New to this!!!

Welcome to the forum Tobyjoe,

Keep at it , they will come,

most of us put out sunflower hearts as most birds love them,

also nijer seed to attract Goldfinches & Redpolls,

bread has not got much nutritional value for small birds,

you could always buy or make your own fat balls ( no nets please)

as the birds need to build up for the cold weather.

enjoy the forum, we are a friendly bunch

It can take a very long while to get a good range of birds although feeding in winter will often result in the birds coming to new feeders. I started last April and had few birds for a very long time. After 9 months, I am getting a good range of birds including some small flocks of Greenfinches and Chaffinches. Be patient and don't put out too much food until they start to clear it all up each day otherwise you end up with a lot of mouldy, unappetizing food on bird tables, etc. Sunflower hearts are the secret to success but all the food will eventually be taken by different birds. Good luck and let us know how you get on over the next few weeks.

I'm finding peanut granules in my ground feeders are more popular than the sunflower hearts i.e. they go first. I've bought hearts from two different suppliers so it isn't a dodgy bag. I mix my own seeds so I can adjust for this preference.

I've just started making birdcakes as well with melted dripping, peanut granules, porridge oats, sunflower hearts and currants - thats very popular. They go in a ground feeder too. I'm sticking to a budget and will need to mix in other seeds but I wanted to start off with the best stuff to get the birds used to the feeder and because the ground is frozen. I mix up stale bread with an apple, whole peanuts and scraps of cheese if I have it in a foodprocessor and put some of that out so it isn't too expensive. You can use porridge oats as well.

I'm at the end of a row of gardens with a hunting sparrowhawk visiting regularly so everything I put out needs to have a high energy value so the birds can come and go quickly.

In the hanging feeders, the hearts go long before the peanuts.

I'm also new to this so would welcome some advice.

I've been buying ready made fat balls but am concerned about the nets - how do you hang the fat balls out without the nets?

Also, Grandmamac, when you've made up your mixture, how do you put it out for the birds? I.e. do you make feeders to hang it up in? Is there any type of lard/dripping that should or should not be used?

Thanks.

Jan

Hi, welcome jan.  I take my fat balls out of the nets and either put them in to a special metal fat all feeders you can get, or recently just been squishing them between the branches in the shrubs. Both ways seem to be popular with different types of birds.

Home made mixtures I just spread on branches. Birds always seem to find them and additional the woodpigeons seem to leave t alone, so the smaller birds get them.

I take mine out of the nets and put them into a fastball feeder, they generally hold 4, and can be found in metal or pastic and are inexpensive.