I'm afraid I'm one of those not very good persons who frequently lets their bird feeders empty but have recently set up again and started putting food out. I have been putting whole peanuts on my bird table, which has meant that two jays have become fairly frequent visitors. However, I know that this can kill the young birds and was wondering whether I should stop putting these out now - and if so whether there is any way of 'keeping' the jays without putting out whole peanuts?
I keep my jays by putting the peanuts in a feeder on a very high pole, stop putting whole nuts out when nesting season starts(now really)regards Min
isn't wild wonderful
Hi Sam, one good way to feed the Jays (as I did this morning) is to make some homemade pastry: plain flour, lard (half fat to flour ratio), handful of mild grated cheddar, maybe a few suet pellets if you have them or kibbled peanuts. It's a cheap way to feed them and they adore raw pastry; I have a photo of the camera which I haven't downloaded yet so when I do I will add it here for you to see how much they enjoy pastry. I use cheap brand flour, lard and cheese (from Aldi or Tesco). Once I see the robins or blackbirds starting to nest I withdraw whole peanuts unless they are inside a dedicated peanut feeder so that whole nuts cannot be extracted. You can just blitz them in a blender and kibble them so they don't get wasted.
This was taken a little earlier...... just ensure the pastry only has enough water to bind it and it's not too sticky, you will find a lot of birds like pastry and Alan will tell you that a rather lovely Weasel on his local patch also enjoys pastry !!!
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Regards, Hazel
Thanks all - I took Hazy's advice and made up a pastry mix this morning - when I came back from being out for an few hours a fair proportion of what I had put out had disappeared but I will have to wait and see who or what it is taking it...
And a stunning photo Hazy - I am green...
Glad the pastry went down almost a little to well Sam !! a lot of us on the forum make pastry for the birds and if you get Long tailed Tits they love it too ! I haven't put up the photos of the Jay apart from this one. It was also bathing in the waterfall area of our pond so I better go sort out some photos for later ! We just had a pair of mallard ducks land in the pond too - it's all happening !
Forgot to say, I also put a roll of pastry in a fat ball or suet type feeder.