Nature will provide!

I haven't posted anything for a while for a couple of reasons - the first because I've been really busy, but the second being because the birds haven't needed a lot of feeding recently - well, not by me, anyway.

For the rest of May and most of June, I was still replenishing all the feeders more or less daily, certainly the various fat and suet feeders, and the ground feeding station was proving popular. The caging of the tables seems to have eventually discouraged the pigeons - yes, they still appear but not in the numbers they used to, and there's been a definite increase in smaller birds, including a delightful invasion of long-tailed tits, so sweet!

But since July started I've only really had to refill the seed feeders, and that on more like a weekly basis. Nature's bounty has taken over, there are bushes full of fruit and insects everywhere, why would the birds choose to eat anything else? Well, to be fair, they do still eat my seeds, but not as voraciously. In particular we've got a bush with berries that I can't identify (they look a bit like rosehips but not on roses) that also has wild blackberries twined through it, and everytime I walk past it I disturb huge clouds of sparrows, which is a very good thing to see. We also have an old apple tree which has already started dropping apples everywhere, and the birds eat them and also the many insects that live on them - so there's still plenty to watch in the garden, I just don't have to pay as much for the pleasure!

The only change to my feeders since last time is that with a recent RSPB seed purchase I got an additional seed feeder on special offer (£1 for a feeder? Yes please) and lacking space on the apple tree to hang it I've attached it to the trestle fence on the veg garden side, and the seed in that goes at twice the rate of anywhere else in the garden - presumably due to the proximity to the big hedge and trees at the bottom of the garden, and the wildlife pond.

Mind you, we're getting towards the end of summer now, and although that means the autumn bounty of berries and fruit, winter draws on (as they say) and soon the feathered fraternity will be relying on me once more to supplement Mother Nature's menu. It's nice to be needed.

I've got bags of seed!

My rather large RSPB order arrived yesterday, so I thought I'd post a picture of what £130 worth of bird feed looks like:

There's also £20 worth of ground feeder sanctuary there as well, in the grey package at the back - more of which later. All of this food can't stay in the paper sacks it arrived in, I've learnt to my cost how vulnerable they are to naughty little meeces with expensive tastes, and after problems with plastic storage boxes cracking in the cold weather (as they have to be stored outside) I now use flip-top metal rubbish bins with plastic inner buckets, which seem to work fine:

 

Nearly empty...

 

...and magically refilled







The Two Towers... of bird feed



They've stood up to snow, wind and rain so far and were going cheap in a sale at Homebase, and one 12.75kg sackful fits perfectly in each bin. They're not, however, very easy to drag to the feeders, so I transfer smaller amounts to plastic tubs stored inside my bike shed.This does of course make it difficult to get to the bikes behind them, which is our excuse not to ride them more often! My aim is to set up another small shed nearer the bird feeders that I can use for both storing the feed and using as a hide to watch the feeders up close - my own little Center Parcs set-up! It's then easier to carry the tubs to the feeders for refilling, although the more types of food I provide, the more trips I have to make.



Also arriving with my food parcels was the long-considered ground feeder sanctuary, which I set up last night. I chose the wise mesh that should keep out pigeons and doves, but allows medium sized birds like blackbirds and thrushes to get in. Unfortunately the mesh was also big enough for my first customer this morning, a small squirrel! Hopefully if he keeps eating the food he won't be small enough for long.

The new sanctuary - squirrel free at this point.

Happy feeding!

The cost of caring!

Running low on most types of bird feed I've been putting out, I put in a new order with the RSPB yesterday, putting all the things in my virtual basket that I'd need: four different types of seed (table, feeder, ground and nyjer); suet sprinkles; fruity nibbles; suet cakes. I also ordered the wide-meshed ground feeding sanctuary I've been thinking about for a while.

So, feed the birds, tuppence a bag? No chance - and no change out of £150, either. Even discounting the sanctuary, that's around £130 worth of bird feed. That said, I also support the RSPB through their weekly lottery, and a couple of weeks ago I won £100, so I think it's only right that the money goes back to helping the birds. It's all karma, probably. And hopefully with the pigeon proofing I won't have to spend that much quite as often as I used to!

