I Am Feeding 'my' garden Birds Again

The bird food arrived from Haiths, so after cleaning & filling the water pots on the patio, bird bath on the grass & the pond, I put some food, mixed seed, suet pellets, dried mealworms & sunflower seeds on the patio & on the bird table, then sat down to wait.
And waited, & waited, :lol:, lots of birds about, a Robin singing somewhere nearby & even had a Blackbird & a few little birds in the buddleia, none for the food. Then a male Blackcap flew onto the bird table, the first bird in months, he took a suet pellet, but after eating it flew off again, just after that a Dunnock arrived on the patio, but instead of going for the bird food started turning over leaves looking for creepy crawlies.:surprised: Two Wood pigeons arrived & started eating the patio food, followed by lots of Corvids & a Herring Gull, The latter two species of birds not what I wanted. They gobble everything & the little birds don’t stand a chance. At that point I showed myself at the window & they all flew, but not far enough away.
I am now back at he PC, so they are bound to come back.

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When I looked out the kitchen window this morning I spotted a hen pheasant pecking her way around the grass under the fat ball feeder I put up last week. Later on, there was a robin giving the fat balls a real bashing while a blackbird was on the grass picking up the bits the robin had missed :cool:

Lucky you, but it has been months since I fed ‘my’ birds so it will take them a while to come back to feed.

Now got a male Blackbird feeding on the patio.

We had to give up feeding birds due to wood pigeons. There were about 3 pairs and they made a right mess of our wooden fence. I fixed a small table inside a shrub to feed the smaller birds. The only other birds we get are sparrows, blackbirds, collared doves and occasionally a robin.

I get Pigeons and Collard Doves too, Scott.
The Pigeons are a bit of a nuisancer in way, but they can’t help being born a Pigeon, and they get cold and hungry too.

They will hog the feeder, same as the darn Squirrels, but I get round it by having 3 or 4 different feeders.
That way if the Pigeons are hogging one table, the little birds just go to another one.
Problem solved. :slight_smile:

Wood Pigeons not a problem here, it’s the Corvids that are, Rooks, Jackdaws, Magpies & the odd Crow, though the latter not so often. I have a metal mesh surrounding my bird table so they can’t get to that easily, little birds can, though the Rooks particularly do try, Most of those big birds will happily, but warily feed on the ground.

I have lots of Rooks crows Jackdaws etc as well as the small birds . Yes they are a greedy bunch but they are birds too and are quite amusing .I have lots of feeders all around the place . Have fat wood pigeons too that waddle around making a mess everywhere but heck it’s cold outside and they are hungry .

I am thinking about putting some fat balls out, Tiff, I’m not going to take the chance of visiting Wilco at the moment, to risky…have you seen any more rats?

No, I haven’t Pauline, thank goodness. If they’re only around at night I’ll not see them anyway, it’s when they are out during the day that it worries me. Having not actually fed the birds for nearly a year I hope they have gone elsewhere.

If you do, make sure to put them somewhere where your dog can’t eat the bits of fat the birds drop, as it could be harmful.

Are fat balls poisonous to dogs, Mups?

It’s the high fat content Tiff.
I don’t use them for that reason.

Here’s a bit of info here:

" Fat balls for wild birds - the inherently high fat content makes these very attractive to dogs, but if eaten could result in pancreatitis. Store fat balls safely away from your dog, and site the feeders high up and out of reach."

I didn’t know that, I don’t have a dog now, but it’s good advice.

The rat I saw, Tiff, was out in the day,it had a dead bird in its mouth, plus I saw it walking along the top of my fence,:shock:

But then, how would I know it was the same one, I tell you, it was huge!..

When I fed my birds, their favourite was sunflower hearts, the problem was, I also had pigeons, they would sit on the top of my tv Ariel ,my decking is directly under it, when they poo it went all over my decking,…if i didn’t clean up behind them every day, especially in the summer, if that poo dried, what a job I had getting it off.

That reminds me, I must check to see if they have still been sitting up there, as I haven’t fed the birds in months, I haven’t checked my decking in ages.

Did you stop because of seeing a rat as well?

Today I have a Robin, a Great Tit, a Blue Tit, a Blackbird, a Blackcap & a charm of Goldfinches in my garden, plus the usual Corvids. Word is getting round that there is food here.

I did indeed, yes, it doesn’t take long for the birds to find food, especially in this weather.

You have some lovely birds, visiting your garden.:slight_smile:

We were awoken to an awful racket.Two young Black Cockatoos demanding to be fed by their parents and they were all in the tree outside our window.They like the small grubs under the bark and it took a long time before they were satisfied.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bBack Cockatoo, I’ll have to google that.

Just had a look, and I think the other colours are much prettier. :slight_smile:

We have the Sulphur-Crested ones too.But the black ones are less common around here.At least they were but trees are being cut down everywhere and they are having to go further afield for their food.