Hey all,
Hope everyone is well? I’m new to this forum & new to Garden Bird feeding.
Bit of background.....
So over the last several months, through shielding I have gained an interest in photography, which then turned into a particular interest of bird photography, which has now led me, to gain a huge passion for garden birds. So because of this, a few weeks ago I set up a full feeding set up in the garden, to hopefully attract some more species to the garden & touch wood so far things are looking good. Since having this set up I have not attracted 3 Robins that come back daily & have even spotted a Blue tit feeding, both of which I have never seen in the garden before
Iv always had sparrows around & also large groups of Starlings (especially in the winter, when they do group together more than the summer), being in Wiltshire and so they’re loving the new feeding hub, especially the starlings, which yes although they can get through a whole feeder of suet pellets in a day, I actually don’t mind because they are beautiful birds in my opinion & thankfully they don’t seem to be affecting other birds, who also still get a go at the.
So currently I have set up a metal branched type feeding station, with various different feeders hanging: Suet pellets, fat balls, sunflower hearts, good mix seed & crushed peanuts...
Touch wood so far they all seem to be being used, suet pellets mostly, then the sunflower hearts, then the fat balls. The mix seed hasn’t been touched too much, but I understand birds prefer fattier thing in the winter & mixed seed in the hotter months. Along with this station, I also have a roofed table which I had a selection of the above + dried mealworms, which again a variety seem to use including the odd pigeon & magpie. Then the final thing I have is a ground feeder which again I put a mix of things with meal worms, which is mainly used at the ml and loved by the Robins. So yeah touch wood everything seems to be working well & hopefully more things will come soon, although I appreciate it only been a few weeks & can take months for new birds to arrive
Following all this, I just have one question & that whether I should stick with the peanuts or should I have put up a nijer seed feeder? The reason I ask is I have read very mixed things about both & currently the peanuts haven’t been touch (but again I appreciate it’s only been a few week)?
Many thanks all & I look forward to getting to know you
isn't wild wonderful
Hello Joe welcome to the community from up in Caithness at the very top of Scotland. Well I am going to upset the apple cart! Apart from feeding as you are, seed, suet, sunflower hearts, fat balls and cakes, I also feed peanuts (whole) and Niger seed. The Niger seed and sunflower hearts are on the same hanger. I filled up with 2 with 3 fat balls each, 1 x Niger seed, 1 x sunflower hearts, 2 x seed, 4 x peanuts day before yesterday and today apart from the peanuts which are all half empty and an odd fat a ball, everything is gone. The usual visitors were about, Robin, blackbird, blue and great tit, dunnock, sparrow, chaffinch, goldfinch, and not forgetting the school bullies as I call them, the starlings! We also have a family of pheasants, and they love the bird seed and whole peanuts and only eat their corn once the rest on the ground has been eaten! had for the first time today, a new garden tick for me, a pair of black caps. I thought I was seeing one the other day on its own but both appeared today. So for me the Niger seed and sunflower hearts are as popular as the rest of the goodies. Something that we make is our own pastry, very simple, shops own brand flour and fat, half fat to flour, add to that chopped nuts, seed, suet, grated cheese, sultanas, grated apple anything that you would give them normally, add a splash of water and put in a polly bag in the fridge for a few hours. You then have tasty pastry to mould into shape and put into feeders or you can make your own, or fill coconut shells, you can pull of small pieces and squeeze round branches in the trees and bushes. Beware though they love this so you may need to keep making it!! If you type in the top search bar, Pastry shop open now, you will see a great link with cracking photos, which will give you ideas. Good luck
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Well if you are making pastry for that delicious meal you are having, just make sure you use the correct batch!! :)
I tried nyger about 5 years for the first time in the winter and the nyger seed was in my garden for 5-6 weeks and not 1 bird of any type appeared on my bird-feeders. It was so disappointing and I had to throw all of the nyger seed away. As soon as I bought sunflower hearts the Goldfinches within about 2 days never stopped taken the sunflower hearts. I can remember when I first became interested birdwatching in the late 1950’s as a 5 year old, and you never saw a Goldfinch anywhere in your Garden and it was years until I saw my first ever Goldfinch in a woodland well known in Northumberland. Goldfinches where quite rare in my youth and Goldfinches where mainly a woodland bird and there wasn’t the massive choice that there is now for feeding wild birds and with more and more people feeding birds in there gardens, Gold Finches over the years started been attracted to garden, both urban and rural areas. I was about the only person in my street that fed wild birds in the 1950’s. Of. course you could buy peanuts everywhere. But it wasn’t easy finding many other types of bird-food. You could order items from the RSPB. But there where no RSPB shops on reserves at that time, as there are at some reserve now and of course with no online shop as there wasn’t any internet at that time, as the internet was still decades away. The only way to buy items from the RSPB was by ordering items from the RSPB catalogue that came with the RSPB magazine which at that time was published for RSPB member 6 times a times a year when I first joined the RSPB and the only way that you pay for any time that you ordered from the RSPB catalogue was by sending either a cheque or postal order by Royal Mail to the RSPB with your order as there where no credit or debit cards of course for another few decades and the choice of bird food and bird-feeders and even when buying from the RSPB catalogue the choice wasn’t very big at that time. How times have changed for the better in the huge amount of different types of bird food, bird seed and as well as nuts such as peanuts for wild birds.
Regards,
Ian.