Wild Bird Seed - London

[NourishedOutdoors]

Last lockdown I brought 75 kg of mixed seed, peanuts and nijer seed which the birds that used to come didn't touch (they liked the suet blocks and the mealworms however).

There was an incident involving a stray cat which murdered a bird in the garden and the birds stopped coming - the mealworms and suet blocks are also very expensive so I have stopped putting them out.

If you are in London and feed a variety of birds, please may I ask what bird seed you use? Clearly amazon is below my feathery snobs.

I use Wilko special mix and cats dont murder birds.

Cats do murder birds in my view when they kill them and then just leave them, but thank you for the seed mix recommendation.

Johnston and Jeff superior seed, b and m suet pellets

We stopped feeding the birds last year when we saw rats eating the food so have to watch that doesnt happen againn

Completely agree on the rats - I have closed storage for the food and tend to keep any other food we put out on a raised platform, though I suspect rats can climb.

Will try sunflower seeds.

They absolutely love suet but it is oh so expensive!

In our old place (Wandsworth) they all wanted sunflower hearts. Goldfinches, tits, robins, dunnocks and parakeets, except the starlings who only ate mealworm.

Now we live in Ealing and have a window feeder, we only get coal, blue and great tits and they don’t care for the sunflower hearts at all! They only want wilko orange suet pellets. They are clearly junk food addicts. Sometimes a jay comes along and hoovers everything they don’t eat.

Seeing a rat eating the bird seeds wouldn’t put me off, I don’t really get that- they are outside, what are they supposed to eat it’s just taking an opportunity for a free meal the same as the birds are!

They need fat this time of year for the energy, they'll happily eat a 20p block of own brand lard. If you find mealworms too expensive offer own brand cat biscuits, you might need to crush a few for the smaller birds.

We use dry cat food (RSPB recommend it) and birds guzzle it up. Also make our own fat cakes out of lard and just cheap seeds from the pet shop, much cheaper than buying.

No recommendations (our feathery scroungers eat own brand seed mix from our local feed merchants) but 75kg ? My DM bought 20kg by accident when she first braved Amazon and that lasted months

Birds also like bits of dried chopped ham. And I don't know why I’m admitting this, but DP is intent on forming his own “crow army”, so almost every day he goes for a walk to the local Sainsbury’s carpark with a pocket full of tiny bits of dried ham and “trains” the crows that gather there by throwing the ham and making them catch it midair. They go mad for it. He hopes that one day they’ll follow him home and become tame.

We had a wild, varied social life before lockdown. Sex, drugs, rock and roll. This is what it’s reduced us to.

I use wilko premium seed, i'm in Yorkshire. I get a ton of birds!
Mine don't eat niger seeds, love mealworm/suet (wilko premium fat balls and 6 pack of suet blocks)

@ComtesseDeSpair

Birds also like bits of dried chopped ham. And I don't know why I’m admitting this, but DP is intent on forming his own “crow army”, so almost every day he goes for a walk to the local Sainsbury’s carpark with a pocket full of tiny bits of dried ham and “trains” the crows that gather there by throwing the ham and making them catch it midair. They go mad for it. He hopes that one day they’ll follow him home and become tame.

We had a wild, varied social life before lockdown. Sex, drugs, rock and roll. This is what it’s reduced us to.

Oh gosh, he's that guy .

Why crows?

Sunflower hearts and kibbled peanuts work a treat in my London garden. V little mess left at the end of the day if you can get the sunflower heart chips too.

I don't recommend the seed mixes after trying a few and always being left with some bits that are rejected by all the birds.

@Champagneforeveryone I hadn't appreciated birds were so fussy and it was the first week of lockdown 1.0.

However, the making lard balls sounds like a good plan to try and get rid of some of it...

I love crows! I had a rook who brought me gifts occasionally but he's disappeared too - he was a fan of cheapest of cheaps white bread only though.