Anyone feed the wild birds?

Something has made a start on what's been put out. I did throw some on the floor and most of that's gone.
I guess it depends if they have a regular feeding station and are already feeling full up.
It could just be another take away has opened up in the corner of the field and they already have Waitrose and M&S ha ha.
 
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There was a queue at the feeding station this morning

Baby Robin, adult Robin and I think a female Chaffinch or something very similar to the Google photos of one.
They are signing, not sure if that's hello food person or get out of the way you are blocking us.
They naturally social distance on different branches.
 
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Lol our sparrows don't social distance! They are a regular little group. The cats think it's Christmas when they all appear on the yard! Bad kitties. I don't feed them on the lawn any more. And I only feed them when I'm there and can keep an eye out!
 
You know people say you need to get out more. Clearly I still do. :)
Totally random idea to hang her headcollar in the trees with a mug I don't use at the moment. I won't lose the mug, but I will be interested to see if the seed goes or not. I had wanted a dark coloured mug so it blends in and doesn't frighten them.

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You know people say you need to get out more. Clearly I still do. :)
Totally random idea to hang her headcollar in the trees with a mug I don't use at the moment. I won't lose the mug, but I will be interested to see if the seed goes or not. I had wanted a dark coloured mug so it blends in and doesn't frighten them.

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You are coming up with some great ideas! Who'd have thought a mug and a headcollar would make a good bird feeder !!!!
 
Decided to buy a fat ball thing. So what else can go in these, the piglets have eaten three in two days.
They are more crumbly than I ever recall. I might use for stale bread or biscuits.
 
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Bread isn't (or wasn't, advice may have changed since last time I looked!) good for birds during the breeding season in case they feed their chicks on it and choke them. Although you'd hope that instinct would prevent them from doing anything like that.

Anyway, thinking about feeding bread made me recall my mum buttering half a sliced loaf, stacking up the slices and then cutting them into tiny pieces with the bread knife. She did it every day for the birds to help them through the lean times.
 
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Bread isn't (or wasn't, advice may have changed since last time I looked!) good for birds during the breeding season in case they feed their chicks on it and choke them. Although you'd hope that instinct would prevent them from doing anything like that.

Anyway, thinking about feeding bread made me recall my mum buttering half a sliced loaf, stacking up the slices and then cutting them into tiny pieces with the bread knife. She did it every day for the birds to help them through the lean times.

My Nan used to have an empty margarine tub in her kitchen windowsill which she used to fill with cut up scraps for the birds bits of buttered bread etc seems a long time ago.....
 
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What about wholemeal?
I am not buttering their bread ha ha. I can buy some butter and let them stick their little beaks in though.
I guess I could make a fat ball?
 
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What about wholemeal?
I am not buttering their bread ha ha. I can buy some butter and let them stick their little beaks in though.
I guess I could make a fat ball?

You could try making a fat ball, I'm sure I spotted something once on the internet on how to do them but they aren't expensive. I guess it's just obtaining them. Not everywhere has them.
Wholemeal should be fine lol
I think like bodshi said it's mainly when they are feeding their babies. Alternatively you can wet the bread - that's fine to feed then. It doesn't have that much nutrition in it for them apparently.
We cut up tiny bits of cheese for ours. We always seem to have more cheese than we can eat lol
 
Think I will make it, likely works out cheaper and I can be sure they get lots of seeds.
The cob shows no interest which is good and I have positioned out of sniffy snout reach.

The baby pheasants are growing, mum has brought them up. The cob appears to ignore them.
 
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Bread can be dangerous for birds because of yeast and sugar, itā€™s definitely not a product thatā€™s good for them. Itā€™s better to feed seeds, low-fat cheese or nuts. After the tour www.costaricafocus.com I became interested in feeding birds, or rather proper feeding. I was very surprised by the fact that not all the food that we used to put in the feeder is allowed for birds to eat. Every year I put out cereals, seeds and berries. Btw, itā€™s important to wait for low temperatures so as not to delay the birds' flight to warmer climes for winter. Of course it depends on the state, but here in Oregon we have timely winters.
 
