£££ Price of bird food £££

When we built our house 11 years ago all the plots of land had indigenous hedges planted as the bounderies as part of the planning permission, we've kept ours and the birds it attracts is amazing, after a certain length of time you can rip it out and do what you like, which a lot of other people have done and put fencing up instead,shame, know I'm more than happy with ours spiky hawthorn and blackthorn keeps any intruders out as well as being great for wildlife.

 

When we moved into our house we made sure we put in shrubs and trees that the birds could feed on in winter like Pyracanthus,Cotoneaster,Rowan, Alamanchia etc.The Blackbirds strip off all the black Alamanchia berries in the summer and the Starlings do likewise with the orange Rown berries when the weather is hot {August time}to get the refreshing juice and goodness out of them so come the autumn and winter months there is none of those berries for the birds to feed on.:D

We find the Fieldfares and Redwings that visit the garden in the harsh winter months feed on the pyrancanths berries which the other birds{apart from the Blackbirds} leave so at least they get a feed up.

We buy sacks of Gardman No Mess seed mix {12.75kg}from our local garden centre.We refuse to buy it when the sacks are £22 odd each so wait until the price has been reduced to club card members then buy a couple of sacks at a time:DWe just buy the small bags of nuts as have found we don't use that many peanuts over the winter {well not a sack full}as the starlings prefere the fat balls and seed mix to the nuts:D

I put out the seed mix and nuts all year round but find that by August the birds have gone back to the woods to moult out so we don't get that many birds feeding in the garden until round about October time when they start to come back:D

I think I read somewhere that because of drought conditions in the countries where the peanuts are grown the harvests haven't been that brilliant hence the price of them going through the roof.

Also we drove over to the RSPB reserve at Sandy a couple of months ago and took quiet a few photos of the squirrels managing to get the peanuts out of the squirrel proof bird feeders that you could pay and arm and a leg for from their shop

 

I'm sure i'm not alone here when i say it's good to hear that others are as serious as i am about the wild birds - we're all birds of a feather

 

1 quick question how do you stop pigeons and magpies taking everything

 

The fact is that we have taken away a lot of the birds natural habitat,this is why the RSPB ask that we feed them.

The garden centres have jumped on the band wagon and offer every possible mod con for the wild birds no doubt a multi million pound business.If you look around though you can find value.

But for me though you just can't put a price on the joy of watching all manner of wild birds visiting and "frolicking"in my garden.
Just been out there and topped everything up and it's flippin cold, the birds need all the energy giving food they can get.

Ironical though,I was recently buying in our local garden centre,I spent about £20 on bird stuff and I said to the sales girl"there are millions of people starving in the world and here is me spending all this on wild birds............FOOD FOR THOUGHT.

 

By hanging the seed feeders in the branches of trees and shrubs where it's too small an area for them to get into.

Here they go onto the ground to eat the dropped bits, and although they've tried to get near the feeders they're just too big to get near them and after much unsuccessful flapping they go to the restaurant downstairs !

 

We've all got our 'softspots', Roders - this is ours

 

And most farmers were PAYED to rip out hedges back in the 80's
And farmers are also cutting hedges early

 

A fellow bird lover saw fieldfares in her devon garden today so they'll be here any day too
They usually flock with redwings so it'll be great to see them all back again :D

 

Yes I have them arrived Thursday Fieldfares , been out got a sack peanuts and a sack of mixed seed and have now filled all bird feeders , so they will all be sorted for the next couple of months I even treated my robin so some mealworms .


Spruce

 

Hmm, if you have them over there and she has them down there then where are mine !!!
Give them back !
Give !

 

We have had Redwings and Fieldfares up in our part of the country {Midlands} since October time but won't get them visiting the garden until the really heavy snowfalls come and at the moment they are content in feeding on the red berries of the Hawthorn bushes when we see them round our village and when we are out and about

 

I've discovered that the blackcaps like sultanas so i'm going to start ordering, and feeding, those with the ground feeders food now !

Kennedy (as previously mentioned) stock raisins so i'll get them - they'll have to come with the next order of sunflower hearts though (in a month or so :( ) because i don't want to start with an 11k box :WINK1:

 

I only have blackbirds, thrushes, blue tits, dunnocks, and sparrows, a couple of wood pidgeon, and two ravens
I feed both on the ground, on a table and hanging feeders
Previous years the seed, peanuts and fat balls were gone in days

This year I splashed out and paid twice the price for RSPB Fat balls out of the fifty bought in October I still have 45 left ? ditched three as they had grown moss :-)
The seed is more or less untouched in three feeders, same birds that last year ate the lot in a couple of days

I may be wrong ? but I feed bread, fried bread, pork and bacon fat, it is gone in minutes (always done this so it is not they eat that instead of the grain)

Jack McHammocklashing