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Feeding the birds.


samboy
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Hi gang.

              When i put my bird feeders out a while back there was no action. I mentioned it on here.  

              Now they are eating me out of house and home. I will have to get a job soon to pay for the

             seed if it carry's on like this.  Sparrows will be as big as Turkeys soon.

            

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2 minutes ago, samboy said:

Hi gang.

              When i put my bird feeders out a while back there was no action. I mentioned it on here.  

              Now they are eating me out of house and home. I will have to get a job soon to pay for the

             seed if it carry's on like this.  Sparrows will be as big as Turkeys soon.

            

That's  Christmas dinner sorted.

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2 hours ago, samboy said:

When i put my bird feeders out a while back there was no action. I mentioned it on here.  

Now they are eating me out of house and home. I will have to get a job soon to pay for the seed if it carry's on like this. 

Sparrows will be as big as Turkeys soon.     

What did you expect?

From not having food there, you put it out regularly and they will happily take advantage of it.

Good practice to feed all year round too.

Please post some pictures of the turkey sized sparrows, we only have normal sized ones here.

Edited by TIGHTCHOKE
SYNTAX!
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1 hour ago, Cosmicblue said:

Me too, we have one feeder and have to top it up 3x a day, = 10Kg a month of this:https://www.birdfood.co.uk/hi-energy-seed  have bought cheaper but the garden birds drop the cheap stuff to the delight of the ****** pigeons.

This is why I only feed sunflower hearts,  Nyger seed and fat balls,  very little waste. 

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39 minutes ago, discobob said:

We feed regularly (including wood pigeons - I know - I'll get me coat....) but we have picked up a new one - a hedgehog - loves the dried mealworms - it had two lots last night

We coat the meal worms in chocolate and feed em to the Grandkids   !   

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Our garden backs onto open farmland, woods and a pond. We feed, shoot vermin and deter predators (putting  the dogs on any invaders). Consequently it is teeming with birds, I’ve no idea if there is a wider conservation benefit but for me the pleasure of watching Greenfinches, Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Bullfinches, Chaffinches, Goldfinches, Wrens, Chiffchaff, Dunnocks, Great Tits, Blue Tits, Long Tailed Tits, Blackbirds, Robins and Sparrows makes the effort and expense well worthwhile. 

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There is a view that feeding a limited diet and limited range of feeders and stations encourages some birds at the expense of others. Here gold finches are in abundance with collard doves, blue and great tits, and an assortment of woodpeckers, ducks and pheasant on the feeders. Not so much of anything else. WE have a few black birds about but they don't use the feeders. 

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9 hours ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Tell that to all the house sparrows that I have helped over the years.

We had 4 when I moved here in 2004 and now there are at least 60 of the little chaps.

All bird feeders do is encourage Rats and the local Sparrow Hawk wild birds don't need feeding in the summer months 

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A bit of a side step, at a local farm where we have a small diy shoot the farmer has been planting nectar and bird seed rich fields on some government scheme. It is incredible how much more bird life there is compared to the cauli's that used to be there. Not really a surprise I know but loads of Skylarks, Greenfinch, Goldfinch plus many other small birds that I have no clue what they are called, this has also increased the amount or Sparrow Hawks, Owls etc. and our Pheasants also love it.

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2 hours ago, JohnfromUK said:

/\ This.

Strangely - mine have dropped off considerably now - I think there are so many natural wild foods around ........

There should be plenty of bugs and caterpillars etc at this time of year, it's just supplementary feeding really and I like seeing the birds in my garden, the Goldfinches are hammering the Nyger seed, but the sunflower seeds ho down slowly,  and no real waste means no unwanted critters.

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22 hours ago, Mice! said:

This is why I only feed sunflower hearts,  Nyger seed and fat balls,  very little waste. 

Tried the fat balls and hung a tray underneath. The tray was full of waste vey quickly as they just picked out the odd seed never touched the fat. So considered them a rip off and don't use them now.  For the house feeds and hand feeding on the wood tables I buy a bag of Robin/songbird mix and a bag of black sunflower seed and mix the two together in the cement mixer. They love it  I also feed three feeders of peanuts at the house and a peanut feeder in each live catch cage in the wood. The smooth tail rat this morning didn't appreciate that one little bit. Died of lead poisoning.

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I have never had any takers for nyger seed, but the sunflower hearts get a hammering from the parrokeets as well as the bluetits and the suet filled 1/2 coconuts seem to attract the robins and woodpeckers.

Only ever seen one sparrowhawk polishing off a starling.

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