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I buy rolled oats at supermarket and a block of lard. Melt lard, put in oats, stir. Leave to set in a contrainer. Everyone loves it.
This sounds good and relatively cheap. I might give it a go, although OH will object to the lard smell. I wonder if I could do it outside on my mini camping stove that I've never used.

I'm interested reading this thread back. At the time it seems we were only putting out fat balls. Now I'm filling the feeders on a daily basis with sunflower hearts in one and mixed seed in another. The birds are voracious but I refuse to do it more than once a day - it's costing me a fortune! There's an interesting clump of shoots under the feeders too, I'd love to see what they grew into but OH keeps mowing them.

We mainly get Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Sparrows, Blue Tits, Coal Tits and Great Tits and at certain times of the year a small flock of starlings comes in and wipes out all the food. I love to see (and hear!) them though. Every now and then a little group of Long Tailed Tits comes through and like @Kite_Rider I love them too. They don't even seem to be very worried about humans sitting nearby. I also throw a bit of food on the ground for the Robin and of course the pigeons are always hanging around hopefully.

I normally fill up the feeders after I've mucked out and some mornings I can hear the birds chattering away in the trees waiting for their breakfast to be forthcoming. It's a lot of pressure lol.

How's it going with yours @newforest? Was the mug a hit in the end?
 
Wow this is a really old thread!
How times change.

Well since that date we have changed to a squirrel proof feeder, nailed it to the tree and clipped the lid on!
I have a nut feeder.
I don't need to fill these daily, they have nuts in one and either sunflower seeds or suet pellets in the other.
What I do find is in windy weather it swings around and the seed just fall out, the nuts don't.
I have a little feeding station on the tree for seed and I throw seed on the ground everyday.

There are eight pheasants, Primrose has now died. The birds so far are -
Robin, Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Sparrow, Dunnock, Great Tit, Blackbird, Magpie.

Wildlife, as I discovered it's on a route. Fox, Badger, Stoat, Squirrel and Rat.

I still use stale bread broken up to feed the magpies, as they will eat anything including the baby birds. This year we had two sets of baby Robins, one set of black birds, but didn't appear to have anything else.

I don't make or put out fat balls, they don't touch it and it just crumbles.
 
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This sounds good and relatively cheap. I might give it a go, although OH will object to the lard smell. I wonder if I could do it outside on my mini camping stove that I've never used.

I'm interested reading this thread back. At the time it seems we were only putting out fat balls. Now I'm filling the feeders on a daily basis with sunflower hearts in one and mixed seed in another. The birds are voracious but I refuse to do it more than once a day - it's costing me a fortune! There's an interesting clump of shoots under the feeders too, I'd love to see what they grew into but OH keeps mowing them.

We mainly get Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Sparrows, Blue Tits, Coal Tits and Great Tits and at certain times of the year a small flock of starlings comes in and wipes out all the food. I love to see (and hear!) them though. Every now and then a little group of Long Tailed Tits comes through and like @Kite_Rider I love them too. They don't even seem to be very worried about humans sitting nearby. I also throw a bit of food on the ground for the Robin and of course the pigeons are always hanging around hopefully.

I normally fill up the feeders after I've mucked out and some mornings I can hear the birds chattering away in the trees waiting for their breakfast to be forthcoming. It's a lot of pressure lol.

How's it going with yours @newforest? Was the mug a hit in the end?
The waste under your feeder is wheat. You need to look for wheat free seed as companies will bulk it out with crap they won't touch!

You can also change to a mix of the sunflower seeds instead of the actual hearts, it's cheaper, lasts longer and the bird breaks the shell themselves.
 
The waste under your feeder is wheat. You need to look for wheat free seed as companies will bulk it out with crap they won't touch!

You can also change to a mix of the sunflower seeds instead of the actual hearts, it's cheaper, lasts longer and the bird breaks the shell themselves.
Forgot to say it is wheat free 'premium' seed and I tried the whole sunflower seeds but they didn't like them as much šŸ˜‚
 
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