It started a year ago when I hung up the first 'tube' it was attached by starling and blackbirds who ate two tubes one after the other. The third one was only half used!
This year when the RSPB offered energy tubes at special rates I quickly ordered quite a few ready for the winter ~ but non of my birds likes them at all. They just ignore them, well the odd bird has a half heated nibble but nothing more.
I also ordered some of the buggy nibbles and they have shared the same fate, not interested!
While this has all been going on the last of the individually sealed round suet cake from last year has all also been shunned.
My birds won't eat suet, which is crazy.
Is last years cake now stale and the birds know it? But what about the new RSPB suet products what can be the reason that cold and starving birds won't give it a look!
David
Has anyone tried the suet logs feeder?
They are on the site already quoted on page1 of this thread & at Pets at Home. I have wondered how the birds can grip on to the feeder when the protruding suet is pecked off as the feeder is very smooth.
Hi Birdmum,
Not tried it, but I would imagine the birds perch on the suet rather than the feeder, and eat their way through it.
Cheers, Linda.
See my photos on Flickr
Hi Squirrel,
You are quite right about paying the earth from local shops. I was trying them out following your recommendation, and they have been so successful I am going to get a large bag on-line. Also I am waiting for my seed to need replenishing, and then I am going to send in an order.
Thanks for the tip Squirrel, my birds will be ever grateful to you!
Hi Sparrow, apparently you push the logs through the holes in the feeder. I reckon the bits of log in the middle are left. I'm not going to buy one until someone (customer) recommends it personally. I think it's a design fault that it is made with a smooth surface & not a rough one. I was just wondering if it would attract woodpeckers but I have seen a double cage on squirrels favourite site to put 2 square fat blocks in, I'm going to get one of those.
Hi Squirrel, Thats good as I have just placed my first order with them for some of their new SUET & SEED combo and also got another ground feeder at the same time.
I have so much suet based product at the moment that I am hanging back from re-ordering, but as it seems it is not going to be eaten I am fast approaching a decision to melt it down and make a ground mix and buy in some new.
Hi David, if you have lots of the suet blocks you could try grating them down (with a coarse grater, not a fine one) and see if they will take them that way (i.e. with the work already done for them). Some of the blocks are quite soft though so you may want to put them in the fridge (or even outside, in this weather) for an hour or so before trying to grate them.
The necessity of bird-watching is a really good reason for avoiding all forms of housework.
The dust will still be there tomorrow - the birds may not be!
Hi Guys and Girls [mmmh thought Guys now meant both . . . .!]
I am quite excited to bring this up to date. Having ordered stuff from the 'Really Wild Bird Food Company' with the snow and stuff it took longer than expected so having run out of food and looking at a huge group of birds hunting for food I had to take a trip to the garden centre where to my delight they had a huge discount off bird food. So I collected a supply of suet based and also ground food and headed home.
Well. you want to see 15 -20 redwing filling up their stomachs, whilst leaping out of the way of an equal amount of blackbirds. 6 Kgs of Guardman Seed Supreme for £10 is not going to last long . . . . . . . except it has too much corn in it, which nobody eats, not even pigeons!
So today the new food from 'Really Wild Bird Food Company' arrives and I am looking forward to see what joy that brings.
But I need to be fair to RSPB BIRD CAKE which is where it all started ~ guess what! Now it is warmer and the suet is softer EVERYTHING is at it. I watched this morning as half a cake disappeared before my eyes as blackbird, starlings & redwings literally quayed from both sides of the branch for it.
Is this what it is all about ~ the suet goes too hard in minus temperature?
Thanks for sharing my adventures and ravings,
i think you your pigeons are just spolit ha ha
my dad you to be a pigeon racer and he the birds loved the maze try soaking i am sure my dad used to soak them and maple peas for his young birds
It's a good point Bev, but my pigeons are made up of collar doves and wood pigeons which I guess are not the same as the breed variety. I know that pigeons eat corn~ I have been tot Trafalgar Square and bought a bag ~ had the pooh all over me to prove it! But seriously bird table pigeons and collar doves don't eat corn ~ Do they?
I have a few feral pigeons (6) and a few collared doves (6ish). They use my bird table and also the mesh trays. The pigeons used to eat grain (the cheap seed mix) but then discovered sunflower hearts. There is no stopping them now. Sunflower hearts disappear, cheap seed is left to form a wet mushy mess if it rains, and they have also stopped hoovering up the spilt stuff. So my pigeons are very spoilt, I just hope they don't tell all their friends. I enjoy watching the few I have but don't want any more! (Can't afford any more!)