Guest 700- Registered: 11 Jun 2010
- Posts: 2,868
Bird food is disappearing at an amazing rate - they get very hungry and are probably building up their reserves for egg production!
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Lincolnshire Born and Bred
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,658
Yes Kath they are hard to keep up with at the moment, I get magpies, jackdaws, collared doves, starlings on my front garden feeders, blackbirds, blue and great tits and robins prefer the back garden, the local sparrows insist on going to next door's feeders.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
never seen anything eat from the bird feeder but the level goes down day by day quite sharply.
Guest 756- Registered: 6 Jun 2012
- Posts: 727
I have been told by a "twitcher" not to put peanuts out at this time of year as they can cause problems when the parents feed their chicks.
Guest 717- Registered: 16 Jun 2011
- Posts: 468
I had a woodpecker in my garden eating from my feeder last year. This year the birds don't seem interested and I can't figure out why?
Keeps politics to myself
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,658
Lesley Ives wrote:I have been told by a "twitcher" not to put peanuts out at this time of year as they can cause problems when the parents feed their chicks.
Nothing mentioned about that on the RSPB site, so I guess peanuts are OK.
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/wildlifegarden/atoz/p/peanutfeeder.aspx-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
Jan, yes peanuts are OK.
I get paid peanuts.
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
Kath, if the bird food is disappearing at an amazing rate, have you checked for rodents?
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
no rodent would dare come in my garden unless he was a kamikaze one.
Guest 756- Registered: 6 Jun 2012
- Posts: 727
So, that man lurking in the woods with his binoculars who told me he was looking for tits wasn't a birdwatcher at all !!
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
probably looking for a lesser spotted blue tit.
Guest 673- Registered: 16 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,388
We have a seagull, Henry, who visits a couple of times a day to eat the old cat food we put out for him. We have also been treating him to sprats, get a dozen or two for a pound. A few other dicky birds seem to like the cat food as well, preferring it to the wild bird food plonked alongside.
I am onboard ship at the moment and was down aft on the poop a couple of days ago when a seagull landed with a starfish in its beak and proceeded to gobble it down. How does a seagull catch a starfish? This was in Dunkerque.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
Probably a by-catch from a trawler tossed overboard, you know how the gulls follow the trawlers, as immortalised by M. Cantona.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Guest 673- Registered: 16 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,388
Thanks Peter. That theory sounds about right. No trawlers around but there was a dredger nearby which probably brought it up.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
a lady down the road told me about giving unwanted food to the seagulls, they even eat it with maggots in. just put out some high energy suet pellets with mealworm, will have to see how they like it.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
the suet pellets have attracted this seagull.
Guest 657- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,037
Our semi-resident fat blackbird in the garden this morning. He gets more like the one in Angry Birds by the day!
Guest 700- Registered: 11 Jun 2010
- Posts: 2,868
Alexander - vermin like rats and mice cannot get to the food, up one of those metal poles.
My husband says the (dried) mealworms are useless for the birds, guess not so appetising as something which wriggles !
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Lincolnshire Born and Bred
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
not my experience a 100 gram tub of dried mealworm doesn't last a week, collared doves and magpies are the ones i have seen eating it.
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,658
I use the mealworms, the starlings and magpies love them but in the country there is so much more choice so the birds could be more fussy.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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