Small Birds.

[old man]

Where have they all gone including blackbirds too.

 

Just cats and Crows of all descriptions.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Plenty in Cambridgeshire!

Edited November 20, 2016 by TIGHTCHOKE

[Dougy]

Loads in my garden, Robins, blackbirds, tits, pigeons, the odd woodpecker (Green) the odd Sparrow hawk. no sign of finches now but a good variety have shown earlier this year. I have feeders around the garden from late September and a water feature. They all help attract the birds.

[Adge Cutler]

Plenty about and while the weather is still reasonably mild they will all be in the countryside, fields woods and hedgerows.

 

Wild birds don't need to be fed during Spring, Summer and Autumn and particularly in the breeding season because although you might think you are doing them a favour the young of most species cannot easily digest mass produced bird foods, especially peanuts.

 

Now its starting to get colder they will start moving into urban areas, parks and gardens and taking advantage of the free hand outs.

 

Also have you ever heard of the saying up with the lark...? Most garden birds are most active at first light. I've seen nothing much in my garden these last few weeks and yet first thing yesterday morning there were 40 odd Tits moving through the honeysuckle and hedge in the garden including a uncommon willow tit, 5 coal tits and 20 Long tailed Tits..plus 3 siskins, and a male and female brambling under a beech tree feeding on the fallen mast. 8 :30 onwards nothing but a jackdaw, gulls and wood pigeons.

 

A friendly word of warning also...don't make the mistake of buying one of those feeders which is about 3 foot long in the hope it will draw the birds away from your neighbours garden !! It wont and unless the feeder is emptied in 2 or 3 days the food will get wet, rot and possibly poison the birds.

 

Green finches are particularly susceptible to this.

[winnie&bezza]

I decimated the magpies around the garden this year to a point where I didn't see one for ages. The outcome was a boom in songbirds in my garden that was amazing to see.

[samboy]

Sparrows by the dozen in my back garden, not much else though.

[kennett]

I think most of them are in my covers crops. Clouds of finches on the millet and sunflowers

[four-wheel-drive]

My little gang of about twenty sparrows are still doing well and there are still a few pigeons and crows I was watching a really big magpie eating something of a fur tree in my garden I have no idea what it was finding to eat.

[UKPoacher]

I think most of them are in my covers crops. Clouds of finches on the millet and sunflowers

 

I'm getting through around 30kg of sunflower seeds, millet and peanuts every month on the bird table. Greedy little ****!

[wisdom]

Plenty about and while the weather is still reasonably mild they will all be in the countryside, fields woods and hedgerows.

 

Wild birds don't need to be fed during Spring, Summer and Autumn and particularly in the breeding season because although you might think you are doing them a favour the young of most species cannot easily digest mass produced bird foods, especially peanuts.

 

Now its starting to get colder they will start moving into urban areas, parks and gardens and taking advantage of the free hand outs.

 

Also have you ever heard of the saying up with the lark...? Most garden birds are most active at first light. I've seen nothing much in my garden these last few weeks and yet first thing yesterday morning there were 40 odd Tits moving through the honeysuckle and hedge in the garden including a uncommon willow tit, 5 coal tits and 20 Long tailed Tits..plus 3 siskins, and a male and female brambling under a beech tree feeding on the fallen mast. 8 :30 onwards nothing but a jackdaw, gulls and wood pigeons.

 

A friendly word of warning also...don't make the mistake of buying one of those feeders which is about 3 foot long in the hope it will draw the birds away from your neighbours garden !! It wont and unless the feeder is emptied in 2 or 3 days the food will get wet, rot and possibly poison the birds.

 

Green finches are particularly susceptible to this.

Good info thanks.

What are the best feeders.Mine used to suffer from the wet so I threw them.

[Red-dot]

I envisage a future with only magpies, gulls and corvids.

[winnie&bezza]

I envisage a future with only magpies, gulls and corvids.

Don't, I fear that too. When you see 6-10 magpies around housing estates it really boils my blood.

[Adge Cutler]

Good info thanks.

What are the best feeders.Mine used to suffer from the wet so I threw them.

The galvanised wire ones are best for peanuts and sunflower hearts and the Perspex tube ones with a galvanised base for seeds IMO. I try and buy the ones which don't hold food below the lowest outlet because it tends to be uneaten and sits and rots.

 

The most important thing is start off with them only 1/2 or 1/3 full and see where how quickly the birds empty them perhaps most importantly is to clean them regularly with hot soapy water.

 

Once every couple of weeks normally on a Saturday morning I stick all of mine in the dishwasher.

[figgy]

Yep flatten the corvids in your garden and you should see a lot more song birds, i shot lots this year to the point as soon as the few magpies and jackdaws that are left see me they throw themselves out of the trees to get away, my wife laughs her head off watching them. She will hang out washing tell me they are there as soon as i step out they all squawk and fall out of trees to get away. They will then sit a few gardens away watching me,if i keep staring at them they will fly away and not be seen for days. My wife has stopped using her washing line strung near the hedge between two trees as she has hung lots of hsl filled coconut shells and too many bird feeders of all kinds on and the surrounding hedges and trees. We get some fantastic birds in and to see the pecking order is funny.