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
That is pretty identical to the ground mix I make sparrow minus the muesli I use rolled oats & wild bird mix. The sparrows & dunnocks go for anything at mine. They love the suet pellets at the moment. However my wild bird mix has white & red millet, all the white gets left even by the sparrows. Blackbirds, robins & starlings go mad for this mix too. As you know I am not lucky enough to have Jackdaws.
This is my table / ground mix Sparrow.
Try your robins & dunnocks with this mix in a hidden area away from blackbirds. Suet pellets, peanut granules,mealworms, sunflower hearts & safflower. I call it my protein mix.
The white seed that look like sunflower seed are safflower seeds.
Hi Sparrow, that mix sounds great - although come baby-feeding time I would omit the whole peanuts as the little ones can choke on them. As you know what is in your mix you will soon learn what your regulars will go for first and what they ignore. If anything isn't liked you can "drop" that from the mix - no point in paying out for something they don't eat! If you have enough time to spare, try to watch the birds when you have filled the tables. That will give you an insight into their "first choice" food, and you should also be able to find out what your dunnocks and house sparrows eat.
My dunnocks eat the peanut granules and berry suet pellets. My chaffinches eat (I was going to say anything that stays still long enough but perhaps that's a bit cruel - although like the dunnocks, once Mrs C arrives of a morning she doesn't go again until it gets dark. She might have a quick fly around for a little exercise but then she's back again!). Anyway, I digress, the chaffinches mostly eat peanut granules, sunflower hearts and safflower seeds but they do partake of the odd one or two berry suet pellets. My robins, starlings, blackbirds, great tits and blue tits go only for the berry suet pellets. If there are none, they go elsewhere - unless desperate!
Edit: I forgot the dried mealworms, the starlings love them but others tend to ignore 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!
My jackdaws eat anything on offer, they aren't fussy, but they do love suet.
if you have jackdaws in your area, you could try attracting them in the first instance with soaked bread as they love it. I only feed bread to the gulls (on the shed roof) but if the jackdaws see it they land, grab, and fly off with it. It is the only food they do this with. Once you have got them, they will stay faithful. They are waiting for me every morning, and it is always the same few pairs.
Cheers, Linda.
See my photos on Flickr
Squirrel and Birdmum,
Sorry about my last post about jackdaws. It crossed with both your last ones. It was meant for Birdmum.
Thanks for the photos of your mixes, Birdmum, and both of you for your tips. I am going to have to write down all the menus, try them out, and remember who eats what!
I hope David who started this thread is still following it!!!
Squirrel,
Do you put any of the suet pellets in hanging feeders for the tits?
Hi Sparrow, I used to but the pellets don't "move" easily like seed does so they tend to compact at the base of the feeder. The other thing is, if they get warm (remember summer?!!!!) or wet they stick together and then the feeders are a nightmare to clean out. So I stopped using feeders and now put them onto a table or tray or in my robin feeder. However, last Saturday I bought a feeder which is a completely alternative design to anything I have seen before so I am going to try some in that. I will do a photograph of it tomorrow and then you can see what it looks like. I am off to bed now as I need an early night in case I have more snow clearance duties in the morning before I can get to the feeders.
Just to say that my birds are now eating everything - maybe nearly 3 weeks of deep snow and bitter nights (down to -14, possibly lower tonight) is beginning to make them take what they can . The rejected rice is being eaten now I've coated it in lard - I think its mostly the crows and rooks and wood pigeons but when I've made a big mix with cake, seeds, rice, lard and sultanas then blackbirds and sparrows are also eating it. The fat cakes go very slowly so I am now crumbling them . As well as seeds in the feeders and using the bird table I am sprinkling large amounts of these mixed foods on the ground (well ice!) together with some extra seed and theres quite a party!
I went down the local pet shop and picked up a couple of berry suet pellets [not the cheapest way to do it] and decided I would try and sort out the suet problem. So I changed a couple of feeder contents and within minuets they were being used. So why the change?
I then took down some of the suet cylinders as I had decided I was going to crush them and add them to the ground feeders. Could I break them? No way! It took a hammer to do ~ so is part of the problem that the suet is too hard and with the cold weather just impossible for the birds to get into!
Hi David, it is possibly that but more importantly the birds use up a lot of energy if they have to "work" at getting food and they have already put a vast amount of energy into flying to where the food is. So anything like fat balls, fat blocks and whole peanuts will be ignored in favour of the "ready to eat" and, as you have found out, berry suet pellets seem top of the hit parade! Actually, I never buy whole peanuts as my regulars won't bother with them in winter (too much energy expended) and I don't put them out at other times of the year as the youngsters can choke on them.