What am I getting for my money? Well, three of the bags of seed are 12.75kg each, which is over four times the size of the standard 3kg bags you see in the shops (Sainsbury's sell them, for example), and buying in bulk is definitely cheaper, at least now I've sorted out how to store it somewhere safe and dry (metal flip top bins with plastic inner buckets, as a matter of fact). In the case of Feeder Mix Extra, for example, it's £1.96 per kilo (£24.99 for the sack), compared to £2.92 buying it in smaller bags. The only problem is that they tend to deliver the bags in twos in cardboard boxes which are therefore very heavy to carry! I usually arrange for delivery to my work address, and then have to lug them from our reception to my car, always trying to remember health and safety guidance on lifting as I grunt and strain boot-wards. I only buy the smaller bags of nyjer seed, though, partly because it's very expensive (£9.99 for a 3kg bag, £29.50 for the 12.75kg sack) and partly because I don't need to refill the feeder so often, as it's a specialised food for goldfinches (and once in a while a siskin).

Mind you, the ground feeder mix is even more expensive, now I come to think about it (£30.99 per sack) - but that's the main one that was being scoffed by the pigeons so shouldn't need so much any more.

I've also got quite a lot of suet and fat treats for my money, especially as the suet cakes were on half-price offer (£1.74 each rather than £3.49) so I got six - they aren't lasting long at the moment. I also got some square suet cakes as different birds seem to like different styles of fat feeder - the woodpeckers and rooks like the round cakes and fat balls, the starlings like the sprinkles and nibbles, the bluetits and finches like the square cakes. And the pigeons don't bother with them. Result!

As hobbies go, bird feeding can be quite pricey, but I've tried "budget" feeds before and ended up with a lot of uneaten seed, to be honest - false economy, definitely. And in my view, if it isn't from the RSPB or maybe the BTO, then why bother? The quality of the product is much better from the people who know and care about the birds, and their profits are going to help other birds, not lining the pocket of someone who's bulked up their bird feed with rubbish stuff anyway!

And it's a much cheaper and healthier way of relieving stress than taking up smoking...

Pigeons still around - but not so fat!

It's been a couple of weeks since I pigeon-proofed my feeders and bird tables, and generally it seems to have worked in at least stopping the pigeons eating everything and leaving nothing for the smaller birds - but they are still hanging around in large numbers, and still attempting to get into the feeders and onto the tables! Are they too stupid to realise they can't, or too clever and know that persistence will pay off in the end? As more and more gather I start to feel I'm in Hitchcock's "The Birds" and that they'll eventually knock over the feed tables by sheer weight of numbers!

One definite benefit has been not having to constantly refill feeders and tables on a slightly more than daily basis, now it's a couple of times a week, which shows just how much the pigeons were taking. I was originally worried I was also excluding blackbirds but have now seen them feeding on the tables regularly. I'm going to invest in a proper ground feeder sanctuary from the RSPB though, not sure the upturned hanging baskets are quite accessible enough for birds their size - fine if you want to feed the sparrow-sized birds, though.

The one food item I am having to keep in constant supply is any fat treat (suet nibbles, fat balls, suet cakes, whatever) - it's that time of year when they're all either breeding or raising chicks and they all need that extra energy boost. The starlings are keenest on the nibbles in the peanut feeder and squabble over them, but just lately the fat balls and suet cake have been graced by several jackdaws and a large rook who has managed to find a suitable place on the tree to grasp while he rips chunks of fat off (usually with the jackdaws hanging about below to catch anything he drops). Is it wrong of me to try keeping the pigeons away while being happy to watch a rook eating me out of house and home? He's an impressive sight, which the pigeons are not, so that's my justification!

Meanwhile, one more visitor may be suffering due to the pigeon-proofing, might let him have a few loose peanuts by way of compensation...

Stop the Pigeons!



The "Enemy"

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate pigeons. I don't especially like them, but I don't hate them. What I do hate is that recently they've been arriving in my garden in bigger and bigger numbers, sometimes a dozen or more, and have been eating all the food on my bird tables (standing and hanging), one of my seed feeders, and anything I put on the ground. Now, I'm of the view that with pigeons being omnivirous scavengers (basically rats with wings) they have more than enough food sources without my paying good money on seed that they're going to wolf down in short order. At the same time they're also depriving every other garden bird of food, either because it's gone before they can get to it, or because the pigeons bully the other birds and scare them off!

