to think that people are unaware how desperate things are for birds?

[PhaseolusLunatus]

The RSPB are saying that food and water we provide can be the difference between life and death for garden birds at the moment.

Advice here about what you may already have in the house that could help.

They also need water to drink, and, just as importantly, bathe and perform 'feather maintenance.'

There is also a thread about this in chat, but I don't imagine anyone minds a bit more bumping of this topic.

I made some bird cakes today (fat with nuts & seeds). However, the snow is too deep in our garden to get to the usual bird feeders, so we have been putting crushed peanuts on some old shelves that we have laid on top of the snowy hedge near the back door.

If we throw stuff out it just sinks!

We feed the birds instead of having pets. We have lots of visitors at this time of year. Unfortunately it's dark when I leave the house and dark when I get home, so I don't get to see them much during the week.

I put water out for them but it freezes almost immediately. They line up on my fence at breakfast time waiting for food! We had a thrush today and I realised that I hadn't seen a thrush for a long time.

Have put stuff out but it freezes so soon. Fat local squirrels get to the fat balls first . Most neighbours put food out so hopefully they will get something.

On a lighter note, I spotted some redwings in the garden today and was amused to discover that they belong to the genus turdus

What a brilliant idea with the shelves Milliways; might try that one myself

We dont have a garden so cant do much, but i did get the dcs to kick the bushes as we walked into town to shake all the snow off as th birds were hanging about unable to get to the berries under the snow. Will feed the ducks too.

The water I put out keeps freezing over (within an hour or two) - I was thinking today, can't they just eat snow to get water? Or is it too cold for them?

Have you tried putting small twigs or a ball in it, bella?

I'm not sure if they can drink the snow (anyone?), but it seems they can't bathe in it, which they need to do regularly to keep their feathers in shape.

No, I haven't tried that - will stick a ball in it tomorrow. I was just thinking that eating snow seemed like a really sensible thing for them to do but realised I've never actually seen any of them doing it.

my Rainbows were going to make fat balls this week, but we were snowed off - so i went and bought some shop ones for our garden, having seen how gratefully they have been going for the bread we put out.

Oh you're all so nice I hadn't thought about birds TBH but will pull my socks up now.

Thanks for this, my DDs made fat balls at the Ulster Museum a few weeks ago. I'll get some more and hang them from the trees opposite. I've never did it before because we have rats the come into our street.

The water is so they can clean their feathers properly, otherwise they can't keep warm. As well as drinking, obviously.

Am now fluctuating between feeling virtuous about feeding the birds and despairing about the people out on the streets . There's a decent night hostel in our town, which our church helps to finance. But still. It must be horrible at the moment.

Wish I could feed the birds by my awful cat keeps catching them so I darent tempt them into my garden. Any ideas? (not getting rid of cat by the way!)

I feed them year round but have upped my efforts since seeing your last thread Phase.

To be honest though the birds that usually hang round the garden seem to have disappeared at the moment. Hopefully it is just because one of our neighbours is putting out better offerings rather than them all having frozen.

We've been putting out dh's bacon rind but it's smoked and so we've probably killed loads Just shows how dangerous ignorance is. Thank you for educating us.

I've just put some raisins in water - will that be all right for tomorrow?

Breadcrumbs will be available too. Might be able to dig out some suet (if I can do it without dh seeing - v. proud of his dumplings, he is ).

I've also got some oatbran and some unsalted cashews - are they any good? (I am off for the w/e and need to make up a food parcel which dd and dh can just dip into everyday while I'm away).

we have loads of food in the garden but the birds don't really seem to be eating it.

don't know what i'm doing wrong

What about goose fat? can I put that out?

Can't take credit for the other thread; it was started by BettySuarez. I just thought one in AIBU might help too.

Our garden was a bit bare of birds, too, Winetime, but they have come back in force today to feast on dogfood and bits of apples stuck on trees.

That all sounds great Jux (it's not very clear about the bacon rind anyway...)

frogety: no idea how to get round the cat issue, I'm afraid.

We have been forgetting about water.

Have got several fat feeders in the garden which DH has been filling up. We've had a lot of robins and various kinds of tits.

Another question! This water thing - any sort of ball? (how does that work?)

I think goose fat is ok, as it is fairly solid.

Looking at the RSPB website, it's soft fats that seem to be a problem; they smear, 'interfering with the insulating and waterproofing qualities of feathers'.

So solid seems ok, but fats that have already been cooked with or that spread very easily are not.

Great thread!
A good way of feeding them, and cheaper than buying the fat balls, is to make your own fat slab. I use beef dripping or lard as a base, melt a couple of packs gently in a saucepan, then take it off the heat. Into it, put some suet, plenty of crushed or food processed peanuts, and some oats. You can then add whatever else you fancy; grated cheese, dried fruit (chop the larger types), seeds etc. There needs to be plenty of liquid fat left to bind the mixture. Line a container with greaseproof paper, pour the mixture in, and put it into the freezer. I have a block fat feeder that's quite narrow, so I make big thin slabs of it using the grill pan as a mould. Once it's solid but not frozen, cut it into bocks, take it out of the mould and bung it back in the freezer. You can then take it out as needed. A slab of that on the ground or bird table would go down very well at this time of year. I've been putting a mix of cooked brown rice, oats, currants, breadcrumbs, suet on the ground feeder too, and the most popular hanging feeder is the sunflower hearts one - I'm having to refill it every other day.