Busy birdfeeder

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Geoff
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I'm getting worried about our birds. I feed them every day at three places around the garden - find it reduces the Robin battles - and replace their water at least twice as it freezes. It makes me feel cold watching Starlings having a bath at 3 in the afternoon when you wouldn't think they had time to dry off before the cold night. But it seems to me the amount of food being eaten is going down when you would expect it to be going up. Just got to hope the neighbours are feeding them more and they are spreading themselves around. We've only had two Bramblings and one Reed Bunting and it must be a week since I've seen a Nuthatch.
After finding the dead Waxwing my wife thought she saw some on some Holly near the river so I set off with the binoculars but no sign but got the bonus of a Dipper busy in the river.
I have bought 25 Kgs of Nyger (or whatever spelling you prefer) seed and a feeder but nothing seems to have sussed it out. Only gone down an inch in nearly two weeks. What type do you use? Mine is the one below, very like an ordinary seed feeder but with smaller holes. Mind I haven't seen any Goldfinches and the Greenfinches seem to have disappeared.
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Monika
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Geoff, I use a similar feeder and our goldfinches aren't too keen on it either! But I now mix some niger seeds in with the sunflower hearts and suet pellets in an ordinary (ex-peanut) feeder with a tray at the bottom, so if the goldfinches don't take the seeds directly out of the feeder, they drop into the tray and the goldfinches or other birds eat them from there. I have found in the past that siskins are the ones which eat from tiny-holed niger seed feeders. So far we have not seen any this winter, but they usually turn up in the new year.

Our bird numbers have gone down, too, Geoff. Maybe they have moved further south with less snow? Certainly, the 30 bramblings have gone down to about 5 or 6 and we have not seen the usual number of coal tits the last few days. Let's hope that all is well.
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oldherbaceous
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The wild birds in my garden have been down in numbers the last two days, but i noticed a sparrowhawk doing patrols today, so i think that is the reason for here.

Still plenty out and about though.
Kind Regards, Old Herbaceous.

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Monika
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We usually get the female sparrowhawk early in the day. She presumably takes her prey and then we don't see her again for the rest of the day.

One noticeable thing on the bird feeders: it's always the long-tailed tits who are the first on the feeder when it's still quite dark and are also often the last to feed. On the ground, it's the blackbirds who are first in the morning.
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peter
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Many Coal Tits here today, dangling.

My fatball and seed feeders hang eight feet up, under the corner of the shed roof where below there is no shed. Because I put a door diagonally across the corner but kept the roof square leaving a nice triangular squirrel puzzle come rain shield. :)
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glallotments
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We had a special nyger/niger feeder and nothing ever visited it so we now use an ordinary seed feeder. Even a woman working at a nearby RSPB reserve said she used normal seed feeders for niger seeds.

We have bought a few more feeders this year which so far haven't been adopted which is possibly because we have put plenty on the bird table so the birds don't use too much energy getting to the food.

By the way I have noticed at dusk several blue tits making for one of our nesting boxes so I guess they are snuggling up inside overnight
Monika
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GL, many years ago, we fixed up an artificial housemartins' nest under our eaves, just above the window where I sit at the computer. The housemartins never took to it (in fact, they have virtually deserted the village, which is very sad), but often in the evening, I see blue tits flying up to it and disappearing into the hole - so it's obviously doing some good, even though it wasn't the original purpose.
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Arnie
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Hi Everyone :D

I Went to my allotment early this morning and found two of these on the feeders :shock: http://www.garden-birds.co.uk/birds/rin ... rakeet.htm which is a first :o

Regards

Kevin :wink:
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Geoff
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I think whoever drew that map needs to know!
PLUMPUDDING
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A ring necked parakeet visited my garden last summer - it may have been one of the Sheffield colony. My cockatiels found it very scary. It was probably attracted by their calls.

We've had 17 species on the feeders this morning including the Gold crest. I didn't see what it was eating, but its nice to know they have survived this first lot of bad weather.
Monika
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Coming back to the special niger/nyjer feeders: our annual siskins have now arrived (they usually start around Christmas) and as they like eating from the tiny holes, I hung up our niger feeder and, guess what, the bramblings have now sussed it out and there are queues to get on it! So I would suggest, perservere with it.

After a lull of about 5 - 6 bramblings, numbers are now back up more than 20. We have also been pleased to see the tree creeper still about and about a dozen long-tailed tits, so they don't seem to have suffered in the extremely low temperatures.
PLUMPUDDING
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Can't keep up with filling the feeders just now with the huge numbers of birds. We had 20 different species yesterday just in this small area.

I squashed a bit of old cheese into the bark of the pear tree the other day and the tree creeper loved it, also the greater spotted woodpecker, all the tits and even the blackbird, which looked very funny trying to hang on to the tree upside down.

When I tried the niger seeds a couple of years ago the birds didn't take to them at all and preferred the sunflower kernels, so I haven't bothered with them since. At the moment the goldfinches are busy eating the evening primrose seeds from all the plants I left in for them as well as the feeder seed.
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Primrose
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We seem to be spending a small fortune on the ready husked sunflower seeds. All the birds seem to love them and pick them out first from the mixture on our two bird tables. Like all other commodities recently the price of them seems to have risen every time we buy another bag, but when you consider the pleasure the birds give us to watch them , and the fact that our regular feeding of them has probably saved many lives this winter, I regard that as money well spent. But we still haven't found a way of discouraging the darned ferral pigeons. They're a new phenomenon here and it's the first year we've ever had them visit us. Now I suppose we've got them for life - or certainly as long as the bird tables are regularly topped up.
Monika
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Primrose, I would try to keep feeding just from hanging containers. We also spend a fortune on sunflower hearts but I mix them with peanuts and feed them from a hanging tube (wire netting) with a sort of tray at the bottom and a cage all round it. It means the smaller birds can get at the seeds but very little reaches the ground and there is nothing for the pigeons to eat. The great spotted woodpecker pecks through the cage at the tube.

Now, whilst it was very cold, I fed some minced (put through an old Spong mincer) peanuts and cheese on the ground for the dunnock, robin etc, but put this out very early so that it had gone when the pigeons arrived - they are late risers.

I also occasionally feed currants to the blackbirds, thrushes (and a pair of pheasants) under the dense trees of our village Nature Reserve and the pigeons don't like getting under there.

Hope that helps.
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Parsons Jack
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I have just recently changed from mixed seeds to sunflower hearts. I now have far more greenfinches than ever before, more goldfinches, a few chaffinches, which were rarely seen in the garden before, and far less pigeons and collared doves. Still seem to have as many sparrows which is good news :)
It just shows the difference that can be made.
Cheers PJ.

I'm just off down the greenhouse. I won't be long...........
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