All my garden birds are gone...

It's been so mild here I've had nothing but doves and squirrels on the feeders all winter.
 
I live in South Wales and have and the exact same thing happen!!

I brought all of my feeders in yesterday to empty and clean, ony leaving food on the bird table.

By this time last year I had loads of Finches, Tits, Nuthatches, Doves, Blackbirds etc etc, but I only have a very few finches now!

Is it the weather as suggested earlier??
 
It was like that here last week - not a sausage, but to be fair it was very mild.

I wouldn't be too despondant as two days ago everything changed when it dropped a few degrees.

I can see my feeders from here and so far today we've had a constant flow of:

Redpolls
Siskins
Long Tailed Tits
Goldfinches
Chaffinches
Greenfinches
Bullfinches
Blue Tits
Great Tits
Coal Tits
Robins
Blackbirds
Starlings
Sparrows
Dunnock

Perhaps a lot of people have started winter feeding around where you are and supply is outstripping demand ?
 
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Same here too, the odd blue tit and occasional robin visit, but the feeders are still half full and food is going off, got to throw it away and only put a little out. There are plenty of birds around, when the wind isn't blowing quite as hard as it is at the moment, I can stand in the garden and hear them, they are numerous. Can only assume the unusually mild temperatures have meant an abundance of natural food still around. :shrug:
 
The mild weather is probably to blame, not only is natural hedgerow food in abundant supply for the time of year, but the lack of cold weather means the birds dont loose so much energy keeping warm hence dont need to eat as much as normal to maintain bodymass :shrug:
 
Pretty much the opposite here in east London.

We don't get loads of species but blue tit, great tit, starling and jay (if I put peanuts on the shed roof) are regulars, the odd greenfinch and chaffinch and lots of goldfinches. For the last couple of months they have been the commonest bird on the feeders.

Dave
 
sthwild said:
Phil. I'm amazed with the variety of birds you get in your garden:)
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It varies a lot from week to week - just a purple patch at the moment but I guess we're a bit colder up here and I haven't got neighbours feeding to compete with.
 
Defo the weather, my feeders get visited by the usual Bt`s Gt`s etc but not much else. I seen at least four Bullfinches and a couple of Greenfinches up in the woods next to my garden this morning but as mentioned there is still a lot of natural stuff around for them to pick on.
 
Strange. My feeders are heaving with birds - all the usual tits, blue, great, coal, marsh plus nuthatches and woodpeckers. The Robin has not been around much, though.

It only goes quiet when the Sparrowhawk sits on top! It is a bit dumb because of course the little ones are going to hide when she is sat there :wacky:

Jenny
 
sthwild said:
..... I havent seen a bird in my garden for weeks now and I cannot find the reason why...
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It's not something silly like you've just got a new telephoto lens is it.....it's not uncommon.

Bob
 
I'd give the feeders a clean to be on the safe side (make sure you've not managed to give them salmonella or trichomoniasis) but put them back out. BTO report many blackbirds take a sabbatical from garden feeders when other foods are plentiful and as other say it has been very mild. To keep your spirits up, I failed to stock up on nyjer for several weeks and worried that "my" 7+ goldies would have forgotten my patch on their food rounds, but within 2 hours of filling them up they were back. When birds need food, they'll find your feeders.

PS You haven't moved them or anything daft? I tried to shift mine a few metres to a more photographic part of the garden and they were deserted, so I put them back close to the cover of the local shrubbery and the birds returned.
 
Glidergoth said:
PS You haven't moved them or anything daft? I tried to shift mine a few metres to a more photographic part of the garden and they were deserted, so I put them back close to the cover of the local shrubbery and the birds returned.
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No. It's in usual place. I always had lots of BT when others were gone but not anymore. As others said, it must be the weather.
 
Well it has been pretty quite in my garden ion SE London for the last few weeks.

But since the end of last week it's been pretty busy.

I had seen on Long Tailed Tits or Goldfinches since the summer. Saw a couple of LTTs on Friday and had 3 Goldfinches around all weekend.

Also had lots more Blue, Great and Coal than normal.

Weather here is extremely mild.
 
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