Are these birds taking the piss?

[Serin]

We feed the birds but if feels like the little buggers are coming from miles around to eat at our table. Flocks and flocks of them, more every day.
Today at 8.30am I filled a large feeder with RSPB approved peanuts and it is already half empty.
I also put chopped apple and pear out for the thrushes.
I dont want them to starve but does anyone have any idea of what I can safely feed them that doesn't cost a fortune?
A budget meal plan?
Like lentils??

funnelfanjo WINS!

I once house sat for somewhere that happened to have peacocks in nearby grounds. Have you heard the noises peacocks make at night? I thought someone was dying out there. Terrified me the first night I heard them.

funnelfanjo I'm not jealous of your peacocks at all as I looked out earlier on the sparrows and starlings (grits teeth)

I used to work somewhere that had a lake and peacocks. They were nasty fuckers. The joke was that they'd always go for visitors - finally because the usual folks knew to leave them alone and not go near them with food.

We haveive backing onto a nature reserve so beyond our fence is woodland and lakes.

We get foxes, deer and hedhogs... I think a badger is about but kit actually spotted him.

6 regular piss taking squirrels

Absolutely love our robin, blue tit, great tit, long tailed tit, wagtail, dunnock, blackbird, Jay's, magpie, spotted woodpecker & wren

Glad im not the only one spending ££££

Not sure why autocorrect hates me

@Thedeadwood we know they can make the calling noises that sound like foxes do (ie someone being murdered in the night) as we can hear them occasionally in the distance. But this lot don't call when they're here, they honk like a broken kazoo. When we go outside they mob us and cluck gently. Its sinister - if they weren't so beautiful they would be a bit scary. They definitely scare the wotsits off the cat, who won't go outside while they're here.

We get raided by a greedy and persistent squirrel.

Al our squirrels seen to be a bit dim. They bury seeds and nuts, but then dig up completely different spots when they're looking for them.

Can anyone help me identify a couple of birds I've seen in our garden? I've failed to identify these. I've got very little knowledge on birds. I only know a few and I'm trying to learn more.

Our bird feeder can empty within the hour. I wonder why?

I make my own fat balls. If birds could do Trip Advisor reviews, I'd definitely get 5 bubbles judging by the way they polish em off!

Snozzle I think the middle is a chaffinch.

I think these 2 were on a date!! I have so many magpies come to my garden, know they're not everyone's favourite birds, but they are so funny, I swear they hear me every morning filling the feeders up.
Remind me of little velociraptors!

We’ve done the RSPB Birdwatch today and yesterday and it says the most common bird the nation is reporting is sparrows. We don’t see any! We have loads of great tits and goldfinches but no sparrows.

Love this thread
My parents have a very cheeky non-bird who comes to their bird feeder

Snozzle I think the middle one is a female green finch?

Snozzle, I think your first 2 pictures are a female chaffinch. The third looks like a blackcap to me, although I can't see its head. If it has a black head it's a male blackcap. If it's chestnut it's a female blackcap. I blame the patriarchy for the rubbish name!

Chaffinch has the white on the wing, I don’t think a greenfinch does?

Ah sorry didn't see someone had answered snozzle already. Back to the nuts for me.

Peacocks, beautiful in somebody elses garden, I agree their poo is much and plenty.

So pleased to see this thread still going. I've just put out second helpings.

I'm thinking of buying a window feeding station - saw this one on Amazon - has anyone else got one?

PS: Still not jealous of all the exotic birds some of you get visiting your garden. [grinds teeth]

Lol milliefiori I too am very partial to a peacock display.

dogseggs he's not shy is he?

Anyone else doing the RSPB birdwatch this weekend? I'm trying to do it today but the garden is currently empty of birds and rain is due in an hour which may curtail their afternoon feed. This seems to happen every year! Any other day it's a hive of activity out there. I suppose I could substitute days?!

Snozzlemaid Birds 1 and 2 are both female chaffinch, not sure about the one on the peanut feeder.

Thanks all for your help.
Tranquility the bird in the third pic doesn't have black on head and other pictures I have show it may be slightly brown on head so does look like it might be a female black cap.
Now I've identified some more of our visitors I'm aiming to do my RSPB birdwatch tomorrow.

We used to get mainly blue tits but in the last 3 years its been mostly sparrows, pigeons and magpies, plus a couple of crows. I have a small inner city garden.

About a decade ago I had a huge list of visitors including a breeding pair of thrushes, blackbirds, robins, waxwings, various tits and a heron - but several neighbours started keeping multiple cats.
I really need to find a cheap effective way to keep the cats out but have a long boundary fence.