The solution? Pigeon proof my tables and feeders! First, I got some suitable sized mesh from Homebase with holes big enough to allow most smaller birds through but exclude pigeons. I then fixed this round both my standing tables, in one case completely round, and for the second leaving larger gaps at the corners (as I was concerned that blackbirds and thrushes might struggle to get in). The pigeons are now very confused and still try to land on the table (and fail). I've seen other birds use them quite happily (including starlings) and I haven't had to replenish the food anything like so often!

 

A pigeon baffled by the Meripac's cage



Unsure about how to attach mesh to my hanging table, I instead searched for a pre-caged table to replace it, similar to one I'd seen at Center Parcs. I chose the Meripac table and sanctuary which I ordered from Junglegold (and which arrived the next day!). A bit of a hassle to put together as an essential pre-drilled hole hadn't actually been pre-drilled, but now it's complete it looks fine. The only problem is that the pigeons still try to get in and unbalance the table, spilling all the water out of the dedicated water compartment! May leave it dry and use it for more seed - the coal tits in particular seem to like it a lot, and since the idea was to help the smaller birds get a bigger share of the food that's a definite result.

Next I turned my attention to ground feeding birds, and how to protect their food from the ravenous grey horde. There are ground-feeder sanctuaries available (the RSPB do one) but at around £20 a time I wanted to see if there was a cheaper alternative - and I may have found one. I bought two large wire baskets from Homebase which are meant to be used as hanging flower baskets, but the holes looked about the right size to me - and at £2.48 each (on a 20% off day) they were cheap enough to try and throw away if they failed. I've removed the chains and held them down with netting pegs, and they seem to be working fine. I've seen robins and dunnocks feeding happily inside, and seen at least one blackbird able to get their head far enough in to grab something, which the pigeons are unable to do as long as I keep the food in the centre. In one (pictured) I also used the mesh tray from the abadoned hanging table to keep the food off the grass. I'll keep monitoring how they go and whether they get much use, but so far so good.

Finally, I took the seed tray off my smaller seed feeder, and now the pigeons (or more usually for this one, doves) can't perch on it and empty the feeder in under a day! I've left the one on my nyjer seed feeder, which I've sometimes seen a dove on, but the seed level isn't going down very fast so I guess they don't eat that much, and the tray is useful to catch the tiny seeds for the goldfinches.

With a bit of luck now everything is pigeon-proofed, I won't need to refill every feeder quite so often (saving me money), and there'll be plenty for the smaller birds so I get to see them rather than a dozen fat pigeons. Plus. while they get used to the idea, watching the pigeons attempt to get at the food they know is there is highly amusing. Probably not the right attitude for a member of the RSPB, but there it is.

A Less Picky Goldfinch!

I've always thought of Goldfinches as rather fussy eaters, and that the only way to entice them into your garden was with a nyjer seed feeder (or the right kind of plants and flowers that they eat naturally, like thistles and teasels gone to seed) - so I was very surprised this morning to see one of the pair I've finally convinced to visit my garden eating from the "normal" bird seed feeder that the other finches and tits usually empty on a regular basis. Maybe they're a little less fussy than I've been led to believe? Will keep an eye out to see if one or both of them carries on this way. It's not due to lack of nyjer seed, I filled it up at the weekend!

Meanwhile, I've decided this weekend is D-Day (or should that be P-Day?) for the pigeons, I'm going to take steps involving wire mesh and the like to limit access to my bird tables and ground feed to the smaller species. The pigeons that steal all my feed are fat enough, and there's getting to be a few too many of them too. I have to resort to letting my cats out every so often to scare them off!

Our two cats, by the way, have never been known to catch any birds - I've watched them try and they're too slow! We only let them out when we're around during daylight, so they don't get much opportunity. Recently one of them has developed a taste for mice, but as they're probably the mice that broke into a sack of bird seed in my shed and ate quite a lot of it, I'd say that was one up for the birds.

