please feed the birds

Yardbent

Yardbent

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John
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Yes
looks like the snow is here for a few more days

please feed the birds - and put out some water too

dont feed bread - not much use, and just fills them up

peanuts #1
black sunflower seeds good source of oils...husks are a bit messy
sunflower hearts - no mess but dearer
soft fruit raisins for the Blackbirds and Thrushes

DONT waste money on so-called 'Wild Bird Mix'
it's full of barley and cracked corn [yellow] rubbish other than for pigeons
i buy finch seed [for caged birds] tiny seeds so well taken by sparrows, tits

niger seeds [tiny] you'll need a feeder with small ports or it will pour out
loved by Goldfinches and Siskins

suet cakes...make your own with melted suet poured over peanuts in a 1L paper milk carton - freeze - cut carton off - hang in tree - lasts days

also sprinkle seeds on a bare patch for the ground feeders like Wrens and Dunnocks
at least 6' from a bush - cats love to ambush

if it snows overnight, back the car up 10' to expose clear ground....(y)

thanks john
 
isn't this human intervention into nature though? Surely the birds either have adapted to this kind of life in the winter or natural selection does it's job.

or is this a direct effect of us destroying their habitat so the winter foods they used to it no longer exist?
 
joescrivens said:
isn't this human intervention into nature though? Surely the birds either have adapted to this kind of life in the winter or natural selection does it's job.

or is this a direct effect of us destroying their habitat so the winter foods they used to it no longer exist?
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''Farmers who farm in wet areas, such as Scotland, feed their cattle and sheep on silage in the winter. It is also a useful way to deal with hay after a wet summer. ''

the machines they now use go right to the edge of the fields . no spillage
old hedgerows have been replaced by close mesh wire fences to keep small spring lambs within the field
acreage round our Reservoir has been/still is being converted to conifers

i agree on natural selection, but we are losing too many of our birds [partly due to our farming/industrial estate/housing development

I believe House Sparrows are under thread..
quoted from BBC.......
''Conservationists say the bird's future looks grim because the birds cannot get enough food to survive the winter.

Between 10 and 20% of English farms have lost all their sparrows in the past 20 years, according to researchers at the University of Oxford, UK. ''

anyway - the 'human' in me enjoys seeing the birds - not much effort to help a 'few' through the winter.:)
 
Trouble is the planet's changing at a rapid rate, man made or not, who knows, so its difficult to know if we should intervene or not. To be brutally honest I'd sooner over populate the planet with pretty songbirds in my back garden than another 2 million humans we really dont need.

Matt
 
Matt............^^^

brutal but true..:D

many years ago i was in China, and our translator gave us a good idea of how fast they were growing, and why the 'one-child rule' was made in 1979

she said

''each year in China the babies born = the population of the USA''

i never forgot this

and now Population: 1,339,724,852 (2010 census)

anyway ..OT ... get melting that suet..:LOL:
 
joescrivens said:
isn't this human intervention into nature though? Surely the birds either have adapted to this kind of life in the winter or natural selection does it's job.

or is this a direct effect of us destroying their habitat so the winter foods they used to it no longer exist?
Click to expand...

if you turn this question around you can answer it yourself.
imagine if all hospitals, medical care etc dissapeared overnight it would be back to basic natural selection amongst humanity (strongest survive)

if everyone fed the wild birds with a decent food (as we tend to treat pets)
then we could all start to enjoy the survival and increase in numbers of the song birds.

"is this a direct effect of us destroying their habitat so the winter foods they used to it no longer exist"
Absolutely. (y)
 
AHILL said:
if you turn this question around you can answer it yourself.
imagine if all hospitals, medical care etc dissapeared overnight it would be back to basic natural selection amongst humanity (strongest survive)

if everyone fed the wild birds with a decent food (as we tend to treat pets)
then we could all start to enjoy the survival and increase in numbers of the song birds.

"is this a direct effect of us destroying their habitat so the winter foods they used to it no longer exist"
Absolutely. (y)
Click to expand...

we dont want them to get reliant on us feeding them though also, otherwise they wouldn't be able to feed themselves
 
joescrivens said:
we dont want them to get reliant on us feeding them though also, otherwise they wouldn't be able to feed themselves
Click to expand...

true...i feed in the spring nesting period, then gradually cut back as nature provides

it NOW when the ground is frozen that i decide to help
 
Correct. Urban development, modern farming methods and pollution - amongst other things - are all impacting wild bird/animal populations. We live in rural Scotland and there doesn't seem to be a great deal of damage yet, but I daresay it is happening.

Animal extinctions have been going on for hundreds of millions of years and nature will sort it out, and find a new balance, if we ignore it; but our lives will be poorer for it.

We feed the birds, and enjoy having them in the garden, but I'm afraid it does create a supermarket for sparrowhawks too! I can live with that. They don't take nearly as many as hunger would.
 
I love birds and often feed them but truth is if we stopped feeding them they would survive. Humans just like to feed them as if makes us feel good.

Birds (dinosaurs ancestors) have survived for millions of years in all areas of the planet and if we all died overnight they would just eat us to survive
 
Dry cat food - blackbirds are extremely fond of this, but you must provide water as well. I know the RSPB caution against this type of food as a potential choking hazard, but the cheap Tesco own brand are small nuggets and the local blackbirds have been coming for these the last three years and keep coming back. Several local blackbirds have distinctive white patterns in their plumage and one, known to us a white throat, has been coming back the last three years without fail.

Wild birdseed mix is useful for distracting the pigeons away from the more expensive feeds, but it won't attract anything more interesting.
 
