General Chat

We have a bird feeding station on the front lawn so the old man has something to watch,or will have after the cataract operations.

I deliberately bought the one with the holder on the top for suet balls and this afternoon it was swarming with long-tailed tits.

They are around every year at about this time but we hardly ever saw them before the feeding station went in.

And what did you think this thread was going to be about?

Birds, that's what I thought it would be about and it was :-)

I might get a suet ball, the blue tits are coming down for seed but the wood pigeons are getting there first....they get there first for everything lol.

We buy them by the hundred from the feed millers where we buythe bird seed.It is very much cheaper.

I have a bird feeder in the garden and when I first put it up the suet balls and seed feeders were plagued by larger wood pigeons, black birds and magpies. The suet balls in the net were pulled apart and on the ground in a matter of hours by the larger birds.

I decided to put some up turned hanging basket frames over the tops of the feeders and the suet now hang just slightly inside a gap in the bushes in a sturdier wire frame feeder.

The larger birds now have difficulty getting to the feeders, but do get the bits fallen on the ground and there's plenty of smaller tits, robins etc getting their fair share.

:-)

Lovely to hear you have a flock of long tailed tits visiting your garden Sharron, we haven't had them for a year or two. We get loads of goldfinches, which really like sunflower hearts. Two or three grey squirrels come for peanuts, and we love to watch them hanging upside down on the bird feeders. You can knock on the windows as hard as you like, they just stare you out!
In the last few days, a pheasant has come regularly for bread and other scraps, but he has to take his chance among the blackbirds and wood pigeons.
Hope your Dad enjoys the show!
Lynda. :-)

I guessed what it was about, we have had long tailed tits sometimes too as has Jane (I think it was) on the bird thread. They usually go in flocks but a week or so ago we had a single one. which was strange. On a seed feeder too not the fat balls.

We put things out for the birds, we have several blackbirds, a robin and tits as well as a couple of sparrows, not sure what sort - we put food on the bird table and in hanging seed feeders in the trees, as well as stuff on the ground for the blackbirds. We also put out fat balls.

There is a cat who keeps coming to the garden, it eats anything and everything and recently we think it tried to get something off the bird table, I found the bird table on the ground, with the feeding platform broken off. There was no wind that day and all we can guess is that the darned cat (which is huge) jumped at the bird table and either the tray broke under it's weight and the whole thing fell over or it fell over and broke the tray as it hit the ground. O.h. hasn't had a chance to make a new tray so we are having to put food on top of the garage and other places, however yesterday the cat was on the garage roof. I can't believe it is so hungry it has to steal the bird's food, blooming thing.

I love to see the birds outside and hope we can keep them going through the winter, probably got a lot of cold weather to come yet.

Lizx

In my experiencethe only cats who will eat things off the bird table are hungry strays.

One of mine was huge but he was still homeless and hungry when he came to me.

We have 6 cats in the house opposite us, I know they are well fed yet, given the chance a couple of them will eat the food put out for the birds if they can get at it.

i put the carcass of my turkey out for the fox
but the crows carried it off :-D

Hanging a meat bone on the washing line attracted a green woodpecker once.

I make my own fat balls to put in the feeders, the birds seems to enjoy them more than the bought ones, and making them is just as cheap, we've had a lot more variety of birds visiting (and 2 squirrels) our bird tables.

Glad you're enjoying the birds, they need all the help they can get during the cold weather.

ShelleyRose. x :-)

Is this the "bits and bobs" thread?

Oops........nope..........wrong one!!

:-D

Umm I have no feeding station, as I have 3 cats.
However, I used to have a blackbird......