Morning all,
I have recently joined the RSPB and the brilliant RSPB community. I have a young family, so my two young boys (4 and 7) are loving their new learning experiences.
I have set-up a feeding station/ table in my garden to attract more birds to the garden. We had extensive building work and garden work done last year, so completely put any wildlife off, and so are starting from scratch this year. As you can see we do not have a very mature garden, with no trees and very little cover. Shrubs have been planted but are small.
The feeder has been stocked and looked after for about 4 weeks now. So far I am attracting a very frequent Blackbird pair with the male seeming to be very territorial over the feeder, standing up to and clearing off Robins and Pigeons. Other visitors include Wood Pigeons, starlings, a Robin, a very infrequent Blue Tit, a Dunnock pair (I think it is, they prefer to ground feed).
My questions are focused on, am I doing this right?
Thank you,
Martin
Hello Martin and welcome from me too. Looks like you have good selection of food treats for the birds and as Alan says sunflower hearts are very popular with most birds (I don't use Niger seed); just be aware that once March arrives it is best not to put out whole peanuts as offspring from early nesting birds could choke on them; the peanut kibbles you put out are fine to use. I would ensure your lovely bird table is sufficiently far enough away from the fenceline so predators can't leap from the fence. If you want to feed smaller birds and keep the woodpigeons and other larger birds off the food then a ground feeder guardian cage is helpful;. there are adjustable sliders to narrow the mesh size; they are a bit expensive but worth it in the long term as they save you a fortune on bird food; I use a heavy duty piece of pond butyl liner (cut to cover just the pitched roof) to drape over the roof to protect the food on rainy days; I bring the ground tray in each night to prevent any wouldbe vermin finding the food. Feeders/perches/trays are wiped down at the beginning of each day and cleaned throughly (dismantled) every fortnight. Robins will normally go into the caged area but Dunnocks are a little more wary so I sprinkle a few live mealworms on the ground for them hoping the blackbirds leave some for them ! The most popular foods I find are sunflower hearts, berry suet pellets and the homemade pastry that Alan mentioned. A few quick growing shrubs and trellis cover will help birds with some protection cover. Good luck and happy birdwatching.