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

[Serial_Apologist]

I have often seen the pheasants in the cabbage patch. When I do, I open the kitchen window and shout at them. They look at me and nod in acknowledgement….

You obviously don't come across as sufficiently aggressive then, ds!

[Richard Tarleton]

If you're changing vowels, save me the hen tail-feathers please.

I had the privilege of meeting a very famous Welsh rugby player - yes, him - who had managed the considerable feat of shooting a brace of woodcock - a left and a right - while on a shooting trip to Ireland. He placed the pin feathers carefully under the heavy clear perspex light on his hotel bedside table, intending to, I don't know, frame them, tie flies with them. They were swept away by an overzealous chambermaid.

[clive heath]

I have been watching among others: Pied Kingfishers, Pigmy Cormorants and Marbled Teal on

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00xxf9f/natural-world-20102011-9-miracle-in-the-marshes-of-iraq

which I was drawn to because during last spring's flooding I chose to read two water based books, "Waterland", set in the fens, and Wilfrid Thesiger's "The Marsh Arabs". To see the reed houses and the water-buffaloes that I read about and saw pictured in the grainy black and white photos now in glorious technicolour is a real joy and as mentioned the bird life is amazing. Still available but I don't know how long for.

[Richard Tarleton]

This was indeed a heartening programme Clive - I thought the marshes were done for, I had no idea this conservation programme was in place. A tribute to nature's powers of recovery, though the upstream damming sounds an insuperable obstacle.

Gavin Maxwell tagged along on a later Thesiger expedition, the source of his Marsh Arabs book "A Reed Shaken by the Wind". But Thesiger had a low opinion of Maxwell, confirmed by later encounters. It was Thesiger who found him his first famous otter Mijbil, new to science, who was nevertheless named for Maxell.

[Anna]

I can't find it, but I'm sure someone posted a recipe for refilling coconut shells with a suet/seed mixture. The blue tits have pecked a shell totally clean and I'd like to try a homemade mix. Do I have to get a vegetarian (and preferably lo-fat?) suet or just beef. Also, what's the best mix of seeds to put in it (I don't suppose you can buy pots of dried insects ...... )

[amateur51]

This was indeed a heartening programme Clive - I thought the marshes were done for, I had no idea this conservation programme was in place. A tribute to nature's powers of recovery, though the upstream damming sounds an insuperable obstacle.

Gavin Maxwell tagged along on a later Thesiger expedition, the source of his Marsh Arabs book "A Reed Shaken by the Wind". But Thesiger had a low opinion of Maxwell, confirmed by later encounters. It was Thesiger who found him his first famous otter Mijbil, new to science, who was nevertheless named for Maxell.

I suspect that Thesiger and Maxwell were not unreasonably at that time running scared from the same 'dark secret'

[Richard Tarleton]

I suspect that Thesiger and Maxwell were not unreasonably at that time running scared from the same 'dark secret'

Could well be - probably a discussion best continued here . My source the Botting biog.

[amateur51]

Just been visited very briefly by a solitary goldfich. I assume that the mildish weather means that there are other sources of food a-plenty and so they're eschewing my seed-feeders etc.

[Don Petter]

I can't find it, but I'm sure someone posted a recipe for refilling coconut shells with a suet/seed mixture. The blue tits have pecked a shell totally clean and I'd like to try a homemade mix. Do I have to get a vegetarian (and preferably lo-fat?) suet or just beef. Also, what's the best mix of seeds to put in it (I don't suppose you can buy pots of dried insects ...... )

I regularly make up suet mix feeders using old (large) yoghurt pots as moulds. If you line them with a small thin freezer bag before putting in the armature the resulting cake can be easily removed once it has set overnight.

We used to buy genuine suet from the local butcher (when we had one) which cost pence for a huge lump. He did have reservations about what it was doing to our arteries, until he was persuaded it was for the birds. Then we had to render it in an old saucepan, which was a somewhat smelly business.

Now, for simplicity (and lack of real butchers), though not for economy, we buy ordinary packs of Atora shredded suet. These are melted in an old frying pan, together with any sort of wild bird seed and some peanuts. I don't think the exact seed mix is too critical - the birds are all too busy digging in and thinking their favourite must be in there somewhere!

I'm not sure they attract any different birds from those on the straight peanut feeders, (currently tits of all sorts, nuthatch and spotted woodpecker - sadly, we haven't seen greenfinches for a year or so) but they are very popular and one hopes the suet will help them survive the winter.

I'm sure insects or other ingredients can be added as desired, it's really an 'anything goes' exercise. We've sometimes added sultanas.

