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[viv]

Trey
Maybe its a new old start, and I wish you and Don a peaceful life with your dogs and your birds.
I dont regret my move, and I would have been devastated if it had fallen through. Things have been challenging of late but I am hoping that the new year will bring a more peaceful time for my family. My son is moving out and things are really strained at the moment. He goes in a week, and I just want it over with so I can move forward and on. He needs to lead his own life now, because to my eternal shame he is a very arrogant young man who is needing a big spoonful of real life and its challenges in order to learn a little humility.


Viv
x

[CLKD]

Birds are busy, sign of colder weather on it's way 

I have 5 goldfinches again; some have dark red heads, a couple have orange which may be female? I've looked on various sites and found that the UK are different colourations to those in the US but can't find any with orange feathers. 

Sky is trying to clear and I can see a hint of blue 

[Trey]

Our goldfinches are truly gold; our bluebird are an unbelievable bright blue with orange breasts.  Our new raccoon pet, Rocky, cleaned his first bowl of fruit and nut seed.  I listened for him and heard the tinkle of the glass bowl.  Tonight perhaps I will sleep through his 3am feeding.

Viv: I think much of this younger generation is arrogant and in the uncertainly of the times, maybe it is necessary to some degree.  I think insecurity adds to a puffed up sense of self for survival.  Not good, but a possible reason.

[CLKD]

Grey again.  Have bought 2 new nyger seed feeders .......... 

[viv]

How do I attract more birds to my new garden. We have a few tits, a couple of robins and a blackbird but nothing else. Oh also a few rooks. I have seeds and nuts and fat balls out. Where am I going wrong.

Viv
x

[Taz2]

What sort of garden do you have Viv? Have you got lots of cover around your feeders. Birds like somewhere they can dart back into when danger threatens. You might find some good ideas here http://www.bto.org/gbw/BIRDS_FEEDING_HOME.htm

The important thing is to be consistent and have a feeding routine. Once you start you have to keep it up and that can mean arranging for your feeders to be filled by a neighbour if you are away for a while. This is especially important in the winter when a bird may use up most of it's remaining energy after a night in the freezing cold to fly to your feeders. If they do this and get there and the feeders are empty then they have little energy left to search for an alternative source of food.

It can take quite a while to attract the birds - three weeks sometimes for them to get used to a feeder - and it is worth using a high quality seed mix. Check out the Jacobi Jayne website. I use their Special Mix 1 for my normal feeders and feed sunflower hearts and niger seeds in two other feeders. The sunflower hearts are costly but there is no waste - however starlings love them too and can empty a feeder very quickly!

As well as the seeds I feed mine a breakfast every morning - summer and winter - of grated cheese, sultanas (soaked overnight is possible) crumbled digestive biscuits and wholemeal breadcrumbs. I add grated suet in the winter too plus any table scraps. I put these on a birdtable.

I have a small garden (35ft wide and only 30ft deep) but I have a lot of bushes and a couple of trees too. I attract blackbirds, thrushes, blue, great and coal tits, goldfinches, greenfinches, chaffinches and the occasional pair of bullfinches, siskins, blackcap, wagtails (december to march) bramblings, robins, wrens, collared doves, wood pigeons and woodpeckers. The visitors change over the months. Of course  I also have a sparrowhawk who treats my garden like a fast-food eaterie!! 

Taz x

[CLKD]

Patience  our birds seem to be here most of the morning, then there's a break until mid-afternoon. 

[Trey]

Love all the recent posts - so interesting.  I was amazed at how my regulars turned up their beaks at a change of food.  Someone told me Cardinals love safflower - well, not mine, so back to the expensive fruit and nuts.  Bluebirds are not supposed to eat seed normally, (they eat mealy worms), mine love fruit and nuts and even the goldfinches opt for the f and n over the thistle (niger seed).  We had our Japanese maples moved to surround our feeders for as Taz said, they like the sense of protection.  I pour yesterday's seed over the fence to keep the squirrels out of our small yard.  The humidity and rain make the feed less crisp and appetizing.

Worth the effort, Viv.  I love the chirping in the morning and like CLKD noted, there's a definite break between meals.  After the baby bluebird hatch in June/July feeding is non-stop - I should say before the leave the bird house.  Then nothing for a few weeks and then the Dad usually returns with the fledglings and feed, feed, feed.  He does work hard.

[Bette]

Not your typical male then! 
Bixby x

[Trey]

Hi Bixby, I might have posted this before: One day the female, who was sitting on the eggs, came to the opening and stuck her head and shoulders (bird shoulders) out of the opening to the house and literally 'screamed' for two hours.  I Googled and couldn't find what in the heck was wrong.  Turns out the male finally returned and she shut up at last.  It was piercing!  So I guess we have things in common with our bird friends.

[ariadne]

Have only become interested in watching birds over the past couple of years and still not very good at identifying them. Last year there was a constant visitor that had colouring a bit like a sparrow yet reminded me of a robin, quick movements and constant tail flicking with a tseep tseep sound for a call. After checking my bird book, I realised it was a dunnock. I grew rather fond of him as he was quite fearless and seemed to follow me through the garden tseep tseeping as he went. Then there were 2 of them and I was pretty sure they had a nest in one of my conifers. One day I saw my cat was poking about in the garden in the manner of a cat that's found something good to chase and I rescued a baby bird.I say rescued - I couldn't actually catch it as it could hop really quickly and I soon lost sight of it. So I kept my cat in for a day and a half in the hope it would recover and be safe.

No baby bird was brought to me so I reckon it was OK. The dunnocks seemed to disappear shortly afterwards but now one is back  - or is it one of the youngsters? Anyway, I call him Danny Dunnock and it amuses me no end to watch him flitting about. I think they are a lovely bird.

"My" birds absolutely love the square plastic trays of fat with insects/mealworm/berry varieties in them. Wilkinsons have them 2 for £1.50. The starlings can finish them off rather too quickly though. Aren't starlings quarrelsome birds?

[Eddie]

They certainly are, i have six coconut feeders and usually get at least 25 starling squabbling over them. Eddie. x

[CLKD]

When my sister lived in Canada she raved about the raccoons who would visit their barBQ and help themselves ....... until they were there every time it was lit    


Have jsut looked out the window to see the mist clearing, sky is blue, birds are singing, gold finches are back and on the new feeder    ......... and it's FRIDAY 

[Eddie]

Yes it is Friday, Still never managed to get new feeder yesterday, maybe today, but a new list of tasks have appeared. Eddie. x

[Trey]

CLKD, My love affair with Rocky, the raccoon, ended last night.  He did not like his food (I put cheaper stuff out in his dish) and he was hanging off my Japanese maples eating out of the cardinal feeder.  Enough!!!  So now I have had to clear my screened porch of lots of bird food supplies for fear he'll rip the screen.  So all put put in storage bin, some moved to garage, and feeders will come into house at night.  What a mess as then I have to get up very early to get the feeders back out for my lovely bluebirds, cardinals and nuthatches and gold and other finches.  Ah, motherhood.

They (whoever they is) always say don't befriend wild animals, well in the case of the raccoon, I agree.

Have a great weekend.