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??

Love this thread! We have 26 million blue tits, an angry robin and several blackbirds, plus some collared doves and many fat pigeons. I also saw a nuthatch today we live in an area with many red kites too but they are comparatively boring

Must follow some of these food tips!

I feed peanut splits and sunflowers.
I also put out Niger seed for the gold finches but they prefer going to the feeders with the sunflowers and nuts
I don’t put
out fat balls because there were so many starlings and they made so much mess. My neighbour puts out fat balls so the startling go there

Those who are not getting birds- don't give up! We didn't for ages, then only a few occasionally. Then a blackbird started looking in through the window if there was nothing out, and that has started the ball rolling.

They are fussy about where the feeders are. The one hanging from a tree gets no attention. They like the station that's a bit more open.

We put out peanut's, fatballs and seeds and get bluetits, robins, blackbirds and European Jays. I got very excited when the Jays first arrived.

I've had peanuts go within a day and fatballs lasting 2 days.

I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade, but my friend’s parents had to put anti-pigeon spikes on their roof and replace the downpipe. It had sheared off the wall because it was full of bird droppings. Next door likes to feed great flocks of birds.

So I think just putting out moderate quantities once a day might be the way to go.

yanbu. Some definite Cheeky Flockery going on there. LTB(irds).

I'm curious - how do you police that only thrushes eat the apple and pear?

Love this thread..

We are held hostage by a robin who SCREAMS at us each morning until the tray is filled up.. this is on top of the fat feeder, peanut feeder, sunflower seed feeder and millet/niger seed feeders that are also kept topped up.

He is guardian of the feeder, he warns off anyone he doesn't like the look of, particularly black capped warblers and dunnocks, though he got a bit full of himself yesterday and threatened a woodpecker and then had to take himself off and think about his error for a little while.

We get dunnocks, black caps, robin, blue tit, great tit, long tailed tit, coal tit, woodpecker, pigeon, collared dove, chaffinch, SPARROWHAWK, goldfinch and greenfinch, but the robin IS king of the garden.

Re how do you police the apple and PEAR to ensure it's just for the thrushes?
It only seems to be them that take it!
Some winters we get Fieldfares and red wings coming into the garden when it snows but not this year. Too mild I reckon. Like spring.
There was a woodpecker drumming here today, the earliest I have ever heard that.

We’ve been putting out mixed bird seed, the bits that end up on patio underneath my dog keeps eating, his you know what’s are resembling chocolate museli bars, but his coats nice and shiny, greedy Labrador 😄

I made a Christmas decoration for the birds!
I couldn't find natural popcorn so threaded rice cakes (with least salt) with cherries and monkey nuts. The little ingrates have totally ignored it!

This is the one I mentioned earlier. I have it hung up on its own but near a bush, and the tits love it!
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0728C834M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s01?psc=1&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&ie=UTF8

Just be careful how you store it if you buy in bulk. Don't do what I did - which was leave a 10kg paper sack (still sealed) in the garage. Went in a few weeks after purchase to full up some feeders and the bottom of the sack was like swiss cheese and there was a whole city of very fat mice living under the shelving.

I suppose it was a bit like opening a McDonalds for mice though so my own fault.

😂😂😂 a few months back I thought it would be lovely to see more birds in my garden so I bought a (cheap) bird table and started leaving a variety of food out, including hanging feeders. Wow, within a couple of days I was inundated with birds (especially starlings). The half coconut shell I filled with a mixture of lard and bird food was especially popular and would be emptied within a couple of hours! Before I needed to get a second job to pay for this, one of my cats started bringing in several (usually alive) birds each day 🤦. I stopped putting food out and she pretty much stopped bringing birds in. So yes, birds are greedy, opportunistic fuckers. And so are cats! 😂

I made a Christmas decoration for the birds!

I love you

I remember watching a bloody great big rat scurry up the tree to the bird feeders and have himself a feast!!
Love feeding the birds and my OH thinks I am mad for the amount I spend( amazon) on feeders and food

I’m absolutely loving this thread! My MIL bought my daughter a bird feeder and bits, but I seem to get more out of it! I also spend a small fortune on feed of all sorts. We get robins (I have a photo of two together, believe it or not they were not fighting), blue tits, starlings, a million sparrows, long-tailed tits, the occasional great tit, magpies, the odd wood pigeon, and some I’ve not managed to identify. The sparrows queue up by the dozen on our fence for the feeder, and the robin will come up to the kitchen window to watch us if the feeders are empty. Anybody doing the RSPB Big Bird Watch later this month?

Is it wrong to feel jealous and competitive about the variety of birds some people are attracting?

And I can't get the birds in my garden at all!
All summer I've had a bird feeder and not one has been 😩

Long ago, in the days when children ate crisps and biscuits at playtime, I taught in a primary school a few miles from the sea. Every day as the children were out at morning break the seagulls would appear and sit on the school roof, waiting.

As soon as the whistle went they descended to pull all the uneaten snacks out of the bin, even pulling out and tipping up the crisp packets to get the remaining crumbs.

One day, there was some event happening so morning break was going to be later than usual. At what would have been the usual beak time, there was a noise on the classroom sky-light window. Looked up to see a group of seagulls, one of which started tapping with its beak on the window, presumably to tell us we were late with their snack time.

Break time (although beak time might be appropriate)

I daren't put anything out because our roof will be covered with pigeons & pigeon shit like last time. Our neighbours behind us used to feed the pigeons and we had 20 roosting on our roof. It took 2 years to get rid of them although I really would like to feed the Robins. Any ideas? Pigeons are birds too & need feeding but I don't want 20 of them nesting on my roof.

This made me actually laugh out loud!!

We feed the bird too and they do appear to flock from miles around to our garden and the many feeders we have are savagely depleted within hours.

I have to say that I don’t mind at all.
Yes, it’s an expense and being expectantly stared at, by 3000 (apparently starving and yet fat) birds, when you put the rubbish out, can be more than a little unnerving, the variety of bird species we see visiting daily, is an absolute joy!

I even enjoy the squirrels and quarrelling wood pigeons. The only birds that annoy me are the ring neck parakeets and that’s only because they damage the feeders.

We usually buy fat balls in bulk, fat logs and packs of the fat bricks in various flavours, no mess seed mixes and mealworms from Wilks, as they offer good value, but I’m guilty of paying over the odds for posh food, from the local garden centre, on occasion.

I would recommend doing the RSPB big birdwatch thing, if you can, it makes you feel rather good inputting all the species you see.

OMB I forgot about the robins, blackbirds, magpies, jays.

No starlings, fortunately. I met a flock of them in Canada a few years ago outside a chippy and they are serious thugs. Worse than a Hitchcock film.

Where are the parakeets coming from?
These are parrots right??!!

The whole of London is infested with them, hamster.