The Sun

Yes and it is a wood pigeon not the ordinary feral sort! The birds will come in their own time. We have had a record year for berries on trees and shrubs so birds everywhere have plenty to eat in the wild and are slow to use feeders this year. Next year may be different.

If there are no garden ponds nearby, you may well find that a bird bath will attract birds. They need to bathe regularly (even in winter)to keep their feathers in good condition.

 

Cheers for the advice Hornbeam, that was one of the reasons for planting so many berry plants to attract birds. Somehow a garden without any birds visiting seems pretty boring and uninspiring.

I can look knowledgeable when the wife gets home now and say we've had a wood pigeon visit

 

We are getting birds on quite a regular basis now, hooray!! Wood pigeon, black birds and our favourite so far the chaffinch.

 

Excellent and I do admire your blogspot :D

 

Try getting one of the bird feeders that hold seeds rather than pea nuts. I fill one with black sunflower seeds and they empty that 4 times as fast as the peanut feeder, so you can tell which they prefer. Also blast everything off the flat topped table every so often to get rid of bird poo - cuts down the spread of disease.
We also got one of those little basket type feeders - you can drop balls of fat in them. Don't hang up the balls of fat in those string bags - the birds get their feet caught in them. I buy the fat in the string bags , then cut them off before dropping them into the feeder. Once the birds get to know where the food is you get hordes and they will get through a lot each week.

 

Thanks Hornbeam.

 

Yes I read on the RSPB site about the nylon mesh bags catching the feet off birds. I've got rid of the seed feeding bag because of this and I think I will probably be able to get the fat balls in the peanut feeder. Just saw a shop selling the black sunflower seed this morning so will get a bag tomorrow. Thanks for your advice.

 

We use cooking lard, melt it, mix in lots of seeds, and press it into a plastic container or a coconut shell to hang up. That's a cheap way of doing it.

 

Oh, that's a good idea, dendro. I've got lots of seed and was wondering what to do other than gaily fling it around the orchard. Could use the little mesh things garlic and the like come in as well.

I'm sure the screech owls come in at night. We are surrounded by them, wonderful little critters.

 

The birds definitely know there is food to be had now. Saw a Wood Pigeon and this Blackbird this morning. The Wood Pigeon that comes is very greedy and brave, stays for around 15 minutes sometimes or longer.

 

Johnny,
Your blackbird looks like a jackdaw to me!

[ 06. February 2007, 03:53 PM: Message edited by: glenw ]

 

Wonderful, thanks for that.

 

Just what I was thinking, GlenW! Blackbirds (males, anyway) have vivid yellow beaks, (females are brown) and the shape and size is different.

We've been seeing a lot of magpie activity recently - they're obviously getting their nests ready in advance of the smaller birds, as usual :rolleyes:

We're also seeing plenty of buzzards and kestrels, sine there's quite a lot of open land around here for them to hunt on. You regulalry see them on the tall lamp-posts, and even on the tips of smallish trees, that look like they ought to be bending, but don't...... buzzards are big birds, but they're obviously not very heavy!

We have had two in our garden once - I saw them when I was in a neighbour's garden, unfortunately, but I guess they wouldn't have been there if I'd been in my own garden :D


blackbirds ....
http://www.rspb.org.uk/birds/guide/b/blackbird/index.asp

jackdaws.....
http://www.birdsofbritain.co.uk/bird-guide/jackdaw.htm

 

Thanks for the links, not only am I getting some great gardening advice, I'm getting 101 on bird spotting as well The wife said we did have Blackbirds the other day so at least 4 different types of birds so far. Hopefully get some of the black sunflower seeds shortly and see if there are any other takers.

 

Lucky you - I've never had a jackdaw visit my garden. Brilliant!