Lack of birds?

As a matter of interest, what do you good folks feed the birds? We have been using nuts, seed and fat balls The birds have recently favouring the fat balls and going through six or so a night, so much so that we can't keep up with them. So due to the cost of buying fat balls we have in the last few days just put seed and nuts out. So far they are still coming - thankfully! Also do you have a preferred make?

Howard
 
gogleddwr said:
As a matter of interest, what do you good folks feed the birds? We have been using nuts, seed and fat balls The birds have recently favouring the fat balls and going through six or so a night, so much so that we can't keep up with them. So due to the cost of buying fat balls we have in the last few days just put seed and nuts out. So far they are still coming - thankfully! Also do you have a preferred make?

Howard
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I use sunflower hearts and a 'no mess' seed mix in the feeders. Mealworms on the table and floor, also scatter some of the seed on the floor for the Dunnocks.

Used fatballs in the last but the starlings made a hell of a mess with them.

As for brand, I tend to buy loose feed by the weight and don't know what it is.
 
Fat balls in hangers
peanuts and sunflower seeds mixed in another
general seed mix in another.

Caged ground feeder ( to stop pigeons etc) general seed mix and meal worms.
 
Here in suburban wirral we were never exactly overwhelmed by the variety of garden visitors but, this year, absolutely no bluetits even and just ( for smaller birds ) the very occasional sparrow - and a robin. Plenty of woodpigeons and I have stopped taking pics of those. A lot of magpies and other corvids and just an occasional starling. A few years ago we regularly had various finches.
 
gogleddwr said:
As a matter of interest, what do you good folks feed the birds? We have been using nuts, seed and fat balls The birds have recently favouring the fat balls and going through six or so a night, so much so that we can't keep up with them. So due to the cost of buying fat balls we have in the last few days just put seed and nuts out. So far they are still coming - thankfully! Also do you have a preferred make?

Howard
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I’ve tried various fat balls and the RSPB ones win hands down - I’ve run out at the moment. Sunflower hearts and suet pellets are favourites and need filling up every other day, if not daily. I also have peanuts and I scatter meal worms.

I think a good thing about the suet pellets, is that the birds can come in and take one, and take it off to a place of safety to eat it.

I don’t use mixed seed much now, other than scattering it for the crows and pheasants, and of course the wood pigeons.
 
Fat blocks from Wilko seem to be the local birds' favourite (over any balls) and sunflower hearts go faster than any seed mix, although we do keep a feeder of mix for those that prefer it. Peanuts don't get touched - we've even tried "for human consumption" shell on ones that we've shelled ourselves!
 
Thanks all for your replies, very useful. Plenty of food for thought there, and for the birds. I need to go out this pm so I shall have a look round and I'll report back in due course.

piper said:
Here in suburban wirral we were never exactly overwhelmed by the variety of garden visitors but, this year, absolutely no bluetits even and just ( for smaller birds ) the very occasional sparrow - and a robin. Plenty of woodpigeons and I have stopped taking pics of those. A lot of magpies and other corvids and just an occasional starling. A few years ago we regularly had various finches.
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Hi, Piper, welcome. Perhaps it's a North West "thing" this lack of birds as some other areas are reporting much better sightings.

Thanks,

Howard
 
gogleddwr said:
As a matter of interest, what do you good folks feed the birds? We have been using nuts, seed and fat balls The birds have recently favouring the fat balls and going through six or so a night, so much so that we can't keep up with them. So due to the cost of buying fat balls we have in the last few days just put seed and nuts out. So far they are still coming - thankfully! Also do you have a preferred make?

Howard
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We feed them sunflower hearts and peanuts. We have also used fat balls(which were not liked) and fat cakes(which were liked).

In our garden the change over time in the individual birds(for many smaller garden birds about two years would be considered old) has an impact on what they will eat. Some years ago we stopped feeding peanut because the birds around then ignored them and the peanuts rotted. Now they are popular.

The sunflower hearts are more expensive than mixed seeds but we found the birds threw away the seeds they did not want, so in the long run, we think the straight sunflower hearts are not too expensive, though the birds get through them at a great rate.

If you want birds to come very close you could try live mealworms. They are expensive and disappear very quickly(especially if starlings or a magpie spots them) but robins, great tits and blue tits will do tolerant a lot to get live mealworms.

I have no preferred make of seeds. I've bought from dedicated wild bird food retailers and also Wilko, depending on the deals on offer.

