 |
By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
|
Bore da Fabbers, Friends and Forumites.
As Mary Poppins sang
"feed the birds"
Woke up this morning and the fields out side have been coated in a thin shimming of white diamond of frosting. It's oh so very beautiful.
Wonderful as it is , it means slim pickings for our feathered friends.
So in appreciation of their beautiful sings and colour this summer . Please stock up your bird feeders ans let's look after our tweety chums
Taff & Pooch
 |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
|
By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
|
"Always have done, but at the moment my garden has trays of duck food which my geese and ducks seem to be ignoring, so the birds help themselves."
Ha ha brilliant, I add some growers chicken pellets to my bird feeders |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
|
By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
|
With all the best intentions we would do that in our garden, BUT......we have two  kitties that decimate bird populations if they fly to the garden. So we'd prefer not to be party to the inevitable avian genocide. Instead, we go and feed the swans and ducks at the local park. Oats and seeds, not bread. Bread is junk food for ducks. |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
"With all the best intentions we would do that in our garden, BUT......we have two kitties that decimate bird populations if they fly to the garden. So we'd prefer not to be party to the inevitable avian genocide. Instead, we go and feed the swans and ducks at the local park. Oats and seeds, not bread. Bread is junk food for ducks. "
Give them some peas as well, duck go crazy for peas. |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
|
By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
|
"With all the best intentions we would do that in our garden, BUT......we have two kitties that decimate bird populations if they fly to the garden. So we'd prefer not to be party to the inevitable avian genocide. Instead, we go and feed the swans and ducks at the local park. Oats and seeds, not bread. Bread is junk food for ducks. "
Ah yes that's a splendidly lovely thing to do too |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
|
By *isaB45Woman
over a year ago
Fabville |
"We always have fun in ours making homemade birdfeedeers, melt lard, add seeds and nuts, mix and pour into plastic cups. Then we bird spot....ok I know this sounds a bit lame when I type it  "
Not at all lame...I'm sure they love your home-made food, and it obviously gives you a great sense of well-being x |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
|
By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
|
"We always have fun in ours making homemade birdfeedeers, melt lard, add seeds and nuts, mix and pour into plastic cups. Then we bird spot....ok I know this sounds a bit lame when I type it "
It's not lame at all its brilliant, its some thing I go too. I have an outdoor camera trap and put it near the feeder . Some amazing pictures |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
|
By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
|
"We always have fun in ours making homemade birdfeedeers, melt lard, add seeds and nuts, mix and pour into plastic cups. Then we bird spot....ok I know this sounds a bit lame when I type it "
It's not lame at all its brilliant, its some thing I go too. I have an outdoor camera trap and put it near the feeder . Some amazing pictures |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
|
By *umpkinMan
over a year ago
near the sounds of the wimborne quarter jack! |
I too feed all year round. I have a cat but she has been trained simply by altering her routine when she catches a bird - stern voices, kept inside for a day, prevented from sleeping upstairs on the bed etc.. Yes, she still catches the odd one but it seems to have worked!
As for the birds and food, apart from the regular sparrows and starlings, the latter only recently beginning to increase, we get Blue Tits, Great Tits, Long Tailed Tits. Yellow Hammers come in from the chalk fields when the weather gets colder as do Reed Buntings which come in from the river We get a few blackbirds who have stripped virtually every berry from my larger leaf cotoneaster shrubs (they don`t like the smaller cotoneaster horizontalis) but hardly ever see a thrush  Our prize visitors though are the black and white woodpeckers! We do get the occasional green woodpecker but they`re always a solitary bird and ground feeding. Since I don't ground feed we don`t get very many!
I don`t get any suet/fat products from B&Q as the birds don`t seem to like them. Some Johnson & Jeffs products are ignored too! I have one feeder which I put the cheapest budgie seed I can get from the Range! I have, in the past, bought large sacks of peanuts from auction but have found that they go stale after about a year. Thankfully, I have a great guy who visits my local market selling pet foods and not only is his food good quality, his prices are good and he`s also a enthusiastic bird feeder so we swap ideas and birds feeding experiences. |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
|
By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
|
"I too feed all year round. I have a cat but she has been trained simply by altering her routine when she catches a bird - stern voices, kept inside for a day, prevented from sleeping upstairs on the bed etc.. Yes, she still catches the odd one but it seems to have worked!
As for the birds and food, apart from the regular sparrows and starlings, the latter only recently beginning to increase, we get Blue Tits, Great Tits, Long Tailed Tits. Yellow Hammers come in from the chalk fields when the weather gets colder as do Reed Buntings which come in from the river We get a few blackbirds who have stripped virtually every berry from my larger leaf cotoneaster shrubs (they don`t like the smaller cotoneaster horizontalis) but hardly ever see a thrush Our prize visitors though are the black and white woodpeckers! We do get the occasional green woodpecker but they`re always a solitary bird and ground feeding. Since I don't ground feed we don`t get very many!
I don`t get any suet/fat products from B&Q as the birds don`t seem to like them. Some Johnson & Jeffs products are ignored too! I have one feeder which I put the cheapest budgie seed I can get from the Range! I have, in the past, bought large sacks of peanuts from auction but have found that they go stale after about a year. Thankfully, I have a great guy who visits my local market selling pet foods and not only is his food good quality, his prices are good and he`s also a enthusiastic bird feeder so we swap ideas and birds feeding experiences."
