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

[gradus]

Our mob have almost given up on fat balls and peanuts, but sunflower hearts are going down at speed: siskins, goldfinches, greenfinches, and all the usual suspects (with woodpigeons, dunnocks and a pheasant lurking below for the fragments dropped).

Same here virtual rejection of fat balls and peanuts except for an occasional blue or great tit and even sunflower hearts are not appealing to many, very odd really.

[Pulcinella]

We've not been able to attract birds (despite hanging fat balls, seeds, etc) to our admittedly new garden either; we hope that as the estate matures it will be more appealing to wildlife in general and garden birds in particular. There are certainly often lots of slugs and snails.

[Bryn]

Busy nesting and keeping the magpies away ... and there are more insects around!

A few days ago I hung a fat-ball feeder in a little secluded clearing in the Rhododendrons in a local woodland I relax in occasionally (the one I recently observed potential nest site surveying behaviour by a red kite). Three days later just a small remnant of one of the three fat-balls I filled the fat-ball feeder with remained. I suppose grey squirrels might have been responsible for the swift consumption. I might leave a Zoom Q2n 'looking at it' to record activity for a few hours.

[oddoneout]

A few days ago I hung a fat-ball feeder in a little secluded clearing in the Rhododendrons in a local woodland I relax in occasionally (the one I recently observed potential nest site surveying behaviour by a red kite). Three days later just a small remnant of one of the three fat-balls I filled the fat-ball feeder with remained. I suppose grey squirrels might have been responsible for the swift consumption. I might leave a Zoom Q2n 'looking at it' to record activity for a few hours.

Rats or mice might have helped them selves as well?

[vinteuil]

Same here virtual rejection of fat balls and peanuts except for an occasional blue or great tit and even sunflower hearts are not appealing to many, very odd really.

... exactly the same here in Hammersmith. Most disappointing


.

[Bryn]

Rats or mice might have helped them selves as well?

If it's warm enough, I will set up a Q2n this afternoon. They are handy since they seamlessly start a new file when they reach a 2GB limit.

[jayne lee wilson]

Prolonged cooler temperatures in Spring tend to discourage breeding activity (a few hardy Blackbirds will territorialise and may begin, but if colder weather follows warmer as this year, especially after the eggs are laid, its bad news...); at the same time, there is a greater abundance of natural food such as buds and seedheads and to some extent insects. (I've seen Parakeets, Tits and Goldfinches up high recently, munching on Birch and Chestnut buds).
So birds need less of our dispenser offerings just now.

But I always notice this falling off in feeder visits at this time of year, only picking up once the eggs are laid (to feed eggsitters) and when young are hatched. (I see Jackdaws are back in one of the chimneys above my bedroom; what a rumble-de-thumps they make nest-building in the early mornings!)

If you have resident Finches or Tits, they will be drawn to the easiest-to-eat or richest varieties: sunflower hearts or suet pellets (the pellets are still popular here now, for Tits, Chaffinches, Dunnocks and Robins). Try those if your garden seems barren of birdlife.

The problem with larger suet blocks or balls is how accessible they are, with wide-spaced mesh in the feeders, to Squirrels and larger birds. Jackdaws and Magpies can demolish them in a single morning, which may be Bryn's problem. I have seen Rats on them, but very rarely.
Here, once the Jackdaws are feeding young, I have to replace the blocks every day or leave off for a while, dishing out more seed and bread to provide for them and the larger ground feeders.

[Serial_Apologist]

Just thought I'd mention that some of the points that have been made were raised, if indirectly, in the excellent two documentaries shown on BBC4 last night: A Year in an English Garden: Flicker and Pulse, at 7pm; and at 8pm, The British Garden: Life and Death on Your Lawn.

[ardcarp]

Yes, saw that. I wonder how many programmes Chris Packham makes? He must Pack 'em in.

On the subject of fat balls, they seem very popular in our garden and several bird species which you'd not expect to nibble them have worked out how to do it, according to Mrs A. Also (she says) it is birds that are getting them, not rodents.

[HighlandDougie]

On the subject of fat balls, they seem very popular in our garden and several bird species which you'd not expect to nibble them have worked out how to do it, according to Mrs A. Also (she says) it is birds that are getting them, not rodents.

Suet + mealworms (which I've contemplated coating in breadcrumbs like arancini and deep-frying as a "bonne bouche" with drinks - no, not seriously) - house and tree sparrows, long-tailed tits (which see off bigger birds if need be), chaffinches, very greedy blackbirds, even greedier woodpeckers - I can't keep up. But, as they are well off the ground and not dangling from a big branch, rodent-free. Kilos of the things so far since the autumn.

[cloughie]

Suet + mealworms (which I've contemplated coating in breadcrumbs like arancini and deep-frying as a "bonne bouche" with drinks - no, not seriously) - house and tree sparrows, long-tailed tits (which see off bigger birds if need be), chaffinches, very greedy blackbirds, even greedier woodpeckers - I can't keep up. But, as they are well off the ground and not dangling from a big branch, rodent-free. Kilos of the things so far since the autumn.

A blackbird divebombed a magpie here a couple of days ago.

[johncorrigan]

A blackbird divebombed a magpie here a couple of days ago.

Walking up the track this evening I came upon a contretemps between two male pheasants. The one coming off the worse used my appearance to beat it over the nearest available fence. The other turned tail and took off and flew right into the fence...picked itself up, shook itself off and proceeded to do precisely the same thing, straight into the fence...made it over the fence third time lucky. They might look handsome, but at this time of the year they really are the dopiest birds out there.

[vinteuil]

... male pheasants / ... / They might look handsome, but at this time of the year they really are the dopiest birds out there.

... they so are! In my Wiltshire days, driving down narrow lanes, you wd encounter pheasants in the middle of the road. Did it ever occur to them to fly or otherwise move to one side? O no, endlessly flapping confusedly forwards in front of the vehicle looming up towards them...

.

[ardcarp]

Hand reared most likely by some 'kind' game-keeper.

The unspeakable in pursuit of the edible [deliberate mis-quote] do like a target that doesn't fly away too quickly.

[cloughie]

With this rainless spell I guess the puddles and usual sources of drinking water have dried up and our birdbath has had some new visitors including Jackdaws, Rooks and Magpies.