Ungrateful gits! How long have you had your feeding station in place, and is there a lot of others in your area feeding birds?
We've got several different feeders on ours - peanut, sunflower hearts, seed mix and fat balls - which helps attract a mix of birds.
It has probably been out for a few years, although I've moved them a few times to find a balance between cover for the birds, and being in a position where we can actually see them. I know that next door often has feeders up, and they tend to have more birds than us. We mainly get pigeons too, but the odd Bluetit/Sparrow/Robin too. And only once, a Goldfinch.
That may ( or may not) be part of the problem.
Have you seen the price of mealworms. The starlings used to empty the feeder in less than a day.
I used to get 30 or 40 pigeons scavenging under the feeders. So I built a bird table with a roof on, then put metal netting over the sides and reduced the size till the pigeons could not reach the food, but the Sparrows, Dunnocks, Great and Blue tits and the braver Starlings could still get in. We used to get goldfinches, but not any more. Pigeon wise we get 1 or 2 a day now.
Before Brexit we could get 25kg of dehulled sunflower seeds delivered to the door from Lancashire for twenty five quid. Now the French don't allow cereals to be imported. A 20kg sack of poor quality locally grown whole seeds costs over thirty quid. The problem that we had with these seeds is that the sparrows would carry the seeds back to our balcony railings for processing. We ended up with a thick black covering of seeds combined with their guano. Cutting the sunflowers and just feeding peanuts and fat balls has solved the sparrow prpblem.
Before Brexit we could get 25kg of dehulled sunflower seeds delivered to the door from Lancashire for twenty five quid. Now the French don't allow cereals to be imported. A 20kg sack of poor quality locally grown whole seeds costs over thirty quid. The problem that we had with these seeds is that the sparrows would carry the seeds back to our balcony railings for processing. We ended up with a thick black covering of seeds combined with their guano. Cutting the sunflowers and just feeding peanuts and fat balls has solved the sparrow prpblem.
We only get hawfinches, siskins and bramblings when it is a hard winter. The last two winters have been milder than normal so it has been a no show. We get golden orioles and hoopoes nesting in the garden every summer and there are bee eaters nesting locally. There are four species of woodpecker, three of which are regulars to the bird table. The black woodpecker just passes by. There are ravens, barn owls, tawneys and little owls popping in from time to time. The most unusual visitor was a wryneck. And, we now have a resident thrush. I had only seen two in the first ten years, both miles from home.
It is heaven
Ha-ha. You ought to go to a place called Puy du Fou. They have a bird exhibition every day that blows your mind. Condors flying across the arena so low you can feel them passing. At the end there are about 70 birds flying around you.Stop, I'm getting jealouser.
