Garden birds and feeders

[Daisy]

Several of us are battling with trying to support the lovely small feathered visitors to our gardens and trying to deter the bullies like the magpies, pigeons, jackdaws, seagulls etc who gobble up all the food, leave a big mess and frighten off the smaller birds.

If you've got any advice or solutions please tell us!!!

I have some brilliant feeders by Jacobi Jayne which the big birds seem to leave alone (mostly). They can be easily taken apart for cleaning and are very sturdy - metal bases. I got them in our local garden centre, but they are cheaper on line:

https://www.lovegardenbirds.co.uk/jacobi-jayne-ring-pull-pro-seed-feeder?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI87ivg6OE2QIVz5PtCh363Q7LEAQYDiABEgIG6vD_BwE#product-details

I've tried all sorts of mixes but the little birds love sunflower seed hearts so that's what I put in them. I also have a niger seed feeder that attracts lovely goldfinches.

If I put fat balls anywhere nearby the bullies move in like marauding bandits and demolish the lot, so last year I tried putting a wooden fat feeder in the front garden, close to a large evergreen tree and that seems to work better.

What I need now is something for the ground/table feeders! I can't put seed on the ground in case Eva eats it (Clyde once made himself very ill just eating the bits that fell to the ground). Any ideas would be most welcome!

[Grauntie Mag]

I situated my bird feeder when we moved in last year. Not very well it seems! Plenty of bullies, not many small birds. I read that it should be nearer the hedge to allow the small birds to dive for cover when the bigger birds come. I will instruct my slave to attend to the matter today as I need to replenish feeders yet again. No idea what the best thing is for fat balls.
The previous owner fed everything, foxes, seagulls, the lot. I know it annoyed the neighbours.

[Enfys]

We have got various feeders to try and deter the squirrels magpies etc. On our bird table DH put a little bit of wire mesh to cover most of the entrance so that only little birds can get onto it. It’s funny seeing the pigeons trying to work out how they can break in but they haven’t succeeded yet. Haven’t a solution for the ground feeders apart from chasing the pigeons away. I don’t. Ind them having some but they’re so greedy.


edited: the bird table is one with a sort of little house on the table with four opening...didn’t make that clear.

[Shemadee]

My OH watched a squirrel who yanked the feeder that was hanging from the top of the swing and somehow make off over a 5’ fence.

[Nanto2girls]

We love to encourage birds into the garden. problem is,we have quite a few magpies in the area.
Hooligans of the bird world they are.
We get robins,dunnocks and goldfinches.
A female blackbird comes every morning. We know it's the same one, because she has a bad leg.

[Nana]

This post made me smile. When mum was alive she sat by the window enjoying watching the birds feeding, especially robins. (Hence my connection with robins/mum symbolism). Then along came the starlings who she hated because they took all the little bird's seed. Because of her Alzheimer's she had no boundaries. Until I moved it she used a small statue of the Last Supper to bang on the window pane.

Now what's happened?... I'm following suit. I hadn't realised until my GS2 ran over to our back doors banging on the glass door shouting "Shoo big birds!" He came over to me & said "Don't worry, your nasty big birds have gone now". I hadn't realised he'd seen me doing it. Help...I'm turning into my mother.😨

Our 'big birds' are white doves, collared doves & pigeons. Some a dozen at a time. Grrr😠

[Plantaholic]

My feeder is a pole with hooks to attach the feeders which are long mesh tubes both for fat balls and seed. It is situated near to a hedge and the little birds hide until the big birds go. I have been putting bits for the ground feeders on a table but that only attracts the larger birds and the squirrels, need to solve that one now.

[Enfys]

A few years ago the people next door had the good idea of getting a dove cote. They were the sort of couple who had a brilliant idea then went off it very quickly, so the dove cote complete with a dozen doves lasted all of a couple of weeks. The dismantled the actual structure and let the birds loose. Bad idea, because they had been used to being fed by them they stayed around their garden, perching on the roof, pooping everywhere and interbreeding with the many pigeons we have around, so now we see a motley collection of pigeon type birds that still congregate next door. Although, thinking about it I don’t think there’s quite as many lately. Such a nuisance.

[Plantaholic]

That sounds awful Enfys, what a stupid thing for them to do. Clever squirrels in your area Shemadee.

[Glammanana]

We have a little family of goldfinches in our hedges and they pop infeed from the other side of the shed and out when the bigger birds have gone,we see and hear wood pigeons collared doves and of course seagulls,I feed the goldfinches from a small hanging feeders refilling them every day with various small feed,the squirrels from monkey nuts that we leave out for them they tend to leave the birds and if they do venture near the little ones fly quickly back into safety in the hedges.I also have a regular Robin family my neighbour told me they come into my garden every year.

[Daisy]

Shem - you have to admire squirrels' ingenuity - I suppose! Considering where we live we get very few of them - the jackdaws and magpies are the biggest problems. I don't mind the pigeons quite so much - at least they don't steal from nests or attack baby birds like the magpies, and the collared doves have paired up and sit in the apple trees cuddling up to each other! They're rather sweet.

Plant - your pole feeder sounds very much like mine. I used to have it out on the lawn, but now I've put it in the border the little birds get a lot more cover in the surrounding bushes. I think that's why the fat feeder is working in the front garden too - there's a very dense large conifer right next to it, plus the bird bath nearby. I'm going to have a go at designing (ahem!) a table feeder with a very low roof so the bullies can't get in. OH has said he will make it for me. I've got a dead tree in the garden which OH has cut down to about 5-6 foot and the trunk splits into three, so a bird feeder should sit on that quite well. I hope!

Enfys - how irresponsible of your neighbours! The wire netting to narrow the entrance sounds a good deterrent. Well done Mr Enfys.


GM - I hope your slave gets on with the job for you!

Glamm - it's lovely watching through the seasons to see what comes to your garden. It sounds as though you get a nice variety, and very well-behaved squirrels.

[Enfys]

Those neighbours have moved on now thank goodness. They also had chickens, complete with cockerel that used to wake us at some uneartly hour and two ducks!! The ducks lasted about a. Month...the time it took them to,grow from little fluffy ducklings into bigger birds...they ended up at a local children’s petting farm.

We are waiting for the blue tits to come back and take up residence in the nesting box. When DH cleaned it out last year he found a field mouse had made its nest in there, so it wasn’t standing empty after the birds had gone 🙂

[Plantaholic]

Oh lovely Enfys, dual occupation. My GS1 and his partner gave me a bird box at Christmas, can't wait to put it up. We have had blue tits in the same apple tree every year, no cats this year so they will be happy. Irresponsible neighbours Enfys, I am sure you were pleased to see them go.

[Nana]

The dismantled the actual structure and let the birds loose. Bad idea, because they had been used to being fed by them they stayed around their garden, perching on the roof, pooping everywhere and interbreeding with the many pigeons we have around, so now we see a motley collection of pigeon type birds that still congregate next door. Although, thinking about it I don’t think there’s quite as many lately. Such a nuisance.

I could almost have written this Enfys. I have no idea where the doves come from but it's like Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". My neighbour puts food out as well as us. The interbreeding of these birds has happened here as well. Loads of birds on rooftops & fences surrounding our garden at certain times of the day. I think I mentioned it last year. I didn't like it then because the GCs sand pit was in the 'firing line'. We moved it of course.

I'm not going to stop feeding the birds but it is a bit of a problem.🦅