Feeding the birds??

We get a wide range of birds too which I really enjoy watching. The ubiquitous starlings spend their time squabbling whilst the smaller birds nip in and take the goodies!
We've just started getting a jackdaw too and there'sa spotted woodpecker and a jay from time to time. The only trouble is that I'm a bit lax in keeping the feeders full - thanks to the squirrels [grey] but it's also fun to watch their acrobatics.

Many birds will eat from fatballs but it’s mainly the small birds bluetits, goldfinches, greenfinches etc that love seeds.
We have a jackdaw gang that descend on the fatballs and peanuts, I swear they wait until they see our car leave the drive then they gleefully descend.

DittoOurKid1 love my garden but given up on the lawn it belongs to all the grandkids who leapfrog,tumble,play football,tennis etc ooh and the MOLE does his share of damage too, was getting really stressed re the lawn but not any more... acceptance ?

Whitewave and Jalima - our 'lawn' is interesting too. If we ever used one of those selective lawn feed/weed killer things, we'd have bare earth! It's green though, that's about the only connection it has with a proper lawn.

The bloomin' birds round here are just too fussy or well-fed. I put out fat granules, fat balls and seed mix - all in feeders. The only one they will touch is the fat granules. I usually end up emptying the seed one on the lawn, then the overstuffed pigeons eat it, but no others. I've also got next boxes - never seen them in use. What am I doing wrong? Any thoughts? No-one else around here feeds birds, so they must be getting their food from somewhere. Little blighters.

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We've got our bird table on the grass and the seed/fat ball containers hanging off the fence (lawn underneath) so any fallen seeds that are not eaten by ground feeders just grow as interesting grass varieties and get mown when the lawn is cut.
Our lawn is more 'meadow' than bowling green whitewave

~We put out soaked mealworms for the robin(s) only to find that the magpies have come and demolished the lot

I've tried all sorts of seed varieties, but the birds here ignore them all and want sunflower hearts. I've spent a fortune buying special seed mixes but have given up - the cat particularly liked the robin mix with meal worms, she was up on the bird table munching away!

I would like to know how to avoid the mess! Other than no grow seed and no suet the floor underneath is slippery and extremely messy. I have pressure washed the patio - but am really at a loss.

Goldfinches crowd round the sunflower hearts containers, they are messy feeders, you can see then discard so much and the pigeons wait underneath for this. Then this year I got an 'Einstein' pigeon, who discovered that if it flew and fluttered against this sunflower feeder it could make enough fall to the ground. My feeder is on the edge of my lawn and there is a bald patch underneath it due to these pigeons.

NfKDumpling, opinions on parakeets differ. I think they are beautiful and lend a tropical air as they fly over with the sun shining through their feathers. They don’t seem to bully other birds and eat a reasonable share of peanuts, fat balls and seeds. However farmers have complained that they are destructive to crops and should be culled.?
Now wood pigeons are another matter. They gobble up everything and transform it into huge messes on my car as they roost above it. Very ungrateful I think. ?

Rooks don't seem to congregate in out garden but I have learned to dislike jackdaws because their family groups make a tremendous noise from dawn. The young birds demand to be fed by adult birds from spring onwards. They also try to mob our bird feeders. We use feeders that are protected by cages and this keeps larger birds out but the jackdaws keep trying. I know all creatures have a right to life but not at the expense of my sleep! Jackdaws are definitely on my black list.

Our garden isn't large, but the rooks have become brave enough to strip the bird table of scraps only a few feet from the window and come daily to check us out. I didn't mind the original one who used to come last winter, but now he's bringing his entire family. Luckily they don't eat seed. But parakeets do and I've heard they can be a problem.

We too have parakeets which are supposed to eat the food the garden birds like. They fly over us each day making a squawking sound, but don't come into our patio garden.

As well as the usual garden birds we have lots of red kites which were reintroduced to the area about 15/20 years ago and have definitely grown in number. They have an enormous wing span and I lie in bed seeing them fly passed the window ? Our youngest GC 5 thinks they are Eagles !

Parakeets have been seen in Norwich! Are they a problem? Should DH add them to his black list?

Oh good bargain Purpledaffodilwill get some?

We put out bird seed bought from our local garden centre, also peanuts in a feeder. We get blackbirds, chaffinches, blue tits, great tits, robins, wrens, house sparrows, dunnock, collared doves, jackdaws and crows. We also have a cock pheasant who visits regularly. The heron flies along the river at the bottom of the hill. Just once this winter I've seen a bullfinch. I love watching the birds from my living room window.

I did wonder, no definitely not red legs!
Thanks.

jalima choughs have red legs, it’s a dead give away. The Cornish ones usually have red beaks too. Alpine choughs have yellow beaks. If it’s one of those I would keep it quiet or you might have a garden full of hairy twitchers with long lenses!

The goldfinches like lavender seeds but I haven't seen any here lately although I left the flower stalks on the lavender just in case..

I find goldfinches are attracted by niger seeds and we seem to have a family group of five. Weirdly the parakeets like them too and manage to enlarge the feeder holes to get their beaks in. Mealworms are beloved by starlings who seem to empty the tray in minutes.
I have found a cheaper source of peanuts, Costco! Just as well as the squirrels eat them as quickly as the birds do.
farview I buy the net less fat balls from Wilko where they are only £4 for 50! Don’t think the birds like them as much as the luxury brands, but they last longer.?

Jalima Chough?
Well, I did wonder until I saw how rare they are and only in Cornwall and the West of Wales apparently.
They were ignoring anything dropped from the bird feeders and concentrating on loose bare earth around the trellis. I will have a look to see if they come again tomorrow morning.

We bought a couple of fat filled coconut halves and refill them squashing in fat balls. But our birds are very picky and only like RSPB food. I think too many people around here feed them. It's an aged persons area!

I think the cover provided in the garden influences which birds you get. We have a very thick hawthorn hedge where a large flock of sparrows hang out. Low thick shrubs attract goldfinches, wrens and such like. Since our garden has grown up from the grass football pitch we inherited our bird life has increased.

DH has a black list of birds he doesn't want - pigeons trample the plants down to bare earth as they clear up under the feeders, but I prefer them to rats. Rooks and jackdaws strip the fat feeders and raid the bird table. We've had to wire down the wire tube fat feeder as they unhook it and can eat five fat balls in a sitting, but it's fun watching them lift the coconut shells, beak, foot, beak, foot to lift the string. He's put the shell on elastic today, it'll be more fun tomorrow!