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OK so I am trying to encourage birds in to my garden. Put out food this morning... what did I see....12 STARLINGS... Where are you Mr Blackbird?

Put a few halves of apple or pear out Lorna.  Under some bushes and I am sure the Blackbird will come back.  He is also partial to raisons, currants or sultanas and grated cheese.  Mind you the stralings will find it as well but 'Blacky' really loves the fruit. 

My garden gets the birds but in spurts.  When it is frosty I get up to 8 or 9 Blackbirds, chaffinches, couple Robins, few tits.  The main visitors are Pheasants, Red legged partridges, wood pigeon and the collared doves and off course a stray starling.  Once the winter goes on a bit and food in our countryside is getting low, then I seem to get them in greater numbers. 

Do try some fruit.

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I only get greenfinches if I put out sunflower seed for them..  If there is none they don't come.  Aren't they fussy eaters  ;D  They don't like the mixed stuff at all but I have about a hundredweight of that so it's got to get eaten before I buy any more  :)

Have you got a lawn Lorn?   Blackbirds like a bit of open space as do thrushes, I also put a bit of food out on the patio floor as they seem to prefer their food at low level  :-\

I only get starlings if I put out bread.

Finely chopped peanuts appeal to ground feeders like blackbirds, dunnocks, collared doves, robins, wrens, and..er, that mouse from next door.

Have noted and will take action on all the advice. Thanks for that. Boy am I envious that you get all those birds in your gardens. I did feed on the lawn this morning (kept the pest... Elsa.. indoors for a while) Tomorrow I will feed on patio and do some hanging feed things.

Quote from: wardy on December 20, 2005, 14:12:03
Blackbirds like a bit of open space as do thrushes, I also put a bit of food out on the patio floor as they seem to prefer their food at low level  :-\

No-one has told my blackbirds that - or my robins, which are also supposed to be ground feeders, for that matter - they have all taken to perching in the prunus & eating from the seed feeder - even though there's a tub of fat with seeds in sitting on the patio!

My greenfinches don't mind mixed food - they just eat the sunflower seeds and drop the rest  ::).  They eat from the peanut feeder, too, though, so obviously not as fussy as yours, Wardy.

Juliet. I won't mind if they get REALLY fussy just as long they come and visit ;D

aweeee lorna...

this thread saddens me as not many people realise just what global warming is about... mr blackbird along with Ms Robin.. are gonna be extinct within the next 40 years... will try and find the link.. and am in 2 minds if extinct is the right word.. but one thing is for sure.. they will definately be strangers to these shores as ou5r climate gets warmer it attracts many more species of birds and therefore edges out our robins and blackbirds...

really does sadden me to think in a few generations form now a wee child from these shores  will not get to hear a blackbird sing or see their  first robin.... on a political note,  the US should have signed up to Kyoto in the first instance and the fact that GW BUSH is in the pockets of the oil industry.. mahn makes u think for sure....

babbling here albiet environmentally

ozzy

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It seems quite uncertain whether the UK will get warmer or colder; if the Gulf Stream fails we could end up with a climate like that of British Columbia, which is at very much the same latitude and a lot colder.

Recent measurements indicate the Gulf Stream is already cooling from all the extra glacier melt from the Arctic ice cap.   Here in mid Belgium we get colder and longer winters than much of the UK.  We also have blackbirds though it's taken a while for me to establish them as regular visitors in my graden which used to be cow pasture. 

I've planted shrubs for bird shelter and food and feed all year round with a combination of hanging feeders containing mixed seeds, peanuts and fat balls as well as ground feeds of loose mixed seeds, sunflower heads and any left over bread and cooked rice to which i add extra water and oil for it to plump up thoroughly before they ingest it.  I also put out fruit such as apples in winter.

We have a patch of teasels but not a goldfinch in sight though we do have all the usual suspects - sparrows, assorted tits, greenfinches, chaffinches, robins, wrens, blackbirds, spotted woodpeckers and, in season, siskins, black redstarts and garden warblers.

We also have a recently "acquired" sparrowhawk who has spotted the feeding frenzy here and tries it on from time to time but not - as far as I can tell - with any success yet.

