2 kilos of live mealworms and still running out !

As most of you know, we have a very large almost acre garden here with mature oaks and beech trees plus pond area and we are lucky to have more than our fair share of garden birds of various species.     Each morning we put out two bowls of live mealworms particularly for the tit members who are at their most active with either nestlings or fledglings to feed constantly.    Birds get to know the routine and follow us to the garage each morning waiting for the mealworms to appear.      Once they empty the bowls we leave them to forage for natural food until later in the afternoon when we provide a top up before they go to roost for the night.      Rightly or wrongly, we follow the rspb guidelines to feed birds all year round but equally appreciate the valid views on only feeding during winter months.     I guess what influences our decision is not totally selfish reasons to see the birds close up but rather looking at a blue tit in particular at the end of breeding season and seeing just how tatty and worn out they look having reared a nest full of chicks.     Maybe if we didn't feed only 6 chicks would survive and leave a stronger gene pool    -  I really have totally mixed feelings about doing the right thing based on scientific evidence but it's still hard to look at a parent blue tit (trying not to be too anthropomorphic)  and not offer some sort of assistance with live mealworms.     I think the jury is still out for me but I do try let the birds forage naturally in-between spells of putting out food.     We have no hanging feeders now except for one sunflower heart feeder which the two pairs of bullfinches use along with Coal Tit and Nuthatches;    I also remove that 8 port feeder throughout the day so birds forage naturally so I am changing (ever so slightly ! ) in favour of mixing a bit of help with letting the birds do their own natural food sourcing.   

Here's a video clip which is totally unedited where I just left the camera to run so there may be a few seconds with no activity throughout the clip but still shows you the abundance of tit members in particular that nip back and forth each morning to collect the worms.   

  • Those are very valid opinions Rob and well thought out, I truly never know if I am doing more harm than good - it is such a mine field with varying views on supplementary feeding but I guess whilst rspb are selling food in their online shop are we ever going to get an objective view ? ! I will definitely cut down on the supplementary feeding that I do now during spring/summer months as there is certainly enough natural foods for the birds and we have lots of oak trees with the oak leaf caterpillars and insects/larvae that live behind the craggy bark. I have given peckish suet nuggets to the corvids as they contain mealworms and other seed and I still occasionally put raw pastry out which has sunflower heart, kibbled peanuts and berry suet which many birds including corvids, woodpeckers and tits will take.

  • It's funny you should mention the corvids and interaction with smaller species; I feed all garden birds and always felt (rightly or wrongly) that by supplying food also for the corvids it may cut down on the predatory activity; to date I can only tell you that I have never witnessed any of our Jays, Crows, Jackdaws or Magpies take one of our garden birds - only a sparrowhawk passing through (obviously it doesnt prove they haven't) and all seem to respect and tolerate one another that I can make out as we are in a good position to monitor the bird activity during the daytime from our garden room and we are home most of the day. Of course the tit members will naturally alarm call if they see a Jay in flight or Crow, etc., but even when there hasn't been food and I've seen newly fledged birds around I have never seen any corvid go for them in the garden; the closest I've seen is a GSW when it tried to access a wooden nest box some years ago before I read about a University study which added wire mesh to three sides of the box - and it worked from the day 1 when we refitted the boxes back on the tree. We now buy stonecrete boxes to save stapling the 3/4" wire mesh round the 3 sides of the standard wooden bird boxes. I've even seen the Jackdaws and Crows forage within metres of our smaller garden birds and it is really amazing to see them getting along almost side by side. We have only seen squabbles between same species whether it be BT, GT, Robin, Magpies and Jackdaws and some of those between same species corvid have been occasionally vicious. I try separate the areas I feed and most of the time it seems to work and of course I have the guardian cage for when in the past I have had a ground tray out for the smaller birds). I'm sure outside of the garden and down in the adjoining woodland there could be eggs/nestlings and fledglings taken but I would like to think we feed our corvids sufficiently well that I hope this prevents a lot of extra prey being taken. I will never know for sure.
  • Holy Moly, no wonder you go through 2kg of live mealies in a day, feeding that lot!!
    I don't know who was going the fastest, the birds back and fore to the two dishes, the running water or the fiddlers in the music!! One of those Great Tits could not pack enough in his beak and was not satisfied with one dish bit had to go into the second one as well!

    Great video Hazel, thanks for sharing.

  • lol Catlady, thankfully it's 2 kilos per week ! or I'd be bankrupt lol The GT taking three mealies is feeding 2 week old fledglings, one GT is so bold she will land on my knee if I am outside having my cuppa or fly round my head !
  • Nice to see the birds coming for a free meal, Hazel, they're not too slow in learning where to go. :-)
    In regards to Corvids in the garden, I've seen a Jackdaw attack and kill a juvenile Starling and also Jackdaws taking fledgling House Sparrows from a nest under the tiles of a neighbour's roof.
    Mrs A has also seen a Magpie attack and attempt to kill adult Starlings on three different occasions.
  • Wow Paul, I guess we are lucky with the corvids in our garden who are so used to the regular garden birds and tend to leave them alone although we do keep all the birds well fed and also the foxes at night !!
  • I bet your birds hate it when you're away for a few days Hazy. I sympathise with your problem but we are lucky here. We were sat out for a while one afternoon when the Great tits were coming & going to their nest & they were every few minutes in & out with insects from the orchard next day. It's owned by an old lady who doesn't treat her trees with anything & the birds seem to keep the bugs down instead. In France the LPO recommend no feeding outside of the very coldest weather in winter.
  • I have kilo of live mealies and kilo of live waxworms arriving today with it being peak season for the breeding birds but once we get to mid June I will ease off as the new birds will have fledged and mostly become independent. I wish they would give clearer directives here (BTO and RSPB) on what is truly best for birds, not the rspb and birdfood selling shops and a better understanding of scientific proven reports and facts about the welfare of birds when it comes to supplementary feeding. We still need more hedgerows, tree planting and more pollen friendly plants with less or preferably less chemicals used and then the birds would definitely have sufficient toxin free insects !
  • I suppose one positive thing about feeding our garden birds is that it has given me more chance to study them and their behaviour which has been fascinating on occasion as I learn more about them. I don't know where the term "bird-brain" came from as an insult to someone but I'd take it as a compliment when I see how clever birds really are - most of the time !