[Vox Humana]

We seem to have acquired our regular wintering Blackcap, possibly two since I saw two female/immature types together in our Buddleia a few days ago. At the moment she/they are happy with the sunflower hearts in the feeders, but to be sure of keeping it I really need to make my standard birdcake - melted beef dripping mixed with finely-ground peanuts, allowed to set in a small cake tin. Sometimes I have added breadcrumbs to bulk it out, but I doubt there will any need this year - we don't get quite so many birds since our neighbour recovered her patio from the jungle that had engulfed it.

[Anna]

I really need to make my standard birdcake - melted beef dripping mixed with finely-ground peanuts, allowed to set in a small cake tin. Sometimes I have added breadcrumbs to bulk it out

That's what I was wondering - if it was necessary to grind things up, adding peanuts seems a good idea. I recently bought a metal cage and a flat suet cake to fill it - cranberry and insect flavour! But after the initial flurry of blue tits having a feed only the robins seemed interested in it (it is empty now so I could make a block to refill it)

[Vox Humana]

I think peanuts in a bird cake need to be ground finely since only the larger birds will swallow them whole. I think the same is probably true of smaller seeds as well. My finches and sparrows do not swallow even sunflower hearts whole, but grind them first with their bills. I wouldn't bother with anything else personally. I have tried other seeds (not in a cake) from time to time, but they have never attracted any extra species and often those seeds were ignored. My Goldfinches are perfectly happy with the sunflower seeds so I have never needed to try niger. I believe House Sparrows are fond of millet, but it has never worked for me.

The berries, insects or mealworms added to suet pellets and cakes are just a marketing ploy aimed at the gullible consumer. They make no difference whatsoever to the birds, which are only interested in the suet. Our resident Robin and the Blackbirds appreciate mealworms (alive or dried), but the Magpies usually get in first.

[Don Petter]

I think peanuts in a bird cake need to be ground finely since only the larger birds will swallow them whole. I think the same is probably true of smaller seeds as well. My finches and sparrows do not swallow even sunflower hearts whole, but grind them first with their bills.

As far as I can see, the peanuts are held in the suet matrix while the small birds peck them, just the same as they are held in a nut cage feeder.

What is the logic of finely grinding smaller seeds? Isn't the idea to supply the sort of food being found in nature, for them to deal with naturally, not feeding them a pre-digested baby-pap?

[jayne lee wilson]

I've always crushed peanuts for dispensers - though you make a rod for your own back as they disappear so fast. And your back itself feels the pressure too...... as for sunflower seeds etc., it disappears as fast as I can put it out, the finches and tits are now almost as ravenous as those August youngsters. We're in the heart of the winter, so its not uncommon to see 20+ Greenfinches and 10+ Goldfinches buzzing around the orchard, tits darting among them... Nuthatches and Woodpeckers dig, quietly apart, at the suet hanging over the shrubby ditch.... then a great whumpff of wings from ferals and passerines as a sparrowhawk sweeps in. Silence. Gradually, the little birds creep back... if the hawk makes a catch, keep away! You don't want a dying pigeon in need of a mercy-kill.

Highlights recently include a pair of Blackcaps and a female Brambling, both very catholic in their choice. The Goldies love the Nyger seed again, and often have it to themselves when the sunflower feeders are nearly empty and the finch hoi polloi of chaff and green is panicking at the last scraps...

[Don Petter]

I've always crushed peanuts for dispensers - though you make a rod for your own back as they disappear so fast. And your back itself feels the pressure too...... as for sunflower seeds etc., it disappears as fast as I can put it out, the finches and tits are now almost as ravenous as those August youngsters. We're in the heart of the winter, so its not uncommon to see 20+ Greenfinches and 10+ Goldfinches buzzing around the orchard, tits darting among them... Nuthatches and Woodpeckers dig, quietly apart, at the suet hanging over the shrubby ditch.... then a great whumpff of wings from ferals and passerines as a sparrowhawk sweeps in. Silence. Gradually, the little birds creep back... if the hawk makes a catch, keep away! You don't want a dying pigeon in need of a mercy-kill.

Highlights recently include a pair of Blackcaps and a female Brambling, both very catholic in their choice. The Goldies love the Nyger seed again, and often have it to themselves when the sunflower feeders are nearly empty and the finch hoi polloi of chaff and green is panicking at the last scraps...

Good for you! A terrific selection so you must be doing the right things (and perhaps be in the right place).

We are quite rural, with many trees around, but never seem to get a great variety. Wren, robin and blackbird, but we haven't seen a thrush or sparrows for ages, and our niger seed feeder has been full and untouched for over a year at least. Still, we much enjoy the tits and the woodpeckers and hear a tawny owl very nearby most nights.