Anyone else feeling sad about not feeding the birds?

[PinkCatCushion]

Anyone else feeling sad at not feeding the birds?
I understand the new advice, and can see the importance of removing bird feeders and only feeding in the winter, but I will miss feeding them so much.
Feeding and watching birds visit my feeders brings me genuine joy. It lifts my spirits. It’s got me interested in nature. I look forward to feeding them each day. I’m REALLY going to miss feeding them.

Has anyone noticed that since we've been told not to feed pond birds with bread. The duck population had dropped. Clearly that whit bread was actually keeping them alive.

no, that is usually down to foxes

I didn’t realise we couldn’t feed them peanuts; I will order some mealworms immediately. My two magpies have a tentative truce with my cat that if I feed them they won’t dive bomb her.

only between may and november

TBH, I thought the advice was always to not feed them in the warmer months.

It is sad to not feed the birds, but it will be even sadder we start seeing our lovely garden birds with this horrific disease. It's a slow killer through starvation and thirst. Birds become disfigured and incapacitated.

Let's do our bit and try and halt the spread of this nasty parasite. There are millions of gardeners in Britain so we could really have an impact.

I'm going to plant sun flowers instead and make sure there are lots of tangly, brambly places for birds to hide and forage.

. . . . and children killing hundreds per year with catapults unfortunately - in Kent, Essex and Surrey anyway.

We have one of these bird feeders and get so much joy watching the birds feed from wherever we are.

https://uk.birdfy.com/products/birdfy-feeder-with-camera?srsltid=AfmBOopu6zrSkBmfowsYvRypeYpy_DOa1uwUIvzEVv43AIoCP49gtz2f

We will continue to put small amounts of the permitted bird foods out and stop putting out the sunflower hearts. Peanuts never went down well here.

We usually get blue tits, coal tits, great tits, robins, blackbirds, greenfinches, goldfinches and chaffinches in our garden, with the occasional nuthatch and the odd buzzard (😒).

We also get pesky wood pigeons who hoover everything up, so we had to put the cage front on the Birdfy feeder because they frightened all the little birds away and ate all the food.

@RampantIvy
i am not sure there is anything permitted in the summer in that feeder?
no seeds and no peanuts

Are the Avian police patrolling to enforce compliance? 🤣

Laugh it up and kill birds.

What is wrong with people?

Does your pleasure come before a wild animal's health?

I’ll stop and I’ll be very sad about it.

you have to soak dried mealworms first, I think

Suet pellets?

The camera is very useful. I can check the weather at home when I am away or at work 😁

Regardless, I will be following the RSPB advice.

Oh my! Yes yes yes

I was researching a new feeding station and bath for the gorgeous birds which visit my garden. I'm really sad now

There is masses of advice on not feeding bread to any birds, and on what to feed them instead. Its not just that bread is bad for them.
https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/things-to-do/canal-and-river-wildlife/keeping-our-ducks-healthy/why-is-bread-bad-for-ducks#:~:text=With%20nearly%20three%2Dquarters%20of,healthy%20things%20to%20feed%20ducks

No it doesnt but where i live there are several large ponds, 2 rivers and a canal. Always large amounts of ducks, geese, seagulls, some swans. Magpies, pigeons and crows. Many trees which are alive with birdsong.
Always people around with their kids. Throwing bread for the birds.
They are not dying out

I think the poster like me probably just has more going on in her life and bigger things to think about than if a bit of bread could kill a bird (it doesn't)

Surely that advice is contradictory, don’t feed peanuts and seeds at certain times to reduce a specific disease but fat balls and mealworms are ok.

So are peanuts and seeds some sort of disease carrier?

Don't feed birds with bread
Don't have stocked feeders out all year round
Clean feeders regularly
Make your garden more bird-friendly with choice of plants

It's not difficult, although some people may have limitations as far as gardens go.

Dear God!! no where does it say NOT to feed!!
All the comments of ‘i’m so sad not to feed them’
Read the link!!!
Threads like this prove nobody reads anything properly

Have you even looked at the link?!

The advise is to remove seed/nut feeders because they attract the birds that are in decline. Chaffinches and Greenfinches don’t tend to choose to eat meal worms/suet so you can still put small amounts of that out.
I only put out one suet block and a few soaked meal worms fresh each day, the tray I pop the meal worms on disinfected with boiling water each morning.
Ive also had alpaca wool out for nesting and we get so many bird visitors despite not feeding seed/nuts.
Ive never put seed out because it drops and makes a mess and attracts rodents, but do put nuts out over winter and stop in March.
Ive been slowly increasing our wildlife friendly planting in our garden, we’ve only a relatively small space but made it more cottage style. Leaving seed heads on flowers, having a small wildlife pond, a log pile in the corner, ivy over the fence etc are just small changes and so far whilst I’ve been sat out enjoying a cup of tea I’ve seen
Robins
Great Tits
Starlings
sparrows
Blue tits
magpie
Goldfinch
Maybe have a look around the garden and see if there is any spot that you could plant/pop something in that can attract wildlife in, in a natural way. I find it cheers me up when I try and do something and then supper chuffed when I see something move in/visit to make use of it.

The RSPB link does not say don't feed birds. It raises awareness of the Feed seasonally, Feed Safely guidance. This encourages people to change their feeding habits to reduce risk of disease.

Below is the guidance quoted directly from the link, I have added the bolding but the words are unchanged.

"1 May to 31 October
Pause filling your bird feeders with seeds or peanuts.
You can continue to offer small amounts of mealworms, fatballs or suet.

1 November to 30 April
You can feed your birds a full range of bird foods, including seeds and peanuts."

I will follow the guidance and offer the recommended food.

Sorry are you saying the advise is we shouldn't feed birds that are declining in population ?

Yes, they are declining due to a parasite causing a disease that is spread easily from sharing feeding stations. Two thirds of finches in affected countries are wiped out so far. The disease is spread mostly in the Summer months.