My Feeders

A brief delay between my first and second posts, due to the complete collapse of my old PC! So, armed with a brand new one, let's begin with a complete list of the bird feeders and feeding stations in my small to middle-sized garden (say, 1 to 1.5 tennis courts?).

First, two bird tables, both made by my late father-in-law Joe, who probably loved woodworking more than birds, but did like to watch them on his own table. These are usually supplied with RSPB Table Seed, in fact everything I feed the birds is usually from the RSPB - helps the birds twice over if you buy their feed, and I know it's better quality than a lot of alternatives, and preferred by the birds, in my experience. Go to RSPB Bird Food to see what they sell. The table with the spiky roof (right) is nearer the house and has a bigger gap so is often visited by pigeons and doves. The older one (left) is opposite our apple tree halfway down the garden and gets more of the smaller species (especially sparrows and dunnocks), and I often add "sprinkles" to that one, these are high energy suet treats - they don't last long!

Next, hanging from the apple tree is my biggest feeder, an 8-port seed feeder filled with Feeder Mix Extra (the "extra" is sunflower hearts, husk-free oats, canary seed and red millet, apparently) which is much favoured by chaffinches and greenfinches. I'm convinced that I've helped raised several generations of both by my feeding over the years. I've also seen great, coal, blue and long-tailed tits visiting this one when they can fight their way through the finches. Once in a while a robin will try it too, though they seem to prefer ground feeding or the tables. Nearby is a hanging table on which I put Ground Mix and sprinkles (and try to remember to top up the water dish in it too). Like the tables this is easily accessed by pigeons and doves, and may have to be replaced by something more restricted to smaller birds, although not too small as the blackbirds seem to like this feeder.

Further along the tree is a good old fashioned peanut feeder, this doesn't need refilling much but at least one blue tit is a regular. On an opposite branch is another peanut feeder, but filled with suet-based Fruity Nibbles instead, and this needs refilling almost daily as it's a favourite with a large number of squabbling starlings! If I didn't buy in bulk they'd probably eat me out of house and home, bless 'em. Some people dismiss them as "just" starlings, but they have a beautiful sheen on their wings and more character than dozens of other birds put together, so I love them. Blame Pam Ayres - see Pam's poem in another wildlife blog here. They also love the fat balls and various suet cakes (square and round) that get distributed round the tree - as does an occasional woodpecker (above).

Lastly  as far as the tree goes there's a nyjer seed feeder, which the goldfinches have at last got used to and started to feed from regularly. I tried the RSPB's mini-feeder first to test the waters (so to speak) and see if there were goldfinches around, with no luck. Then we started growing teasels, and they attracted the goldfinches, so I tried a full size nyjer feeder and over time they've started accepting it, although they still love the natural food the teasels provide as well. I've also had siskins on this one, and for some reason a dove tries it from time to time!

Then nearer the house there's an artistic-looking metal stand with a smaller 2-port seed-feeder on one side and another peanut feeder on the other, both of which seems to be the preferred port of call for more blue-tits. The little feeder needs refilling a lot, I suspect this is actually because a dove has managed to work out how to feed from this and is very greedy. At least one greenfinch has eaten from this little feeder too, though - see right.

Last and probably least, I've added a third small feeder and a fat ball holder on some lantern holders next to one of the bird tables (you can see them in the picture of the table at the top on the right), these are very low and not much visited, but they're what I take with me on visits to Center Parcs (of which more in another post, I predict) to attract the birds to the villa patio (not that they need much encouragement). At home they've had nothing more spectacular than a dunnock (who tends to prefer feeding on the ground from spills from the feeder above rather than the feeder itself). When at Center Parcs it's had woodpeckers and nuthatches, much more exciting!

And finally, I also spread some Ground Mix on the lawn beneath the apple tree, which the blackbirds, chaffinches and occasional thrush appreciate - but again the majority seems to get wolfed down by the pigeons. I try to like them, I really do, and remind myself that they are birds too, but I can't help myself thinking of them as rats with wings, and also feeling that they can find plenty of other rubbish to eat out in the street from discarded takeaways. Why can't they leave the expensive stuff for the little birds? It's illogical, I know, but there it is. Measures may have to be taken soon to create a ground feeding sanctuary that will only allow anything blackbird sized or smaller to enjoy my bounty.

Happy feeding!