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??

After my cat died and I decided not to get another, I have spent more time and money on the birdies. I love seeing the little blue tits and sparrows pecking away. Unfortunately the starlings seem to also come in large numbers (always shout noisily to their friends to let then know!) but do seem to share with the little birds. I sometimes am lucky to see gold finches but they dont visit very often. The huge packs of corvids that live in the area don't go at the feeders but do enjoy the bread that I put out once in a blue moon.

Problem with the cheap wilko bird seed is that our birds are CFs and don't eat 90% of it. Just chuck it on the floor where it starts to grow.... I buy the pricier stuff now, less waste and lasts much longer

Who on earth ever has left over pizza, can’t believe I’ve read that 😄
Our ‘squirrel proof’ nut feeders don’t work, the pigs go upside down and stick their heads through the gaps, demolish the mesh and quite happily swing upside down having all you can eat on peanuts 🙄

Cj wildlife do great ‘no grow’ mixes and lots of fantastic feeders and bird nesting boxes, I’ve always been happy with ordering from them.
Also got a booklet from Vine house farm bird food in my wildlife trust renewal and their stuff looks really good, I’m trying them next when my current ‘stock’ goes.

Spend more on my cats and birds then myself 🙄

I wouldn't say robins are friendly they are cheeky little stalkers that follow you round the garden and bully any other birds that come close

We don't put food out for the birds, but our neighbours put out shedloads, and they have chickens.

We see a rat several times a week and they were nesting under my other neighbour's shed. We think there might be some living in the clematis that grows all over the garage roof. When I see the rat (or a rat, I expect they all look the same) it's always crossing our garden and goes into the bird-feeding neighbour's garden.

We have plenty of birds though, including what must be the world's fattest woodpigeon (the fat fucker has trouble taking off, he's so massive) and his partner who live in the ivy that has grown up the buddleia, a robin who lives in the hedge, a chaffinch, a bluetit and more blackbirds than you can shake a stick at.

We used to have a yellowhammer visit, but I haven't seen him for a couple of years.

@Somanysocks, no a blackbird wouldn't fit in this feeder, only smaller birds like sparrows, finches and tits. I find in my garden the blackbirds don't come near the feeders. They're the hardworking birds that seek out worms and bugs around the garden. They will partake a little if I throw out rad scraps though.

Bread scraps not rad scraps!

So you’ve stolen all the birds??
I put some flutter butter out before Christmas and not had one measly sparrow

I love the birds, and they are eating me out of house and home. I’ve stopped putting stuff on the flat bit of the bird table to stop the fat fucker pidgeons and magpies, and only have hanging stuff now. The squirrel is totally taking the piss lately but I don’t mind really.

I have failed to shop for more bird food. They haven't run out yet, though!

I have found my people!

I have only just got into feeding the birds and I get such joy from it.

I really want a bird bath next to add to all the feeders.

And if anyone has managed to attract swallows to nest, I'd love to hear how. That would be my bird dream.

Anyone signed up for the RSPB birdwatch is a few weeks? www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/?source=BWLITH0309&channel=paidsearch&source=BWLITH0309&gclid=CjwKCAiA3uDwBRBFEiwA1VsajBbzTmHyRW1z6CmdSa-JLiL9z6XG44ylHAIdTt8KxJN36LXuTM87qxoCdvYQAvD_BwE

I feel it could instigate a competitive bird watching thread

Also - why do we all hate the 'fat fucker' pigeons?

I do too. I just have no rational excuse for it

It's because they eat such a lot- mine just settles in and starts troughing, clearing the dish. The other birds pop in and out so you get lots of action for the food investment!

I’ve really enjoyed this thread. It’s so lovely to read how everyone is looking out for wildlife, even the squirrels. I loved feeding the birds at my old house. I took it on after our elderly neighbours who used to feed the birds moved out. The poor beggars were starving, and I soon got to know their little personalities. I was amazed at the volume they consumed though. New house, we don’t get as many birds, which is odd because it’s more rural. We are definitely feeding a family of four squirrels though. We have cheap food in a normal feeder for them and then expensive food in a squirrel proof one that is hardly touched. We have a rather fat pheasant who is on clean up duty too. I think he has figured out he’s safe from shot guns if he stays where he is. Love them all!

I live in a semi rural bit of Wiltshire and we get hardly any birds and when we do it's pigeons and magpies rather than blue tits etc. It's so weird, there's not even many in the meadows next to us. I'm so envious of those of you with a garden full. We've tried loads of different stuff but it usually goes rotten before it's eaten.
Where I used to live we were spending £s on feeding them but no longer

We’re inundated with starlings at the moment. 20-30 of them will swarm down and disappear in milliseconds when dd goes to the window to see

I was once eating a delicious Rick Stein smoked haddock quiche slice in Padstow (didn’t heed the warnings!) and the biggest bastard seagull bashed right into my face to snatch it away as it was half in my mouth. I thought my mum was going to collapse laughing

I was only saying to dh the other day how much the birds seem to be eating! Great thread op.

@fussychica I say just keep putting it out and they'll come eventually.

We bought a feeding station for my mum and I do seem to spend a lot of time stocking up! Fat balls and cheap seed from B&M are the favourite here.
Dh though has decided to befriend 3 crows. He was feeding ducks (with seed) in the pond behind our house but they started ignoring him in favour of the bread other folk were bringing over Christmas. So he started bringing fat balls for the crows. They come one by one and take a ball and fly off. He's named them Hoddit, Doddit and Soddit.

We used to have a bird feeder with fat balls but the only birds that came were pigeons..

Those seagulls are scary beggars, some are enormous. They stand on car roofs outside our local Lidl and watch people.

I get loudly shouted at every morning by two crows from my neighbours roof if I dare to step out onto my patio without some seed, bread or nuts.

The buggers always seem to know that I'm in my pyjamas with sticky up hair and an unwashed puffy face, and their cawing brings the neighbour to her kitchen window overlooking me.

Manipulative feathery bastards.

My parents once had to put up a 'Beware of the robin sign' on their front door. Legit true

What had happened was that a pair of robins had nested in the hanging basket outside their door and the male robin perched in a tree just in sight of the nest. Every time someone came to the door and unknowingly stood next to the nest just digesting the very weird 'beware of the robin' sign, the male would swoop like a missile and literally dive bomb into the head of the visitor.

Caused much hilarity.

Very jealous of all your visitors. DH made a beautiful bird table and we've tried all sorts of things but only get the occasional pigeon and magpie :(

Was at my Dads house the other day though and witnessed a squirrel trying to climb a tree with one of those half coconut things, it was nearly the size of him!

We don't have nuts in our bird feeder, as we have squirrel squads who'll clean it out in a day. And we have 2 cats, who think blue tits are starters and pigeons are entrees. But we still have flocks of birds in the garden including doves, thrushes, green woodpeckers, greater speckled woodpeckers, several pheasants and a couple of red kites. Our neighbour has even had a flock of parakeets (50+).

Our squirrels like pizza too.