Dave
 
About right this time of year, as said no young to feed and plenty of natural food for them..........what I have noticed though is distinct lack of Bees and Butterflies this year
 
Gav-canon said:
We had a lot of Bees and Butterflies
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Not so much butterflies as the Buddleia is slow to flower this year.
( possibly me hacking down to ground level probably has something to do with it :D )
The Lavender however has been in flower for awhile now, and its covered in Bees from dawn to dusk. :)
 
Cobra said:
( possibly me hacking down to ground level probably has something to do with it :D )
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You animal! :LOL:
Cobra said:
The Lavender however has been in flower for awhile now, and its covered in Bees from dawn to dusk. :)
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Good to hear :)
Our lavender is slow this year
 
Cobra said:
Not so much butterflies as the Buddleia is slow to flower this year.
( possibly me hacking down to ground level probably has something to do with it :D )
The Lavender however has been in flower for awhile now, and its covered in Bees from dawn to dusk. :)
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Good to hear butterflies are doing well. I did a walk today and only about one mile of the ten was on pavement. The rest was on short grass, rough grass, scrubby areas, woodland and a riverside path. During the walk I counted only five butterflies - four meadow browns and one that looked like a cabbage white. However, it might be as Gav has said due to the heat.

If your Buddleia is one of the common varieties(eg a variety of Buddleia davidii) it flowers on wood grown in the current year, so pruning pretty hard in early spring will encourage new growth on which flowers will develop later in the season.

Some Buddleias (eg B. alternifolia and B. globosa) flower on wood grown the previous year, so if they are pruned hard in early spring flowers won't develop.

Dave
 
Tringa said:
If your Buddleia is one of the common varieties(eg a variety of Buddleia davidii) it flowers on wood grown in the current year,
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Yeah I know that, and it was getting rather out of hand, so it had it coming anyway :D
 
Cobra said:
Yeah I know that, and it was getting rather out of hand, so it had it coming anyway :D
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You need to grow a really little one :LOL: I know you're good at that! Bonsai buddleia?

We usually cut ours back quite hard, but not for the last few years as the birds use it for shelter when coming to the feeders. Ours is in flower now, and I'd say we currently have less butterflies than usual.
 
Bebop said:
You need to grow a really little one :LOL: I know you're good at that! Bonsai buddleia?
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I kept 3 fairly stout off cuts, put them in a pot of water, 2 died one grew roots,
so I put in a very wet "mix" to let it establish.
Water roots are softer than soil grown roots and the transition is not always successful.
But I have a couple of half inch long flowers on it.

Its not particularly pretty, as it was more of an experiment than anything else.
 
Cobra said:
I kept 3 fairly stout off cuts, put them in a pot of water, 2 died one grew roots,
so I put in a very wet "mix" to let it establish.
Water roots are softer than soil grown roots and the transition is not always successful.
But I have a couple of half inch long flowers on it.

Its not particularly pretty, as it was more of an experiment than anything else.
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Ha ha! Keep us posted.
 
General decline in both bird and insect species , probably down to a lot of factors . You do get years like it sometimes followed by a kick back the following year .
We all know climate change is here , only time will tell what happens next . But nature usually balances itself i.e the arrival of all the egret species over the last 20years , and lots of rarities now showing regularly .. including bee eaters breeding in Norfolk
 
It's an interesting discussion, which I join from slightly further afield (Dordogne, France). - I have been studying the local bird behaviour for 18 years now and it has dramatically changed over that period. Many of the birds, that we could always rely on to appear are either not appearing anymore, or arriving at different times (usually earlier). - On the positive side, we are now seeing breeds that were not normal in our area, which is a delight!

Normally, I would stop feeding the birds, as soon as they lose interest in the feeders (normally around May), but this year, I still have feeders out and demand is still high. It's been a very hot year so far and insect numbers in my area have fallen dramatically, removing one food source. Add to that the intense heat and to some extent, bird flu and we may have a recipe for relocation to find food, or starvation for some species?

I do a lot of macro photography and the insect decline this year in particular is scary, with numbers down in my garden by around 80%. - Hopefully, it is simply the intense heat this year and future years will bring back some normality, but with global weather patterns also changing, it should be a concern to us all.
 
Time to resurrect this thread.

After the lack of summer birds, they fledged and went elsewhere for food,
I'm pleased to see that the LBJ's are slowly returning to the feeders.
 
My hide is still quiet, although I have a few more Goldfinches now, probably about 6 youngsters and a few adults. I'm still seeing the Greenfinches too.

Further afield, still a distinct lack of Kingfishers. Less Dippers than I'd expect, wagtails too. I hear Chiffchaff often, as well as Bullfinch but again, not as much as I'd expect.

There seem to be plenty of Herons though, I watched 3 together on Sunday. Tons of geese on the local gravel pits as well as Mallard, Little Grebe, Coot, Moorhen and Goosander. I'm seeing a few Comorants too. This suprises me a little as bird flu seemed to have been affecting wadery, water dwelling type birds more than woodland/garden birds.

I think the cold snaps earlier in the year haven't helped our smaller birds at all.
 
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