What birds (are you/have you been) watching? What birds have been watching you?

[cloughie]

I don't bother with nyjer at all: goldfinches seem to be hungry little birds and readily tuck into a good general seed mix.

True - they do like other seed particularly hulled sunflower seeds.

[jayne lee wilson]

General seed mix cloughie - my local pet shop used to be my supplier of choice but he's retired so I'm grabbing what I can, where I can.

Have you had much success with nyjer seed? Do you need a special dispenser for it?

Nyger seed is like very tiny black needles (no, really VERY VERY tiny, like HitchHikers' Guide on how big the universe is...), and the Goldfinches here took to a dedicated dispenser very quickly even though they use the conventional seedfeeders too. It REALLY DID bring more Goldies in ! And they stayed around the garden that May to sing their gorgeous song...
The problem with putting Nyger in ordinary dispensers is first, it can clog up at the bottom of it below the apertures and be hard to clean; second, used alone it will spill out of the apertures easily and disappear into the grass or mud or whatever.

There are two types of Nyger feeders, with either horizontal or vertical openings; the RSPB have little troughs in them, whose main problem is that the level of the seed can get too low for the Goldies (who do use them) to reach! You have to shake it regularly. With the widely-available tiny-vertically-holed ones, the finches love them but they need poking out sometimes (a cocktail stick works well ), especially if they get wet. They can be impossible to clean, but are often so cheap it's best to throw them out now and then and get new ones.

On balance - RSPB is cleanable & better made, but the others are just as attractive to carduelis carduelis - they worked brilliantly here, but do be patient for a day or two...

[amateur51]

There's a photo in the slide show at the top of this RSPB site, ami:

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/goldfinch/

... I generally mix it in with a general seed mix: seems very popular.

Good idea ferney - no need for individual dispenser then.

Goldfinch is now back for the third visit - seems much less frit than great tits.

[jayne lee wilson]

Good idea ferney - no need for individual dispenser then.

Goldfinch is now back for the third visit - seems much less frit than great tits.

That looks a sublimely uncharitable response, Ams ... why do I bother etc... ...crossed in the post (I hope...)

[amateur51]

That looks a sublimely uncharitable response, Ams ... why do I bother etc... ...crossed in the post (I hope...)

Natch jlw

Hood to see you back on board

[hmvman]

I've found that sunflower hearts or black sunflower seeds attract the goldfinches (as well as other finches occasionally). I stopped using nyger seeds because they went everywhere on the ground, germinated and then thick clumps of some sort of plant grew and I had a devil of a job getting rid of it. The finches are messy eaters!

[Padraig]

I've found that sunflower hearts or black sunflower seeds attract the goldfinches (as well as other finches occasionally). I stopped using nyger seeds because they went everywhere on the ground, germinated and then thick clumps of some sort of plant grew and I had a devil of a job getting rid of it. The finches are messy eaters!

Same here, hmv; and having been warned about those germinating nyger seeds, I've never used them, though jlw gives them a convincing recommendation.

Some other items:

I have suddenly acquired a grey squirrel in the garden. These are rare here - I have seen only one other in the last 7 years. At the moment I see him as cute and cuddly and very good at eating upside-down.

A female blackbird crashed into the kitchen window. I was afraid to interfere as it sat stunned among the watering cans and I left it overnight. In the morning it was gone. Happy ending?

On the deck was a small pile of feathers - not blackbird, but greenfinch. Well plucked and neatly spread, but no carcase. Any way of telling whether a cat or a hawk was responsible? I haven't spotted a hawk, but I know a few cats.

[Lento]

Any way of telling whether a cat or a hawk was responsible? I haven't spotted a hawk, but I know a few cats.

Hawks tend to leave a lot of feathers compared to a cat, I think, but with a small bird I don't know...

[Bryn]

Hawks tend to leave a lot of feathers compared to a cat, I think, but with a small bird I don't know...

Fox(es)? New cubs, perhaps?

[Don Petter]

I've found that sunflower hearts or black sunflower seeds attract the goldfinches (as well as other finches occasionally). I stopped using nyger seeds because they went everywhere on the ground, germinated and then thick clumps of some sort of plant grew and I had a devil of a job getting rid of it. The finches are messy eaters!

We've had a full feeder of niger seeds near our regular peanut feeder for well over a year now, and it hasn't been touched. So much for guaranteed goldfinches (a la Bill Oddie)!

The peanuts go quickly, mainly thanks to greater spotted woodpeckers, old and young, as well as nuthatch and tits, though we no longer see greenfinches, which is a pity.

[Padraig]

Fox(es)? New cubs, perhaps?

Not impossible Bryn. I live in an area which is near the countryside - for now. I have seen a fox on several occasions over the last few years and neighbours confirm their presence.

Thanks also to Lento for the suggestions.

[Bryn]

Not impossible Bryn. I live in an area which is near the countryside - for now. I have seen a fox on several occasions over the last few years and neighbours confirm their presence.

Thanks also to Lento for the suggestions.

Heh, heh. You don't need to be anywhere near the countryside for foxes to be a likely predator. A friend who lives in the middle of a decidedly urban part of Battersea has had a problem with foxes in her pocket handkerchief 'garden' (back yard) for some years.

[jayne lee wilson]

It would be interesting to know if anyone has attracted Goldfinches with a Nyger dispenser having never had them before... obvs, if there's no local population the Nyger has nothing to attract! I put mine up because I'd seen Goldies a few times, mostly singing in the treetops. Within 48 hours 4 or 5 were coming regularly to the 2 dispensers (£2 each!) and last winter there were up to 10 at a time, with many more up in the trees.

AS for piles of feathers, the neater and more complete the pluck the more (very) likely it is to be a Sparrowhawk. You'd be amazed how long you can find remains before seeing the hawk itself. Cats usually take their prey off to make a present of it to that weird hybrid of guardian and domestic servant that their humans represent, or stash it under a bush or in a shed (the skeletons collect into a real charnelhouse). As for Foxes - often x-rated remains of torn-off heads and bits of wing or leg. If you find a Magpie's head , or a large, grizzly bit of Hedgehog , there's only one thing with jaws strong enough to do that here!

[Dave2002]

Red Kites in North Liverpool? I wish! Their welcome southerly abundance appears not to have reached us yet. I've only ever seen them years ago on a memorable trip to South Wales (with a dedicated birder, just to see the kites - in a green mini-cooper...)

Red kites could also perhaps come down from the north, but probably unlikely, particularly with the insane and illegal killers who are wiping out some of the Scottish populations. I hope that eventually some of the killers will be brought to book, but it seems unlikely, and even if they are, they'll probably only be given a rap over the knuckles, or its equivalent. Red kites do seem to have become moderately well established in some parts of the south - Bucks, for example, and perhaps even all the way down to the south coast.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Red Kites are a regular sight in Wales - we once stayed in a cottage in Aberarth and saw loads swooping and soaring over the not-too-distant hills, and one flew parallel to the car along a road near Llanfallteg: heart-warming experience. A couple of years ago, we were sure we saw one near Harewood House, but just thought it must be a form of hiraeth! No; they're a feature here, too:

http://www.yorkshireredkites.net/