It's funny how birds in different areas of the country eat different things. Mine never bother with the fat balls. I feed a good all round seed mix in two large feeders which I fill once a day this time of year plus a feeder with sunflower hearts, one with niger seed and one with peanuts. I also feed a breakfast for the starlings and blackbirds plus any others which might fancy it of biscuit crumbs, sultanas, grated cheese, shredded suet and any table scraps. The blackbirds are always waiting for their helping under the apple tree. I tend to put the food out around 6.30 and even though it is still dark the blackbirds are quietly "clucking" to themselves.
The sunflower hearts are adored by all of the finches (green, gold, chaff and bull) plus the tits and the robins. The niger seed is eaten by the goldfinches and any visiting siskins but all the other birds have beaks too big to fit into the slits. At the moment I have a flock of around thirty goldfinches, ten or so greenfinches, loads of chaffinches depending on the time of day and one pair of bullfinches (which is as it should be). I am visited by upwards of thirty starlings every morning. There are around a dozen blackbirds and four robins plus two wagtails and the ever present collared doves and wood pigeons. The blue and great tits have been infrequent visitors to the feeders this year but I believe this is because it has been a mild winter because when I am walking in our nearby forest the trees are alive with them so they must be finding more natural food. I haven't seen any redwings or fieldfares either but they are out in the countryside in quite big flocks. I buy mine from Jacobi Jayne mail order and it costs around £15 a week in seed. Frightening but I don't want to lose my flocks!!
The birds are looking great but the garden is a mess!!
Taz x
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Topic: Wild Birds and all things to do with Nature (Read 1754407 times)