a look for my froggy friend today (I've named him Norman) and couldn't see him so he may well be at the bottom or have hopped off to somewhere else...

Should I try to maintain a hole in the ice when they do freeze over?
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Fi...tennis ball in the water and just pop outside every day and batter it back through the ice. Has always worked for me.
 
We get loads of flying visits and they get fed with a mixed wild bird seed. Tits and finches pick out what they like while the sparrows take a beakful of whatever's there and spit out what they don't fancy chewing on! The pigeons eat what the sparrows have gobbed out. The robins seem to find plenty of natural food, so we don't have mealworms but should the weather turn for an extended cold snap, we will get some for them and the blackbirds. Yesterday we bought a 12 perch feeder for the mixed seed so the mobs of sparrows (there seem to be 2 distinct mobs that squabble over feeding rights) can share nicely. Fat balls get gobbled down fast and the mice that the cat hasn't caught yet eat the dropped morsels (along with some of the seed).
 
viv1969 said:
Fi...tennis ball in the water and just pop outside every day and batter it back through the ice. Has always worked for me.
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Thankyou - that's what I was thinking as I remember how we used to try to keep the horses water troughs clear of ice with plastic balls :thumbs:
 
Been feeding them since early November. I buylarge bags of wild bird food because it is cheaper that way. Use some to to make fat balls using dripping and the wild bird food.
I take some into the woods every morning and feed them there. Very messy feeding in gardens and it attracts cats.
I'll keep feeding until winter is over.
 
Put it in the garden, not up your chimney :D
 
I've only got a small feeder with peanuts, wild bird seed mix and a tray that I put mealworm on.

I'm going to get another feeder though as there are no longer any cats in the area after my neighbour moved out with her 4.

It's mostly blue tits and the odd robin that are feeding from it but the other day I got dogs abuse on Facebook for getting excited over a woodpecker.
 
arclight said:
Been feeding them since early November. I buylarge bags of wild bird food because it is cheaper that way. Use some to to make fat balls using dripping and the wild bird food.
I take some into the woods every morning and feed them there. Very messy feeding in gardens and it attracts cats.
I'll keep feeding until winter is over.
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I have a large dog. Cats tend to give my garden a very wide berth :lol:
 
gramps said:
Put it in the garden, not up your chimney :D
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Hardy har har :lol:
Maybe that bird is pregnant and had a craving for charred logs :lol:
 
I Usually start feeding at my 3 feeding stations in November through to April, I got a few 12.75kg bags of Wild Bird seed the other day from Aldi £4-99
 
Just Dave said:
I Usually start feeding at my 3 feeding stations in November through to April, I got a few 12.75kg bags of Wild Bird seed the other day from Aldi £4-99
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Holy ****....4.99....REALLY? :eek:
 
I have a couple of bird feeders - one with seeds and one with nuts. I only put them up during the winter when they need it the most - don't want them relying on it all year round. During the summer, the birds should be able to find food for themselves.
 
viv1969 said:
I have a large dog. Cats tend to give my garden a very wide berth :lol:
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So do I, but the absence of flower beds for cats to scrape in is the main reason cats don't come in.

BTW - went to the woods this morning to put down more seed. A stoat (in white winter coat) was nosing about the old seed when I arrived. No camera with me !!
 
arclight said:
So do I, but the absence of flower beds for cats to scrape in is the main reason cats don't come in.

BTW - went to the woods this morning to put down more seed. A stoat (in white winter coat) was nosing about the old seed when I arrived. No camera with me !!
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Schoolboy error :lol: What a shame though, they're lovely looking critters.
 
I feed bird seed and peanuts to birds all year round, but only once a day (unless it is really cold or snow) as they tend to pick out the bits they want and throw the rest on the floor. also feed fat balls or suet block.
Tend to have mainly sparrows and tits come and feed, as well as ring coller doves, pidgeons and one woodpecker.
 
Yep, we put fat balls out, plus any leftover bread, dripping, bacon rind and leftover bird seed.
 
Got three feeders- nijer seed, mixed seed and peanuts. mixed seed goes quickest. nuthatch, blue and great tits, Robin and Dunnocks.
 
I also get old bruised fruit, apples/pears/berries from a market trader twice a week oh yeah and I take fresh water up as well
 
Here I feed mainly sunflower hearts, as well as peanuts, fat balls and suet blocks, if the squirrel doesn't run away with them :lol:

Fat balls, Anyone fresh into feeding birds reading this, take them out of the nets, birds can get there legs trapped.

Sunflower Hearts are loved by a good range of birds..

Greenfinch
Goldfinch
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Willow Tit
Chaffinch
Dunnock
Sparrow (very rare visitor to my garden)

Woodpecker is loving the fat balls, had Great Spotted feeding on them in the last week, also had a green woodpecker too.

Meal worms for the Robin, Go to pound stretcher for these, my my local one was selling of resealable 80g packs for 99p the other day, they also have tubs of 50 fatballs for 5.99 I think it is.
 
As well as feeding birds. we used to have a deer come along and its self to the seed.


deer feeder

She also bought her fawn along too.
 
I wold fed them all if they came to my gardn
 
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