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??

@picklemepopcorn I think our birds are just dustbins, have seen them going for the chips but do wonder where the whole pizza went, however I suspect the squirrel or the rats.

We have lost birds to a hawk though . Seeing the feathers left behind is heartbreaking when you have looked after them and have favourites.

There's a lovely place in the woods near me that people go, put seed out for the birds, then sit in their car and watch the rather spectacular view.

I once made the mistake of putting out a fat ball. The FATTEST EVER squirrel came and nicked it all in one go. You have never seen a squirrel this fat, I promise you! Thinking he'd gone off to eat/bury that I put another out. Well blow me the fat bastard came back and took that too 🤣

thanks everyone

While we’re talking of CF squirrels, my favourite story happened at uni. We didn’t have fridges or kitchens, so used to keep things like butter in a plastic bag hung outside the window to try and keep it cool. I was on the 5th floor and had a squirrel who had managed to make a phenomenal leap from a tree some distance away to my plastic bag and ate an entire pack of butter. He was so full and fat, he barely made the leap back.

Feeding the birds here is like fattening up the livestock 😢& the cars/foxes drool

Most birds like plain cheap oats, you can soak them in vegetable oil the night before if you want to spoil them. Even had a deer and her two kids in my garden a few times, it’s like a zoo.

To defeat squirrels and also pigeons and magpies, we use these. The regular feeders go inside them and they work well. The little birds are fine hopping in and out through the mesh.

Any idea who the little chap singing his heart out at dusk is? He's blue tit kind of size and shape- I only see his profile. Noisy chap, though.
Could be a wren, but maybe more likely a robin. I notice in our garden the robins are the first up in the morning and the last to bed at night.

Despite the sparrows we do have two robins. Robins start marking their territory ready for nesting very early, usually in December, so the two who normally rub along OK, with one having the top half of the garden and the other the bottom half, have now begun a turf war. I don't know when they get to eat these days, as soon as one settles to peck at something it gets dive bombed by the other. They end up always in the same places on the wall, glaring at each other at 50 (robin) paces.

Ah, the stories playing out in our back yards!

I think it is a robin- I did a bit of online research and it seems likely. I'm trying to learn them, one or two at a time.

lalafafa are you near a Wilko? They have them cheaper at their store or website. Here's a link for one example: www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-wild-bird-peanut-feeder-greenblack-assorted/p/0193725

@TopOftheNaughtyList that feeder's brilliant, are the holes big enough for blackbirds though as I feel sorry for them. Blackbirds wont eat from hanging feeders and the pigeons get to the ground food first.

Should i believe this guy? (Hopefully pic will appear as well)

We feed the birds and other wildlife that comes into the garden. We had problems with squirrels destroying all the feeders and it was costing a fortune replacing them but then i discovered Roamwild PestOff feeders, they deter squirrels, rats and bigger birds from eating as they are deactivated by weight. They are expensive but I've not had to replace any since buying them 2 years ago. They keep the fat balls from getting wet and going mouldy and nothing can get to them. We have 15 feeders and have saved a fortune since buying them. We also have wildlife cameras and it's lovely knowing we still get hedgehogs as well but also rats but then that's life, they eat any food dropped on the ground, can't stop ratty from eating so will just put up with it. We got our feeders from Homgar website as we purchased mutiples we got a discount. The squirrels don't go without as food is chucked on the ground for them .

Thanks for the links, and the stories!

We have a seed feeder and fatballs feeder in squirrel proof cages.

We also got a wall mounted table for the ground feeders that wouldn't get a look in. Local blackbirds have mastered the hanging feeders and ignored that. The jackdaws like it, though, as the squirrel proof cages are also jackdaw proof.

A word of warning about the wilko mix: it has whole wheat in it. Nothing will eat it and it ends up sprouting everywhere. Some of the peckish blends have proved popular with our lot, though.

We live on the south coast and so does a fat bastard flock of especially fat bastard seagulls who will happily dive bomb for any food available. On the beach they’ve nicked my fish and chips, and in the back garden they happily strut around like they own the place and polish off whatever I’ve put out for the more deserving birds. A recent angry shouting match between an arrogant seagull and a vastly overweight pigeon with an attitude problem was quite entertaining though.

When I started I had 2 blue tits.
They went and told all their mates so now there are hundreds of tits, sparrows, chaffinches, a goldfinch and a robin. As well as magpies, blackbirds, pigeons and a random pheasant who hoovers up any dropped seed.
We had one squirrel who has gained a lot of winter weight, now they come from all over and there’s 5 of the buggers, they’re eating me out of house and home but the tits have started coming onto the windowsill and make a racket until I feed them

May I just say that this week has utterly sucked for so many reasons, but this thread has cheered me up so much. Thanks OP.

Thedeadwood🐥🐦🕊🦅

A robin follows my dad into the house since he worked out where my dad keeps the mealworms. He hops across the hall and right into the scullery. The bird is totally confident in the house - though I suppose he knows my dad is well disposed towards him.

I have a moral dilemma here. I too love to feed the birds, table and hanging feeders just outside my kitchen window. Dozens and dozens of all sorts of tits, goldfinches, dunnocks, wood peckers etc etc. Luckily no problems with pigeons, crows or rats. BUT the sparrow hawks, oh the sparrow hawks! 4, 5 or 6 times a day, thunk and you're dead!

All I see is a puff of feathers and that's one of my guests murdered! Blind panic among the survivors.

It makes me feel immensely guilty, inviting my little birds to the table only to be ruthlessly slaughtered.

In one way it's immensely beautiful to see such a maginificent assassin at work but on the other hand I do feel so sad. What should I do, if anything?

@minionsrule I love your squirrel meme.

We have a perspex window feeder that I put at ground level and fill with a few peanuts every morning. The cat settles on one side of the glass door and the squirrels come for breakfast on the other side. Pathetic, but I love seeing their furry tummies squashed up against the glass. And so, obvs, does the cat.

@tompuss - could you go into the garden and stomp about every time you see the sparrowhawk circling, and look up at it very directly so it knows you are targetting it.

milliefiori They don't circle, they swoop in at low level and at the speed of light. You're lucky to catch sight of them at all, just a flash in the corner of your eye and "poof"!