They were waiting for me

[Gingernaut]

I've taken to feeding the birds.

I do have a feeder, but am aware that some birds are 'hop around headbutting the pavement' ground feeders, not 'dangle acrobatically in an entertaining way' feeders.

My back yard is gravel and rocks.

So, after noticing an increase in sparrows and wagtails after Eastern European neighbours started chewing sunflower seeds whilst having a chat and a smoke on their doorsteps, I bought some seed and have taken to scattering it up the pavement, in the early morning, as I go to work.

Today, as I left the house, there was a small gathering of collared doves, sparrows and wagtails, sitting on the pavement.

As I passed, scattering a tiny Tupperware box of sunflower seeds, the birds flew up, over my head and then landed on the pavement behind me.

I'm going to try and see if they're there tomorrow.

Aww this is so cute 😀

That is lovely.

My mum is a bird feeder and has a huge and baffling variety of bird foods and feeders. She gets a neighbour in to do it for her when she goes on holiday, because the birds will miss it otherwise. When the neighbour goes on holiday, Mum goes and feeds her her birds!

It's tough when I want to lie in over the weekends.

I have to get up to scatter a bit of bird food.

Today was the first evidence I saw that I have 'fans'.

OP you are lovely and I love that you do this and have shared it with us!

😳

I have been a bird feeder for a few years now and have a little group of birds who wait for me each day. I even secretly enjoy the pigeons. When we moved into our current place, I said I wouldn't start it again as it's such a commitment, cost etc. However when we had the snow a few years back, I started again and haven't stopped since. Feeling bad though as we're not planning on renewing our tenancy next year and I feel I've tempted lots of birds here now who'll be left high and dry when we go (I know that they'll be fine really, I'm just sad about leaving them).

Our evidence of having a fan club is that the feeder miraculously empties at the rate of half an inch an hour between 9 and 5, it gets filled up ready for dawn and is always on 2/3 full by the following morning.

Oh, and a whole bowl of soaked mealworms goes every day between 9 and 12.

Need photos

Ooh, the pied piper of birds springs up in my imagination 🦅

That's lovely

Once it goes in one end, doesn't it come out the other? All over your garden?

What a lovely post! You've put a smile on my face @Gingernaut

Actually, I thought the title meant something menacing was waiting for you. Glad to hear that's not the case.

In my corner of the world, the bird population has exploded because there are not many people around!

Now the "birdies"/hard core birdwatchers have come out of the wood work. Scared me to death on my early morning runs at first - with their huge telephoto lenses and binoculars - peering into the trees.

Typically that means the mountain lions are back! They like to hang out up in the trees and survey the menu - um, er...activity below. Glad to be wrong!

How do you stop pigeons getting it all, genuine question as I’d love to do this!

we have starlings come to our bird feeder, lots of them, adults and juveniles, it's feeding time about 11ish and if the meal worms aren't out they kick upahellof a racket until they are fed
the babies eat but will still ask the parents for food too, the parents feed them too the cheeky little wotsits !

The best garden visitors I have are the blackbirds, they land at one side of my garden and dash, literally dash over to the other side where the ground feeder is. Makes me smile every time.

I do sadly have awful magpies so am looking to get some sort of cover that the blackbirds can get through but the magpies can't. And while we are talking of magpies, why oh why is their "song" like that?

This is beautiful ❤️

We've just got a bird feeder and bath for our back garden! I loooooove it! They're not bothered about the bath but we had a sparrow, a robin and a blue tit all come one after the other day! They're so lovely to watch

Only downside to feeding is that I've attracted a sparrowhawk who likes to pick off one of my baby sparrows every so often, but they are rather remarkable to see and obviously they need to eat too.

Re: pigeons, I stopped fighting them in the end as no matter what feeders I tried, they managed to get into them. But they are a bugger as they pilfer the seed very quickly and peck at the other smaller birds

Did anyone else think it was the cops who were waiting?

We have blackbirds, blue tits and sparrows in our garden, and robins visit for the mealworms and grated cheese 😊
It’s lovely to see the fluffy clumsy fledglings hopping around, trying to work out how to use the feeders, bumping into things and falling off branches etc.

Why is a hungry pigeon less deserving than a hungry sparrow?

My mum has a tiny bird feeder attached to her window. When I go in to see her in the morning the first thing I have to do is feed the birds.

I may see one or two as I go into mum. No sign of anything as I put the food out but once the door is closed behind me as I go in it all kicks off. They are not as brave as Gingernaut's but every bit as demanding.

I have chaffinch, greenfinch, goldfinch, blue tits, coal tits and robins use the feeders. The blackbirds use the table.

The male chaffinch has deformed feet and can't use the feeder properly but he either hangs about underneath or will flap round the opening, grab a seed and take it down to the ground to eat it.

At night I have to put food out for the hedgehog, If I put it out to early the pigeons, doves and blackbirds will pinch it.

There is also a field mouse that feeds on the dropped seed and the hedgehog food but he only takes a tiny bit and he's cute too.

Hog comes every night at about 10.30 and 11.30 (or may be 2 different ones). There is always some left when I go to bed but it is always gone by morning so I expect he leaves some for his 'supper'.

That's so nice Makes me miss having a garden.