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Peanuts don't seem to go down...

Paul
17/01/2021 10:52

Hi all,

We moved to a house back in September after thirteen years in a flat overlooking a harbour - yes, effectively our back garden was water and all we saw were loads of cormorants and razorbills and guillemots, along with an assortment of gulls.

So, in October we bought a feeding station and put Peanuts, Sunflower hearts, and Suet balls up. Within a week they had been found and ever since are frequented by Starlings and Goldfinches mainly. We get the odd blue tits and house sparrows too, but other than starlings occasionally, nothing touches the peanuts!

We used to have trays on the feeders but had to remove them due to Pigeons taking all the Sunflower hearts. What can we do to encourage more peanuts to be used? Or, should we replace the peanuts entirely with an alternative feeder?

We'd like more variety and frequency of birds visiting, but due to renting and our restrictions in what we can do in the garden, we don't have much scope for planting shrubs and trees etc. to attract more.

Ideas on the peanuts in particular would be greatly appreciated as we end up throwing most of it away as it gets wet and mouldy.

Thanks!

Paul

  • 0 17/01/2021 12:07
    I would suggest moving the feeders a bit closer to the fence. Birds like to have nearby cover for protection. As far as the peanuts go, I agree with Alan. Crush the ones you already have and then use kibbled peanuts in future.

    Unicum arbustum haud alit duos erithacos

    (One bush does not shelter two Robins)

    Zenodotus (3rd Century B.C.)

     

  • 0 17/01/2021 14:16
    Thanks Alan and Monkeycheese.
    I will crush the next lot up when I empty and change them again.
    With regards to the position of the feeders, we made sure that we positioned them six foot away from the side fence with the ivy so that it's out of the range of cats (the back fence does have a cat that uses it to get from one garage roof to the other which is why it is away from that one), but close enough for cover. The birds do tend to fly to and fro that side fence and the tree in the neighbour's garden.
    We will monitor it and see. When we leave the Suet balls empty the Starlings do tend to eat the peanuts, but find that in general we get less in the garden. I know some people don't like Starlings but we'd rather something eat the food than none at all!

    Thanks.
  • 0 17/01/2021 14:57
    Thanks Robbo. I actually said this to my wife before I replied to the earlier posts. (Would you pass up your favourite pizza for beans on toast?!)
    Maybe we'll change it up a bit and see what results that brings.
    It's funny because I thought from what I had heard that the blue tits would love the Suet balls, but they just go for the Sunflower hearts. Maybe taking those down for a while will encourage other activity.

    Thanks!
  • 0 17/01/2021 18:54
    Hello Paul, different folks feed different foods and get varying birds to the garden. I feed premium seed, Sunflower hearts, Niger seed, fat balls and cakes, suet pieces and whole peanuts in feeders and scattered (always in feeders in the breeding season) an the lot gets eaten. I have even seen over the last while the robin, blackbird and sparrow at the feeders as well as ground feeding.

    Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

  • 0 17/01/2021 22:35
    Yes, good point Alan... other than the Starlings it's just the Goldfinches that are regulars, so we'd definitely not want to give them an excuse to leave!
  • 0 17/01/2021 22:39
    Thanks Catlady. I think we may experiment with some different feeders in place of the peanuts and see what we attract. If it turns out that the peanuts are just not favourable then fair enough. We will do a bit of research as to what we should try. When we first ventured into bird feeding we felt from the research and advice we had that the hearts, Suet and peanuts were a good start, but we may just leave the peanuts for now and have some fun trying out other stuff.
  • 0 06/02/2021 13:13
    Well, we decided to leave the peanut feeder down and hung a 'giant' fat ball in its place instead. This was well liked by the Starlings! We have since actually purchased a bag of berry suet pellets from Wilko (seen many comments on here about how good these are) and yesterday half filled the mesh feeder and hung it back where the peanuts used to be, and within an hour the Starlings were all over it. They favour these to the once loved fat balls! In 24 hours they have devoured a quarter of what was there - quite a feat for our garden.
    So at the moment we only have 8-10 Goldfinches fairly regularly, anything from 6-30 plus Starlings near daily, and several Wood Pigeons, and the odd Blue Tit as regular visitors. Can't complain really. And we love Starlings so don't mind at all!
  • 0 07/02/2021 10:14

    Apart from the suggestions about moving the feeders nearer the fence, which I would have suggested, you could try chopped peanuts.

    Something else to consider, bearing in mind birds like foliage to give the protection, not just moving the feeders nearer the fence, how about growing some shrubs that would equal the height of the fence, that would give them better protection and probably encourage more bird activity.

    Mike

    Flickr: Peak Rambler

  • 0 07/02/2021 11:38 in reply to Mike B
    Hi Mike,

    Your suggestion of shrubs is exactly what we are looking at currently. Been browsing the other forums on here looking at what to possibly plant. As we rent and are limited in what we are allowed to do at this property, we are thinking of pot plants.
    When we moved here back in September we had grand ideas for all sorts of plants to bring insects and birds in, and have realised that some shrubs would be a good starting point. As we have never had a garden this is very new to us, and as the garden is south facing very near the coast we have to factor that in too. So far, we are hoping to look at maybe Rowan and Silver Birch in large pots. We will be looking at lots of advice before we do anything though!

    Paul
  • 0 08/02/2021 17:18 in reply to Paul

    PAUL B said:
    Hi Mike,



    Your suggestion of shrubs is exactly what we are looking at currently. Been browsing the other forums on here looking at what to possibly plant. As we rent and are limited in what we are allowed to do at this property, we are thinking of pot plants.
    When we moved here back in September we had grand ideas for all sorts of plants to bring insects and birds in, and have realised that some shrubs would be a good starting point. As we have never had a garden this is very new to us, and as the garden is south facing very near the coast we have to factor that in too. So far, we are hoping to look at maybe Rowan and Silver Birch in large pots. We will be looking at lots of advice before we do anything though!

    Paul

    I understand the issues you have with it being a rented property.

    I'm no horticulturist, so I'm not the best person to advise, though I feel silver birch and rowan may not be ideal for large pots. However, if I'm wrong, I hope someone corrects me.

    One that may be worth considering is 'red tip photinia', otherwise known as red robin. The leaves in the sunnier weather have a nice colourful red tip and because its a shrub, may be more suited to a pot. You will probably have seen varieties of the red tip photinia in various retail parks where they are used as border shrubs to add some colour.

    We have one at the bottom of the garden as  a shrub/hedge and it seems to be nice and easy to keep trimmed.

    Mike

    Flickr: Peak Rambler