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[honeybun]

I feed all year round  and have done since we moved here. I keep trying new stuff but they like the fat balls and blocks and the meal worms.
I have put out dried fruit and cheese in the winter but easy stuff at this time of year.
We have some thrushes who love the worms in the garden. I gather up the snails and put them on the bird table or the middle of the lawn and they love them.


Honeyb
x

[Hurdity]

I do like to see the big birds as well - but not if they terrorise the small birds too and as for the fat balls - disappearing at an alarming rate!

Yes Taz seeing the young birds has been amazing this year - mainly lots of fluffy blue-tits and the young nuthatches were a real treat!  I think you have a wider variety than I do - no crows or starlings on my feeders.

CLKD - 11 jackdaws!!! Wow you must have lots of feeders! I have 3 hanging up. One fat-balls, one seeds and one nuts, and the ground feeders pick up the scatterings (lots of this).

Having said that about the big birds - it's hilarious actually they (jackdaws and magpies) are all learning to poke their heads through the hanging baskets to peck at the fat-balls! One jackdaw came and landed and then flew away because it couldn't get the fat. Magpie comes long and shows jackdaw how it's done - so jackdaw shoos away the magpie and proceeds to avidly peck the fat now it knows what to do!!


Hurdity x

[Taz2]

Hurdity - the crows, starlings, jackdaws, rooks and jays come for the other food I put out rather than just the feeders. I have a bird table and feed a breakfast every morning of crumbled digestive biscuits, soaked sultanas, grated cheese, dry porridge oats, shredded suet (sometimes) and wholemeal breadcrumbs plus all the scraps from our meals and the cats uneaten food. In the feeders I have a good quality mixed seed in two of them, sunflower hearts in one and niger seed in another plus peanuts in a small feeder. I don't put out fat balls in the summer as I find they don't get eaten in my garden very often.

I love watching the jackdaws and magpies - they are such clever birds. However, one very nosy one ended up in the spare bedroom today having hopped up the roof (chalet style house) and straight into the open window. Same thing happened last year. What a noise it made!

Taz x

[CLKD]

I only feed live meal worms at this time of year, plus any mashed spud, odds and sods ........ one peanut feeder is out because the blue tits were investigating it ......... we have new builds all over the area so roosting and feeding sites are being destoryed which is why I think we have more jackdaws and magpies in the garden now .......... and starlings 

[Taz2]

Why don't you feed any seed in the summer CLKD?

Taz x

[CLKD]

Because they don't seem to need it.  They hardly touched the fat balls all Winter, several went into the bin 'cos they went 'off'.  The dove eats seed if I put it out but the starlings muscle in so she doesn't get any .......... I can hear our wren and 2 male blackbirds are around and this morning, 4 baby bluetits were being fed live mealworms by a parent 

[Taz2]

Mine don't feed on the fat balls either but this time of year I can't keep up with the seed demand. In the Winter at least they only feed from around 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.  This time of year they start feeding at 5 and don't finish until around 9.30 p.m. The goldfinches and greenfinches are my favourite as their song is so beautiful.

Taz x

[Hurdity]

Fascinating hearing about all the different antics in different locations and parts of the country! As I said I can't keep up with the fat balls now they've been discovered and the seed disappears fast too.

Oo-er - not sure about live meal worms honeybun and CLKD. Are these the same ones used for coarse fishing? What do you do with them and do they wriggle around or pupate if you leave them too long? I'm a bit squeamish about large numbers of maggot like creatures for some reason (and I studied Biology!!).

I can never put out left over food as we get rats (it's in a village with farms nearby). We have a compost heap in the orchard and have to be very careful about cooked veg on there too - the rats move in very quickly. Our food leftovers ( not much!) goes off to recycling - and biogas.

Taz your birds have an amazing treat!! Sounds like you put more effort into that than I do in cooking generally  . I bet they love it.

Also we can't put out much food on the bird table itself ( which the feeders hang from) because cats and rats come after it (eg cheeses, bread, leftovers, cat food etc).  We do throw out fine crumbs onto the yard though - mainly sparrows and wagtails eat this. I put mixed seed on the table itself, the same as in the feeders.

I haven't seen greenfinches (on the feeders - although we have them) but do have the occasional goldfinch. The birds seem to visit throughout the day here.

Hurdity x

[Taz2]

The rats and cats round here don't stand a chance once my starling flock descends. I counted forty seven starlings this morning and I have a tiny garden - they do make a lot of noise though so I try not to feed them before 7.30 so as not to disturb the neighbours. Everyone's up by then aren't they?  We also fence the bird table in during the spring and early summer so that the cats are deterred from laying in wait for the fledglings. It looks a bit odd but it's worth it. The cats sit around the outside much like people in a zoo.

Taz x

[honeybun]

I feed dried mealworms Hurdity. Couldn't do the live ones 



Honeyb
x

[CLKD]

Nope - we aren't out of bed much before 9.00 being retired tha' knows 

Dried mealworms need soaking at this time of year.  They are the worm of the flour beetle, pupate very fast and turn into a brown shelled beetle.  It doesn't worry me to handle them.  Earlier I took some dried to the chickens instead of live ones - if looks could kill  ........

Haven't seen a rat for over 10 years even though we have a compost and chickens.  All the spare land has been built over so they have probably had to move out.  Also we have LOTS of cats in our estate. 

[CLKD]

Well Taz I did a search, about blue tit nests and apparently it is rare for them to have more than 1 brood. However  ………. as we feed live all year round, I think ours are lucky!

Anyone grow Sweet Willlaism - I have picked some for the house, will that encourage the plant to put up more stems?

[Taz2]

It does seem to be rare - that's because a diet of mealworms is not considered sufficient to nuture the growing nestlings - they do need the protein from tree moth caterpillars. This year the caterpillars hatched too late and the eggs laid in the usual timeframe hatched before the caterpillars. Most young starved to death and were abandoned by the parents. Horrible to think of.

Not sure about Sweet Williams - I buy mine in the supermarket 

Taz x

[CLKD]

At least we are helping the broods locally then 

Have 'read up' on S. Williams …… seems I'm doing it 'right'!

[Greyhoundgal]

Rescue a baby starling yesterday morning.  It was down at the bottom of the garden and was struggling to fly - one of the dogs was showing too much interest in it for my liking so I managed to catch it and put it behind the shed where it was safe.  Had a check yesterday afternoon and it had gone so I think (hope) it has survived.  About 5 years ago I rescued another one, I think perhaps it had been attacked, either by another bird or a cat as half it's tail feathers were missing.  We put it under the raspberry canes at the bottom of the garden and I put food and water out for it everyday, it was there for at least two weeks.  About 4 months later I was sitting in the garden reading when a starling landed on our fence - with a very scrappy tail, gave a little whistle and chirp then flew off.  I'm almost certain it was the same one we rescued and that it had come back to say "thank you"