Is everyone putting food out for the birds?

[mysarahlee]

It's so cold, the ground birds can't dig.

Chuck some leftover Christmas nuts out, or some seeds. I put 10 fat balls out and filled the seeds at 5pm yesterday and it's empty this morning.

Feed your local bird pals if you can, it's so cold.

RSPB stops selling flat bird feeders owing to deadly finch disease | RSPB | The Guardian

I just stir them into the melted dripping straight from the bag .I think if you cooked them with water or milk you'd end up with a sticky, smelly gooey mess and it could even glue their beaks shut which would be the end for them then wouldn't it as they'd starve .
Holy heck, my table is bare again, good job we ordered another sack of seed it's just arrived .

We have noticed more birdlife since we got the squirrels under control.

We feed the birds in our front garden- we have a hedge including a flowering currant that we have put the bird feeders inside - we get all the small birds there
our next door but one neighbour also feeds the birds in his front garden but his garden is open so the larger birds sit on the pavement around the edge and feed that way
I love seeing the robin and other small birds
the squirrels show up but nature is nature -
we also put suet blocks out which they are less keen on

You aren't doing anything wrong. There are many more birds in the summer and they will be feeding the young as well. In winter the birds that are here will conserve energy so feed when they have to but not as active as during the summer.

I've been feeding the birds for years and love to watch them while I work.

We don't have any squirrels (yet?)

The main visitors to the hanging feeders are goldfinches, blue & great tits, chaffinches and greenfinches. I feed them on sunflower heart (the most popular), peanuts and fat balls.

Down below we've got robins, dunnocks, blackbirds, starlings, collared doves, magpies and wood pigeons. They get the dropped seeds, suet pellets, mealworms and various household leftovers.

There is also a bird house with assorted seeds which has an adjustable roof. We have it on the lowest setting so only the smaller birds can gain access.

Our occasional visitors include blackcaps, reed buntings and bramblings.

We also have a couple of hedgehog feeding stations and hibernation houses dotted around. Our wildlife cameras to pick up their activity in the summer months and it gives me great joy to watch them.

I put up a new pole with hanging feeders and the birds aren't coming!

My garden is like bloody McDonalds for the local wildlife.

In the front garden I have suet balls, suet pellets, mealworms, nuts, seeds hanging from feeders, then I put coconut fat things/caged suet squares right in the bushes/shrubbery so the small birds can get them and the greedy starlings can’t. The squirrel likes the back garden so I put monkey nuts out there for her/him. Then the foxes have dog food. The badger has nuts. And a local stray cat has cat food (until I can get close enough to scan him).

I find if I put dog/cat food down the magpies eat it and so leave the actual bird food for the other birds.

We have starlings, magpies, dunnocks, robins, wrens, blackbirds, sparrows, great tits, blue tits, long tailed tits, wood pigeons, collared doves and the occasional goldfinch

Can I just say that when the weather is this cold some fat balls freeze up and are like stones, so the birds can’t peck at them. Suet balls are much better/softer albeit more expensive!

They will.

Is it relatively near a bush/tree or even fence? As they like to perch nearby before they go all in.

I love watching the birds, I had to stop feeding because of 2 cats 2 doors down 😪 they were hiding in various places and stalking them. Even our dogs didn't deter them.

Yes I have feeding stations dotted around my garden and ground feeders with a squirrel proof cage so my little birds can happily eat. I love watching them all, we get all kinds including Frank the squirrel but I don't discourage him too much. All wildlife needs food and he doesn't stay long enough to eat everything. I mix uncooked oats in with the seed and suet mix during the winter and pay the crow tax by putting out peanuts. Everyone seems happy!

There's at least 1 rat living under our neighbours' decking, so I'm not putting out food. We have a pond though and birds drink from it all the time. I saw the first bluetit of the year in our nest box earlier too!

Yes , seed and fatballs. Everyday I have to refill because of blooming squirrels. Never been able to find a genuinely squirrel proof feeder

My SiL used to have a blackbird who’d come every day to her back door for mealworms.

We used to have loads of parakeets on the feeders, but they were hogging them and keeping all the little birds away, so we now have a parakeet-proof feeder for the fat balls.
Dh replenishes 3 bird baths every day. Lately that has meant breaking the ice first. Even when it’s cold they need to bathe as well as drink - apparently they can’t preen properly without a wash, and preening oils the feathers and helps to keep them warm.

We always get rats if we feed the birds :( any tips for attracting birds and wildlife but not rats?

Yes, but now we have a rat, Rolland. He's mean, takes the birds food, and chases them around the garden. Any ideas how we can get him to leave? I don't wanna kill him.

I put some peanuts out today in a dish and they are all.gone so will top up tomorrow. Will it have been the Blackbird I sometimes see that's eaten them? There is a Robin i occasionally see as well

No because anything out attracts pigeons. We had a huge issue with them the last summer , got fed up with clearing shit off the garden toys and furniture daily. At one point we had 16 of them all on the grass looking for food.

No, I thought if you fed the birds then you had to keep going the whole of winter otherwise you can do more bad than good and I just don't remember to keep the supplies up?

The squirrels and pigeons get just as hungry as the other birds in this weather. Why must we exclude them?

saw a rat eating the bird food i put out.so im afraid they will have to fend for themselves

Squirrels need to eat too?

I did when we first moved in but unfortunately it attracted squirrels which scared the birds away. I do have a few bird houses in the trees but they're too tall for me to fill with food and water.

I do! Have a lard ball feeder; a couple of peanut butter coconut feeders & lard pellets & sunflower seeds on the bird table & a bit scattered on the ground plus some chopped apple.
But I focus mainly on making the garden biodiverse so there is lots of wild food (crab apples, honeysuckle, etc) as well as lots of insects, leaf mould, etc.
Unfortunately our neighbours have recently released their house cats - so we're getting the odd visit from them, but not often. There are lots of high or protected places for birds to hide.

Where do you get parakeet-proof feeders from please or did you make it?