Feeding the birds

[Ben@Forest]

Motorists do more harm than cats.

Now, please can we return to the subject of the thread, or shall I suggest to the mods that the thread is deleted?

Blimey - thread goes off topic threat! I saw a male greenfinch yesterday - fantastic flash of green - by a 16 hectare field of wheat. So there's your answer - plant a big field of wheat.

[pwa]

Motorists do more harm than cats.

Now, please can we return to the subject of the thread, or shall I suggest to the mods that the thread is deleted?

Cats always come into discussions about feeding birds.

[[XAP]Bob]

Motorists do more harm than cats.

Now, please can we return to the subject of the thread, or shall I suggest to the mods that the thread is deleted?

Cats always come into discussions about feeding birds.

Because who else do you feed the birds to?

[JohnW]

Post deleted - I made a mistake.

[JohnW]

Motorists do more harm than cats.

Now, please can we return to the subject of the thread, or shall I suggest to the mods that the thread is deleted?

....................I saw a male greenfinch yesterday - fantastic flash of green - by a 16 hectare field of wheat. So there's your answer - plant a big field of wheat.

We used to get greenfinches in profusion until about 10 acres of farmland behind our lane were covered with housing. How we get none - the occasional goldfinch passing through, but no more finches. Can anyone suggest food or feeders that would attract passing finches to stop by and take the food? Please don't suggest niger seeds - we've tried that but it didn't work for us.

Motorists do more harm than cats.

Now, please can we return to the subject of the thread, or shall I suggest to the mods that the thread is deleted?

Blimey - thread goes off topic threat!........................

Yeah - I know Ben - it was just frustration on my part. I'd asked about feeding birds, and now we've got hatred of cats. I didn't really mean that to be taken seriously.

[old_windbag]

I used to get quite a lot of green finches but now very few. I'm not too concerned as I know in autumn I'll see a lot more.

The reason....... rosa rugosa. This provides beautiful pinky red flowers that attracts bees throughout summer but by august september all of those flowers are replaced with large rose hips( the itchy berry school days ones ). The hips initially are ignored but as they darken perhaps getting softer the greenfinches move in and open them up to get the seeds. They are the only bird I see feasting on them but no rose hip is left untouched.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_rugosa

It doesn't mind hard pruning and can form a hedge.

[MikeF]

We should really be asking why we need to feed the birds anyway.

[Mistik-ka]

We should really be asking why we need to feed the birds anyway.

It's cheaper than television, with better colour, more variety, and generally more interesting content.

[pwa]

On a walk today I passed a house that had a bird feeder attached to the house wall high up so the feeder hung in front of a bedroom window. Great idea except that the house is on an old street with very limited car parking and the only spot for the home owner to park their car is directly below the feeder, and the car is plastered with white streaks.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
In the garden today, taking it easy
Sparrows (1)..not many of them.
Greenfinch.
Goldfinch.
Other very small brown birds, smaller than sparrow all brown.
Small bird with light under belly and black with white stripe on side of head?
Two magpies, they like fighting anything.
Two blackbirds.
Jackdaw...fighting off all the other big birds, on the bird table.
The usual pigeons.
Peg leg seagul
Birds seemed to like the water baths for drinking including pigeons and the seagull.

[pete75]

We should really be asking why we need to feed the birds anyway.

So the bird woman Julie Andrews sings of gets her tuppence a bag?
[youtube]XHrRxQVUFN4[/youtube]

[MikeF]

We should really be asking why we need to feed the birds anyway.

It's cheaper than television, with better colour, more variety, and generally more interesting content.

Is it a conscience easer and entertainment as we've destroyed so much habitat and farming has become too efficient for their survival?

[hamster]

We used to get greenfinches in profusion until about 10 acres of farmland behind our lane were covered with housing. How we get none - the occasional goldfinch passing through, but no more finches. Can anyone suggest food or feeders that would attract passing finches to stop by and take the food? Please don't suggest niger seeds - we've tried that but it didn't work for us.

Sunflower hearts are definitely the most popular on my feeders with all kinds of finch. I've given up on anything else as it doesn't get eaten, apart from fat in the winter.

[JohnW]

We used to get greenfinches in profusion until about 10 acres of farmland behind our lane were covered with housing. How we get none - the occasional goldfinch passing through, but no more finches. Can anyone suggest food or feeders that would attract passing finches to stop by and take the food? Please don't suggest niger seeds - we've tried that but it didn't work for us.

Sunflower hearts are definitely the most popular on my feeders with all kinds of finch. I've given up on anything else as it doesn't get eaten, apart from fat in the winter.

Local differences are amazing aren't they? For years our sparrows haven't taken from the fatballs. I'd have thought that they'd need the fat most in winter, but they showed no interest - I'd put that down to the fat being very hard in cold weather. But - they've 'discovered' them now and this year they've been eating the stuff as fast as I could fill the feeders (well, not exactly, but you know what I mean).

As for sunflower hearts - the collared doves take them - they even sit in the hawthorn and take them from the feeder. Any passing finch doesn't get a chance.

One thing we're getting more of this spring/summer is magpies - we've two broods who visit all the time - they seem to relish the fatballs...........they pack and peck at the feeders until the fatballs break up and shutter to the floor, and then take them off the ground. They're very wary - they quickly take a beakfull and fly off to eat the stuff elsewhere.

[hamster]

I put the sunflower hearts in a suspended tubular feeder which the doves cannot land on. The goldfinches are incredibly messy - there is then a table underneath that the collared doves use for the leftovers.

Regionally it is amazingly different what each seems to take. We have starlings that go for any fat. Jackdaws have a go but are rather wary of our ferrets in their cage - whereas the other birds seem unconcerned.