I get a big bag of wild bird feed from Mere Sands Wood nature reserve near Preston, mix in suet pellets,niger seed,sunflower seed,sunflower hearts,peanuts now and Mr blackbird will now get raisins.
When it starts to freeze will put water at the back,always have it at the front.
The only bl@@dy thing is a black cat has started to hang around.......:nono:
 
If you enjoy see them in your back garden then why not feed them, they won't become totally reliant on your food. So feed and enjoy.
 
how do I get rid of the bloody cats that have started hanging about my garden (and littering it!)? They seem to have scared all my ickle burdies away.
 
BazEP said:
how do I get rid of the bloody cats that have started hanging about my garden (and littering it!)? They seem to have scared all my ickle burdies away.
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Either keep cats of your own or a dog. Nothing else will work forever. Except perhaps concreting over the lot.

If littering is a problem, cats can be detered by gravel (sharp, not rounded), and can be steered towards a corner by providing a loose material that's more comfortable.

Or, start feeding the blackbirds. They're the one species of bird in the garden that can drive our cats indoors. Mind you, both cats are too old, too well fed and just too lazy to do much but sit in the window and watch the birds these days.
 
Alastair said:
Dry cat food - blackbirds are extremely fond of this, but you must provide water as well. .snip.
Click to expand...

i didn't know that about the cat food.

by coincidence in the snow today i see rather large bird prints coming up to the porch steps

which is where i put out dry Whiskas for the farm cats.. so no doubt Blackbirds

thanks for that

ps they love raisins ...and will fly onto the kitchen window sill for them
 
Couldn't agree more about "Wild Bird Mix". It seems to contain a lot of seed birds don't like and they simply throw it away, so the apparently cheap food becomes more expensive in the long run.

Of all the seeds sunflower hearts go down the best in our garden.

If you don't mind live food try live mealworms.

Dave
 
Here we go again! Only Joe could turn a thread like this around :shake: Good on you for the heads up John (y) There is a sticky in the bird forum regards to this and might be worth taking a look to pick up any tips that are in there if you are not sure. Lets keep this one on track and avoid a lock out eh? ;)
 
u8myufo said:
Here we go again! Only Joe could turn a thread like this around :shake: .................................... Lets keep this one on track and avoid a lock out eh? ;)
Click to expand...

Rich....................with all respect to you both

the last post from Joe was over 4 hours ago and hardly controversial

and.....in my opinion, only raise a question about human intervention

nothing wrong in expressing his views

so lets get back on track indeed...:D
 
I used to feed birds out the back of our old house,but i stopped that as i got sick of all the seagulls coming over & crapping over windows,washing,car.:nono:
 
It is not just feeding though, we also need to help them out with nest sites too. On my 'patch' I became aware that we hardly ever saw any small birds (blue, Gt tits etc). I had a look round & decided that although there were plenty of trees, there were no trees with holes. Put up 24 nestboxes & had a 100% take up in the first year. The next year I put up some more & they too were filled.
I feed every morning. Trudge up that hill around 6.15 am in all weathers so that the birds get an early morning boost. Then they have all day to forage in the woods.
Some of you will know, I also started to feed Red Squirrels & now the population has increased & their range has expanded locally. Some may level the charge at me that I am interfering with nature. I would argue that we have been interfering with nature for centuries & all I am doing is giving an early morning boost of food as well as trying to make the habitat more benificial for the local wildlife.
 
specialman said:
What other 'scraps' can we leave out? Any regular things from the kitchen?
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i read somewhere dont put out fat [lard] but use SUET

the lard gets onto their feathers and is greasy
 
Charlie

''I feed every morning. Trudge up that hill around 6.15 am in all weathers so that the birds get an early morning boost''

just sussed that out...I'm getting up about 8am :LOL: and notice the seed feeders are already nearly empty from the previous day

so now I top them up in the evening
 
Yardbent said:
Charlie

''I feed every morning. Trudge up that hill around 6.15 am in all weathers so that the birds get an early morning boost''

just sussed that out...I'm getting up about 8am :LOL: and notice the seed feeders are already nearly empty from the previous day

so now I top them up in the evening
Click to expand...

Sorry, I will try to improve my English!:LOL:
I do not fill feeders at night as there is always the chance that Rats will find/empty them before the birds get to them.
 
sawman said:
Sorry, I will try to improve my English!:LOL:
I do not fill feeders at night as there is always the chance that Rats will find/empty them before the birds get to them.
Click to expand...

you misunderstand..nothing wrong with your English

by sussed i meant i now realise the birds come early to feed 'before' i get up..hence fill them at night

no rats around the cottage .. too much barley spill over at the silos i think
 
Yv said:
WATER!!! break the ice on any bird baths, puddles, ponds, etc, give them a chance to drink and bathe (y)
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Well I will break the ice on our pond, if you want to come for a dook!;):LOL:
 
One point on fat for birds - don't use fat off bacon or similar - the salt will kill the birds. Stick with full fat suet.
 
Thread title for completion is.............



To the cats. :cool:
 
MatBin said:
Trouble is the planet's changing at a rapid rate, man made or not, who knows, so its difficult to know if we should intervene or not. To be brutally honest I'd sooner over populate the planet with pretty songbirds in my back garden than another 2 million humans we really dont need.

Matt
Click to expand...

+1
 
One thing with feeding the birds in cold icy weather is, if you are going to, once the birds visit regularly you have to keep up your feeding as they will use up energy coming to your feeder. If the feeder is one day empty they may return many times and use up precious energy reserves in the process for no return. Which may then tip them over the balance from surviving the night to not.
 
DorsetDude said:
One thing with feeding the birds in cold icy weather is, if you are going to, once the birds visit regularly you have to keep up your feeding as they will use up energy coming to your feeder. If the feeder is one day empty they may return many times and use up precious energy reserves in the process for no return. Which may then tip them over the balance from surviving the night to not.
Click to expand...

Yes, true.
 
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