Feed the Birds

[pelmetman]

Please remember to feed the birds, they are really suffering in this harsh weather.

We had our first Fieldfare today, always a sign of bad weather. We save all the windfalls to put down throughout the winter as the Blackbirds absolutely love them.

Sue

[TheGoodEarth]

Made a bird feeder from a 2ltr plastic bottle yesterday and the robins have been happily munching the seed from it.

[JessieMac]

We had our first snow today but it melted as it fell.............just as well as our birds are into their second 20 kilo bag of seed and I was thinking of asking them to bring their family allowance books with them.

[spider8]

Yes JessieMac, we spend a fortune on bird seed and other foods every year. We must have bought-up Orkney's T***o's entire stock of lard for the little darlings. We even had a blackbird pecking the kitchen window to attract our attention with a 'feed me' look in his eye. Water is so difficult to keep clear of ice and when we re-fill the bird baths they are all queing-up to get in it. We love them all, what wonderful beautiful birds we have in the UK.

[MKG]

Bloody Hell!!

If we fed the birds any more we'd starve!

And what do we get in return? Prezzies wrapped in Sparrow-down? Ribbons tied so delicately by Blue-tits? Action prints form Sparrowhawks?

No. Bugger all. Ungrateful sods.

Love 'em, though

Mike

[Mrs H]

Hey Mike I bet they leave you great big poo's on ur windows as a way of thanks!! Lol. Personally I don't feed the birds as we have 7 cats who are all hunters so it would be a bit like making them work for their dinner and a bit unfair on the little birdies!! X

[MKG]

You're right, H. Forgot the poos.

Makes everything worthwhile!!

Mike

[StripyPixieSocks]

Yep, our bird feeder is being absolutely caned almost every day, poor wee things. We've got fat balls up but so far it just seems to be Sparrows which is fine by me as they are actually on the endangered list these days

Will do more when money allows... I LOVE birds!

[Rosendula]

Well I've hung a couple of fat balls up, but they prefer the chicken food. In fact, the stupid chickens come out of the coop and huddle together in a snowy corner of the garden while all the birds go in their coop and eat their food and drink their water. Ah well, I guess eventually the birds will end up in the cat so I'll save on cat food No, really I'm quite enjoying watching them all. There's something particularly lovely about seeing robins in the snow.

[Millymollymandy]

Yesterday we had flocks of Fieldfares, Redwings and Yellowhammers plus a male and female Blackcap. They were all over in our orchard and the paddock/old orchard next door - weren't interested in the food we put out in the garden, which is being eaten mostly by enormous numbers of Blue and Great Tits. At €19 for a 5kg sack of peanuts it's rather costly, although the supermarket does own brand seed which is much cheaper at about €3.50 ish for 5kg - thank god! The peanuts are just for a special treat in very cold weather! At our old house we were spending about €20 a week on bird food but thankfully now the garden centres sell buckets of fat balls for much cheaper than the supermarkets small packs which probably cost about 50c per fat ball. I don't put out nearly as much food as I used to because of the cost.

[MKG]

Well, well, well. We think we've just had a two-hour visit from a male reed bunting - never seen on of those here before. We've also been adopted for the last few days by a pair of grey wagtails, but they seem to have gone now - a good sign that the fields are opening up again.

Penguins next, then.

Mike

[Millymollymandy]

Reed bunting - is it a big boggy round your parts? Our snow has almost all gone now and boy does it make a mess of the grass where it's been all trodden on around the chook/duck sheds. Fieldfares were still around this morning - they are really handsome beasts.

[MKG]

Well, I live right on the edge of what used to be the Humberhead Levels, and they used to hunt deer around here from boats. It's not quite that wet any longer but there are still plenty of wetlands around.

[Millymollymandy]

I haven't had one of them in my garden (and pretty unlikely to really!); have my birdie list in front of me cos it's a bit dog eared and I think after 6 years it might be time to type it up . We are up to 55 species although one or two are more sort of question marks/not sures. Only added two new birds to the list since 2006 though!

[snapdragon]

We feed them year round and make sure there's water for them, obviously putting out more now - plus fat/suet slabs mixed with seed and fruit - they do like the flowers of the mahonia just now and also pyracantha berries.
We mainly get sparrows, blackbirds and robin, thrushes, starlings and finches less frequently but bluetits and longtailed tits have been around more in this frozen weather, and a bullfinch which thrilled me as I'd never seen one in the forreal before.
Watching them yesterday we agreed it was better fun and cheaper than having a fishtank