Bird table bullies

[VintageGardenia]

Earlier in the year our birdtables were full of all kinds of gorgeous little songbirds. Now it's nothing but rough horrors like magpies and some sort of crow thing and some rather nice plump pigeons. But I miss the little songbirds, what can I do to exclude magpies, who give me the creeps, and get the little charmers back?

Hanging bird feeders rather than a bird table might be better - we have a few and get no magpies, some pigeons scavenge on the ground but we get chaffinches, goldfinches, robins, sparrows, blue tits all regularly. Lots of starlings too, mind you, and they can be very bullying!

Watching this thread with HUGE interest. I have a bird table and am thinking of getting a tall pole type bird feeder with lots of hanging feeders to attach to it.
We have had the occasional few robins which are my faves but recently it's just be pigeons.

We have this every year and my husband mutters about getting his shotgun out and shooting the [blank] pigeons and magpies. I tap the window when I see them. YOU'RE TOO BIG AND UGLY!!!!

We went to visit our best-man's mum the other day. She has a beautiful landscaped garden and has quite a simple bird feeder. You should have seen the variety of birds that came to feed from it. I was very but I was also extremely unsociable to her, DH and DDs as I was gazing out of the window the whole time we were there.

What do you mean by a hanging feeder? We have a sort of house-shaped platform thing hanging in a tree and then a peanut feeder in the tree and a fatball holder hanging in another tree - I thought that by putting out a variety we would get a variety of birds. Early in the year that did happen, but it seems to be within the last month that the bully invasion has happened. Is it a time of year thing or should I change my feeding arrangements do you think?

The magpies have young at the moment so probably need more easily available/low effort food.

This could help.

The greenfinch seem to like this one.

we have a hanging bird feeder with seeds and nuts and a thing which you suspend fat balls in, plus a big terracotta dish of water - our garden is full of sparrows, blackbirds, sometimes bluetits, collared doves, occasional greenfinches,starlings and robins - and once a sparrow hawk ! The magpies don't come in at all.

This is the one we have link here

Most exciting bird we have ever had was a greater spotted woodpecker - stunning bird. Came for the peanuts sometimes, but not often lately.

I have a bird box which has blue tits nesting in this year, which is fab, and they are chasing away as much as they can atm!

I love the globes, they look perfect. I've never had anything as exciting as a sparrow hawk or a woodpecker! Robins, coal tits, greenfinches, blackbirds - all fairly standard! I don't put water for them, I wonder should I. Sounds daft but how to the birds know to use a nesting box?

I put water out so they can drink and bathe - the sparrows love it and queue up to have a go !

Big Birds seem to hang round open tables more than hanging bird feeders. A neighbour uses one of those squirrel-proof ones with bars round the feeder so that only small birds can get in.

Water v. good - great watching bath time!

Yes wil be off to garden centre at first possible opp to buy feed guard globey thing and bath!

We have a lot of pigeons,collared doves, magpies around us but never come into the garden as I only have the hanging type feeders we get blue tits, long tailed tits, robins, gold finches etc but the other week I had a gold crest! was beautiful tiny little thing. I am very excited at the min to as I discovered a robins nest with 5 tiny eggs in it yesterday in my (very holey) wooden shed

C0mfort! You lucky thing having the nest. If that were me I'd have the zoom lens trained on it all day.

Primula - where do you get the squirrel proof ones? My mum has a squirrel problem, she would love to discourage them from the bird feeder!

BouncingTurtle - you can get them from garden centres, also RSPB online

Though there's some doubt about how squirrel proof they are see this!

Should put off big birds, though

OK another schoopid question. I'm in Ireland and we don't have many squirrels, I was delighted and interested to see one in our garden this year.

Why are squirrels regarded as such a pest in the UK?

Well, I'm very, very fond of squirrels and I love to watch them. But we only get the occasional one here, not inundated. This is the non-native grey squirrel, not the native red (I think Ireland just has the red ...?!).

The greys can be quite aggressive and can dominate bird tables and bird feeders. There's also another debate about whether or not they have 'driven out' the native reds ... who are now confined to the Isle of Wight and Scotland and Northumberland. Funnily enough article on BBC online about this today here. Though the individual concerned sounds as though he could be a bit of a nutter (excuse pun!)

Thanks very much for the link, will tell my mum!

It's the grey ones we have here too, I don't think we have any red. I see only one but I imagine he has a family somewhere he's foraging for. I was thinking about Beatrix Potter when I was watching for him - when he appeared I got out the zoom and took loads of snaps of him to study once he'd fled - same as I do with the birds - but all her observation (and that of countless other nature artists) must have been done through stealth and the naked eye, or a pair of binoculars I suppose.

Vintagegardenia - I know I am very excited, would love to do the whole webcam thing but dont have the know how.
I checked the nest yesterday after much deliberation that I may disturb mummy robin and she may abandon them but my DB said they only abadon the nest if you leave your scent on it. I opended the shed door and mummy robin was sat there and just looked at me less than 2 foot away, she didnt fly off just sat there looking very quizzical like what the hell do you want cant you see im busy kind of look!