Do you cater for all birds....

[smudge]

....even pigeons? I do, but some I know try to deter them from their gardens.

As far as I'm concerned they are all God's creatures (if you believe in God) & deserve to be fed like anyone else.

I really enojoy watching them drinking from the bird baths & fish pond too.

[LoftyLottie]

Any bird that comes along is welcome Smudge?! I don't even mind the kestrels and sparrowhawks that visit and take the smaller birds (but I don't like to see it) They need to eat and I am told if they visit it's because you have a plentiful supply of birds which is good. We had a beautiful jay visit yesterday and also have a garden full of partridges at the moment (and they are just plain greedy).

The starlings all get in the bird bath together and splash about so much that they empty the bird bath.

[rowanwitch]

Nyger seed for small finches, coarse seed for bigger birds i pigeonsand doves
Fatballs and peanuts for tits and finches
Fat log for woodpeckers Catfood and dogbiscuits for magpies and crows
mealworms fresh and dried for robins and dunnocks and dried fruit and apple for blackbirds and thrushes The heron tries for the goldfish but I draw the line at that...

I don't care what comes down theres plenty for everyone

[LoftyLottie]

Why did I put that question mark in? Anybody's guess!

[janbee]

I always put out wild bird food but "town" pigeons never come near fortunately. I get a couple of wood pigeons every year and collared doves, loads of sparrows, thrushes, blackbirds and robins and occasionally a few blue tits. The odd seagull baby comes into the garden but for some reason unable to fly out again. The parents go crazy and dive bomb me. I have to put the "baby" up on a neighbours flat roof and then the parents can collect it. Ah the stress.... Like you, I enjoy watching them but there is a real problem with cats in the area. There are loads of the" little killing machines" locally.

[daftgrandad]

Good afternoon smudge.
I,m like you,I,ve given up trying to deter any of the wildlife that come to my feedstation.
After all they all need food,but it does get a bid tedious,when the crows and magpies
eat all the fatcakes and the squirrels eat most of the peanuts !

[LoftyLottie]

I have given up with the fatballs. I was putting 8 out a day and the starlings were eating them all on the same day. I am not made of money!! They will now have to wait for colder weather before they get any more.

I buy sacks of wild bird seed, large bags of niger, sacks of peanuts and meal worms, plus sultanas. They eat better than me and Mr LL.

At present we have swallows, robins, blackbirds, blue, great and cole tits, chaffinches greenfinches and goldfinches, dunnocks, house sparrows, tree sparrows, wrens, partridges, pheasants, moorhens, woodpigeons,collared doves, jackdaws, wagtails and a jay The woodpeckers have disappeared but will be back with their babies.
soon.

We have intensively grown crops all round us and our garden and that of a near neighbour form an oasis!!

[LoftyLottie]

Why Hello There DG!! xx

[LoftyLottie]

Funnily enough, although their are mapies around they avoid our garden!

[rowanwitch]

I am really envious my sister has ringnecked parakeets coming to her garden you think starlings are bad....

[daftgrandad]

Hi Lottie,
Hows Tt.are the sheep well ? Are there any lambs ? Hope you are very well yourself.

[ottosump]

We had a pair of blue tits nesting in our bird box, it was right outside the conservatory window, lovely to watch. Then one day my son phoned me at work to tell me that a Buzzard was in the tree in the garden, when I viewed the photo that my son took, it turned out to be a sparrow hawk, little smaller than a buzzard I think you'll agree. Anyway, one of the tits went missing, the partner was pining for weeks afterwards. I was really looking forward to watching them throughout the summer, but thats life I suppose. The sparrow hawk has to live as do the blue tits, they're both more than welcome in the garden, but it would be better if the tits could arrange to be out when the hawk calls.
Regards
Otto

[LoftyLottie]

Tt is the same as ever DG!! A hive of activity!! (ha ha) Mr LL had to go and help the other day when they were trying to get some of them into a pen. It was quite amusing, as soon as they reached the pen they turned round and ran away again. I don't think there are any lambs - haven't been up that way for about a week!

[LoftyLottie]

I know how you feel Otto.

[daftgrandad]

Me again Lottie.
Just to say,like you,we have a jay that visits everyday and also a nesting pair of partridge.In the last 2 days loads of starlings have come to the feeder.They are the first we have seen in 9 months.
Kind regards xx

[LoftyLottie]

Funnily enough DG the starlings all come to us and don't go over the road to our friends for some reason. They too are very bird friendly people. x

[smudge]

....Just nipping out the door before it rains! Will read all your answers when I get back, thank you in the meantime.

Please feel free to chat, I enjoy reading your posts. ;o}

[mccfluff]

i chuck everything i think the brids will like out the back door, then make murphy watch them enjoy it out the kitchen window

i'n not bothered who east what, although we don;t get many pigeons, mainly thrush, blackbird sparrows and tits

[wolf63]

My late father loved feeding the birds. He would toddle out to the bird table and put the food out - seeds and stuff - and by the time he got back to his seat by the window the big furry cats would be collecting in the bushes.

He said that in all the years of watching them none of the visiting cats actually caught a bird. I think that he found the cats more entertaining than the birds.

[wendilla]

I always wet the bread before I put it on bird table as at the moment they are feeding there young and as I have 2 birds a cockatiel and a parrot I put out all the remains of there seeds daily and they eat it all..

[hammerman]

I feel really guilty about this. I feed the birds at work where i get a wide range of species....lots of blue, great, coal and long tail tits, sparrows, blackbirds, wrens, woodpeckers, jays, magpies, cows, chaffinch, grey wagtail and a few more. These birds are very welcome and usually behave themselves.

Then along come the s h i t e hawks that are the Herring gulls which frighten all the other birds away then eat all my fish. I have an armoury of large stones !!!