Birds in your garden

Garden birds around feeders


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Sadly no photos but had a couple of male Partridges in my garden today, the first time I've ever seen them, hope I get a chance of a shot if they revisit.
 
One I shot from my back garden onto the river bank :)

Stonechat

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and one over my garden

Swallow

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Look at the determination in the eyes of the first image. truly wonderful image.
 
Not seen a thrush in years around here, unfortunately didn't have time to get the Nikon out so these were taken on my phone.
 

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I'm not sure if it is the right place to ask really, but seems appropriate given the content. We have put a few feeders out now, one with a suet block, one with nuts and one with fat balls, we have also added a bird table which we put loose seed on. So far we have seen very little interest in the balls, only a robin bothers with the suet block, no interest at all in the nuts, but the loose seed does seem to get eaten. Is this normal? We had decent success with the balls last year (the rest are new additions), but they seem to have switched off those altogether now.
 
Just be patient, they'll eventually be eaten. Remember that there's lots of natural food around now too, so they won't be as active as they would be in winter.
 
I first put the balls out during the first lockdown last year and that did quite well, if anything it went quiet over winter which seemed odd. Just doesn’t seem to be recovering even though there is birds visiting the garden. Would just be nice to see them actively visiting for food although I do appreciate the point about there being more food about currently
 
I have found 3 main feed items.

1) Sunflower Hearts - mixed seed just gets thrown out of the feeders until they can get any sunflower hearts that are in there.
2) Dried Mealworms - Almost all birds seem to love these, but they're not cheap, and the starlings will empty a feeder in under an hour. So I have replaced them with fruit & mealworm pellets which are cheaper and are not quite so easy to eat so they last longer.
3) Fat balls - again most birds like these, and depending on the time of year, they sometimes get emptied before the seed feeders.

I have found that peanuts and Niger seed are both left to rot in the feeders, so I no longer buy them.

The one most important thing I have found that gets birds onto the feeders is cover. They don't want feeders sat in the open. Mine are about a metre from an 8ft hedge at the back of the garden, and sitting between an apple tree & an Acer.
 
I have found 3 main feed items.

1) Sunflower Hearts - mixed seed just gets thrown out of the feeders until they can get any sunflower hearts that are in there.
2) Dried Mealworms - Almost all birds seem to love these, but they're not cheap, and the starlings will empty a feeder in under an hour. So I have replaced them with fruit & mealworm pellets which are cheaper and are not quite so easy to eat so they last longer.
3) Fat balls - again most birds like these, and depending on the time of year, they sometimes get emptied before the seed feeders.

I have found that peanuts and Niger seed are both left to rot in the feeders, so I no longer buy them.

The one most important thing I have found that gets birds onto the feeders is cover. They don't want feeders sat in the open. Mine are about a metre from an 8ft hedge at the back of the garden, and sitting between an apple tree & an Acer.
Thanks for the help guys, that’s good to know regarding cover and which foods you find to work. Currently our feeders are attached to the trunk of a big pear tree so have plenty of cover, the bird table is about 5ft in front of them so still very much underneath the canopy. Thanks again for the help, I’ll shut up now and stop derailing this thread!
 
Plenty of sparrows a starlings around the garden at the moment, both have been scare in the last couple of years. They quickly demolish mixed seed and mealworms, the wood pigeons sometimes eat the fat balls, and the peanuts are neglected. Don't see so many Goldfinches these days, they used to regularly use the Niger feeder.
 
I've always found peanuts to be a favourite of tits and robins. Nyjer seeds are only eaten by goldfinches - the rest ignore them.
 
Had another surprise this morning a greenfinch enjoying the thistles.
 

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