That's fantastic and its wonderful seeing the birds on the feeders . I have two cheeky woodpeckers that visit too , always a pleasure to see them |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
That's all well and good if you have a garden but when you live in a flat and the eejits leave half a loaf (whole) out for the seagulls who then proceed to shit all over my car, my love of nature becomes choosy!  |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
I've fed them for years but next door's cat has been a terror, which is so upsetting when he catches any. 365 feeding is important, as others say. Kestrel visited last week but didn't harm anything. |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
|
By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
|
"That's all well and good if you have a garden but when you live in a flat and the eejits leave half a loaf (whole) out for the seagulls who then proceed to shit all over my car, my love of nature becomes choosy! "
lol! I have a back yard and my neighbour was leaving big chunks of bread out which attracted....... RATS!  |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
"As Mary Poppins sang... "
 I was singing it as soon as I saw the title!
We haven't started yet, we only feed them in the winter to tide them over. (We want them on pest-control duties during the rest of the year)
Even then I'm very particular who I feed.
Our neighbours, on the other hand, simply put loads on the ground & end up feeding the rats
Mr ddc |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
|
By *LCCCouple
over a year ago
Cambridge |
"That's all well and good if you have a garden but when you live in a flat and the eejits leave half a loaf (whole) out for the seagulls who then proceed to shit all over my car, my love of nature becomes choosy!
lol! I have a back yard and my neighbour was leaving big chunks of bread out which attracted....... RATS! "
Rats need fattening up too! |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
|
By *mmmMaybeCouple
over a year ago
West Wales |
"Bore da Fabbers, Friends and Forumites.
As Mary Poppins sang
"feed the birds"
Woke up this morning and the fields out side have been coated in a thin shimming of white diamond of frosting. It's oh so very beautiful.
Wonderful as it is , it means slim pickings for our feathered friends.
So in appreciation of their beautiful sings and colour this summer . Please stock up your bird feeders ans let's look after our tweety chums
Taff & Pooch
"
Already done Taff & purchased a stock of fat balls last night to go out soon.
S |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
"We always have fun in ours making homemade birdfeedeers, melt lard, add seeds and nuts, mix and pour into plastic cups. Then we bird spot....ok I know this sounds a bit lame when I type it "
How do you present the cups for the birds to feed from do you fix them to anything I,m sure the birds enjoy the mix. |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
"I've fed them for years but next door's cat has been a terror, which is so upsetting when he catches any. 365 feeding is important, as others say. Kestrel visited last week but didn't harm anything. "
Nature as its predators as do birds in the garden and normally everything is balanced out But the domestic cat thou it is only his/her natural Instinct they do not have a natural role to play in the garden has a predator as they did not get there themselves like the sparrowhawk you can,t fool nature for long I,m sure richard attenborough could tell you that but where would the domestic cat be without us.
|
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
"Bore da Fabbers, Friends and Forumites.
As Mary Poppins sang
"feed the birds"
Woke up this morning and the fields out side have been coated in a thin shimming of white diamond of frosting. It's oh so very beautiful.
Wonderful as it is , it means slim pickings for our feathered friends.
So in appreciation of their beautiful sings and colour this summer . Please stock up your bird feeders ans let's look after our tweety chums
Taff & Pooch
Already done Taff & purchased a stock of fat balls last night to go out soon.
S"
The wood mice like them if they can get at them thou I don,t mind wood mice to much. |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
|
By *umpkinMan
over a year ago
near the sounds of the wimborne quarter jack! |
"Aren't you only supposed to feed them when the weather gets really bad?"
Oh gosh noooo!!!!! RSPB recommends all year round feeding and we get the parents bringing the offspring to show them where the food is! You may find that consumption may go down at various times of the year so you feed accordingly. In fact, consumption may go UP when the youngsters are about! |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
|
By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
|
"I'd love to,but I found a dead little bird outside my back door this morning so I don't want to encourage then "
Oh heavens it was a cold night last night. So some fat balls will help them make it through the winter |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
|
By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
|
"With all the best intentions we would do that in our garden, BUT......we have two kitties that decimate bird populations if they fly to the garden. So we'd prefer not to be party to the inevitable avian genocide. Instead, we go and feed the swans and ducks at the local park. Oats and seeds, not bread. Bread is junk food for ducks.
Give them some peas as well, duck go crazy for peas."
If you have any potatoes in the kitchen that have passed their sell by date, give them to the ducks!
Ducks go crazy for old rotten tatties! |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
|
By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
|
I feed them all year round
Nuts, seed and fatballs as different species prefer different food.
I've a super fat robin visiting daily - they normally prefer to feed off the ground but he's given in and happily eats from the hanging feeders now
|
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
"Always do, food for birds here 365 days a year and water especially if it's a hard frost "
Should only feed in winter when food sparse, they get lazy in summer and don't pesue natural pests in the garden.
School boy error |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
|
By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
|
"Always do, food for birds here 365 days a year and water especially if it's a hard frost
Should only feed in winter when food sparse, they get lazy in summer and don't pesue natural pests in the garden.
School boy error "
That used to be the advice but now it's recommended to feed all year round |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
"Always do, food for birds here 365 days a year and water especially if it's a hard frost
Should only feed in winter when food sparse, they get lazy in summer and don't pesue natural pests in the garden.
School boy error
That used to be the advice but now it's recommended to feed all year round"
Maybe in Newcastle when it's still frosty in July |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
"I'd love to,but I found a dead little bird outside my back door this morning so I don't want to encourage then
Oh heavens it was a cold night last night. So some fat balls will help them make it through the winter "
Yes,but our cat unfortunately won't! |
Reply privately, Reply in forum +quote
or View forums list | |
» Add a new message to this topic
Blammo 