The more I hear of the lovely birds that visit some of you the more determind I am to try and persuade them to visit my garden. This morning few starlings and ONE blackbird.. I should really get more blackbirds as they nested in my conifers earlier in the year. Elsa is probably a deterrant in the summer as I spend so much time in the garden and she is always one step behind me.

Do you garden organically, Lorna?  We've had a massive increase in the amount of wildlife visiting this garden since we moved in (when we had a few starlings & the occasional blackbird or robin) & I'm sure it's much more to do with gardening without chemicals than it is to do with putting out feeders - or even the birdbath, which is quite popular.  There are simply a lot more insects here than there used to be and the birds & frogs & hedgehogs come to eat them.

Juliet. No I am afraid I don't. I don't use many chemicals in the garden I do have to spray now and again against white fly in the greenhouse. I do put a few slug pellets (hidden) down in the garden. Thought I would try the beer method this year for slug problems. I am also removing most of the several lots of ivy from the garden., as the snails have lovely hiding places with the ivy. Going to put clematis where the ivies are growing.

Lorna    by encouraging the birds you'll get thrushes (hopefully) and they've cleared my garden of snails.  The snails congregate on my brick walls and hide under the overhanging edges of coping stones but the birds have winkled em out.  You can hear the thrushes banging the snails shells on the ground to get in to eat them.  My husband came back with all manner of birds foods and feeders the other day and three of them the birds can't get the food out! 

I don't think they're particularly well designed.  they might keep squirrels out but what's the point if the birds can't get at the food either.  One was a very expensive ceramic lidded job!

Also they tend to feed at different times,I've noticed blackbirds out very early and very late, one of the last ones to go to bed I think. I think we also notice starlings and sparrows more because they feed in packs....or whatever the term is for a lot of them. ;)We get loads of different birds here but we also have a lot of different habitats around, sea, woody, country, that must make a difference.

Lorna, My Christmas present last year was a bird feeding station.  It is easy to erect and move, as it pushes into the ground.  There are all sorts of accessories available to go with it, including a feeding tray.  I haven't bought a tray yet but will have a look next time I am in the Garden Centre. 

Have you a got a niger feeder in your garden?  The goldfinches love this and flock to it in droves.  There are nine on my feeders at the moment and at least another nine sitting waiting for their turn.  The seed is quite expensive though (about £1 per lb) but they can get through a lb in a few days.  The answer is to buy in bulk as it does become cheaper.  Once the goldfinches are here, other birds seem to follow and I can see a blackbird at the moment on the grass under the feeder. 

I took this photo earlier this morning and it will give you some idea of the feeding station too.  Most of the birds flew away when I appeared at the window with my camera!

Pauline

Lucky you to get goldfinches.  I need some seed for the greenfinches.  Will try that niger as well.  Ta Pauline for that tip.   :)

Hi Pauline. I have only got two small ordinary feeders so will have to do something about that after Christmas. That feeding station  really does look great. I did look in the pet shop (I was getting Elsa's treats) but they really didn't have anything. Will  have to look in garden centre.
I don't know a lot about birds but I do love all the finches, dear Father-in-law used to breed them .
Thanks for all the info, will try things after Christmas.

Definately go the apple route for blackbirds.  We still have a few red apples on our tree in the garden, they were the ones that had holes in or were mishappen so I never bothered to pick them.  Over the last week or so there have been several blackbirds sitting in the tree pecking away at the fruits!  I also leave all of the seed heads on plants, like grasses and teasles, and have plenty of berried shrubs so at the moment the garden is an orgy of little birds sitting in the shrubs and on the big grasses eating the seeds.

Lorna,  I have just visited the Flowerland Garden Centre in Salisbury and bought the food tray (£6.99) and the bird bath (£8.10) to add to my feeding station.  The product name is "Just Birds" and it says on the package that it is a Lincoln Wrought Iron Product.  I have given you the price I paid for those accessories as some places on the web are charging a lot more for them so do shop around if you are going to buy a feeding station and any extras to go on it. 

Whilst there I found some specialised bird food from Chapel Wood.  They actually sell mixes for specific birds.  I came away with the wren food and blackbird food.  They also had mixes for robins, finches, tits and thrushes.  I thought I would put a little of both mixes together and see who comes to eat.

Happy Christmas.

Pauline