Bird Feeders & Visiting Birds

[led.boots]

I'm considering moving the food to a tree across the street that's in plain view as opposed to the one in our yard which is close to a bush where the cats could easily ambush the birdies.

That sounds good. Since you've seen more than one cat, I'd be nervous for the birds. I love cats, but jeesh, stone cold killers.

 

[sallyomally]

True that.

 

[AlmandineSky]

I considered moving it to the backyard because the cats don't go back there with all our dogs. But, because of the dogs going outside every couple of hours, and they love to chase anything that moves or flies, the birds would still be harassed.

My husband cut down the bush that the cats were using to hide under to stalk the bird feeder (for other reasons, not because of this, this was just an extra bonus) and the cats stopped coming around. There's absolutely nothing else around now that the cats can use to hide under to get even within 15ft of the feeder without blowing their cover.

 

[Blues]

I had major problems with wasps last summer .They began to swarm my sugar feeder ,I had to pack it in . They were stinging the finches and having a go at me , vicious little buggers.
I tried everything in the book to get rid of them, I didn't want to kill them .
Anyway , thanks to the internet, I see someone used vegetable oil , WOW ! , they hate it.
Not only will they not land on the feeder it seems to have completely kicked them out of the area .
I just used a vegetable spray , just a light spray on the feeder bottle and area around it , about once a week .

 

[Lord Snot]

That's a great tip, blues. I went to fill up my feeder of dried fruit and a wasp flew out and almost stung me!

 

[Digger]

We set my mum up with a bird feeder (she has Alzheimer's) so that when she is alone she can still occupy herself by watching all of the beautiful birds. It's worked wonders and she loves it, and we've seen some incredible birds come to the feeder... but unfortunately she's now got an Alfred Hitchcock film taking place in her backyard and they empty the thing in a matter of hours. I've never seen so many birds and they're going through so much feed it's gonna break her bank. I'm thinking now maybe she should just keep the feeder out in the winter? She loves the birds but the feed is getting ridiculous! Any suggestions?

 

[Blues]

We set my mum up with a bird feeder (she has Alzheimer's) so that when she is alone she can still occupy herself by watching all of the beautiful birds. It's worked wonders and she loves it, and we've seen some incredible birds come to the feeder... but unfortunately she's now got an Alfred Hitchcock film taking place in her backyard and they empty the thing in a matter of hours. I've never seen so many birds and they're going through so much feed it's gonna break her bank. I'm thinking now maybe she should just keep the feeder out in the winter? She loves the birds but the feed is getting ridiculous! Any suggestions?

Well even a morning feed will keep the birds happy Digger . One of our feeds are grapefruit .
I don't know what season you are in , but we are in grapefruit time heaps of them free , compliments of a kind neighbor .
A lot of people just let their grapefruit rot on the ground ....maybe you could find someone with a tree .
The good thing is they will keep .We put out two a day , when you cut them , don't cut them from top to bottom cut them through the middle , that way (the finches , do you have them up there ?) they will pick the pith out .

.

 

[Blues]

That's a great tip, blues. I went to fill up my feeder of dried fruit and a wasp flew out and almost stung me!

That interesting Lord , what sort of dried fruit do you use , do you dry your own or purchase ?

 

[Lord Snot]

We set my mum up with a bird feeder (she has Alzheimer's) so that when she is alone she can still occupy herself by watching all of the beautiful birds. It's worked wonders and she loves it, and we've seen some incredible birds come to the feeder... but unfortunately she's now got an Alfred Hitchcock film taking place in her backyard and they empty the thing in a matter of hours. I've never seen so many birds and they're going through so much feed it's gonna break her bank. I'm thinking now maybe she should just keep the feeder out in the winter? She loves the birds but the feed is getting ridiculous! Any suggestions?

I had a similar problem, the feeder was being emptied in less than an hour. I sat and watched and I realised that the starlings were heavy enough to swing the feeders and empty the seed onto the ground, wasting a lot of it. I switched to a different design of feeder that doesn't spill so easily.

Also, where are you getting the seed? I got 20kg for £12 online, but in the shops it's at least 3x the price.

That interesting Lord , what sort of dried fruit do you use , do you dry your own or purchase ?

I get a very cheap fried fruit mix from the supermarket baking section. It's mostly raisins but also has orange peel. I got it because I get more starlings than any other bird and I think they're beautiful, so I looked up what their favourite food is and it's fruit. I can't afford fresh fruit so I tried dried fruit and they went crazy for it. It costs me about £2 a week to keep two 12" feeders full of dried fruit.

 

[led.boots]

I had major problems with wasps last summer .They began to swarm my sugar feeder ,I had to pack it in . They were stinging the finches and having a go at me , vicious little buggers.
I tried everything in the book to get rid of them, I didn't want to kill them .
Anyway , thanks to the internet, I see someone used vegetable oil , WOW ! , they hate it.
Not only will they not land on the feeder it seems to have completely kicked them out of the area .
I just used a vegetable spray , just a light spray on the feeder bottle and area around it , about once a week .

Thank you for this tip! I want to discourage some wasps, I'm going to do this.

 

[Blues]

I get a very cheap fried fruit mix from the supermarket baking section. It's mostly raisins but also has orange peel. I got it because I get more starlings than any other bird and I think they're beautiful, so I looked up what their favourite food is and it's fruit. I can't afford fresh fruit so I tried dried fruit and they went crazy for it. It costs me about £2 a week to keep two 12" feeders full of dried fruit.

Thanks for that tip LS . We have 4 nest boxes in the back yard , with starlings and chicks in at the moment . One nest had an epic battle between two pairs over who was going to "own"at the beginning of the nesting season , it was star wars stuff , went on for days and got really ugly .
Anyway , I noticed its starlings , blackbirds and thrushes that like the raisins

 

[Lord Snot]

No problem. When their babies were getting ready to leave the nest in Spring the bird feeder was covered with them, the parents brought them to our garden and showed them what to eat. There would normally be 10+ on there at any one time.

 

[SummerRain]

I have my bird feeder! It has 6 hanging things, a table for bread and a bird bath. The day after I put it up I had SIX birds (eight including two pidgins): two great tits, a cole tits, a robin, a tit I forgot the name of, and a bird we weren't sure what it was but it looked like a wren (but our bird book said it only visits in spring so who knows)!

But I haven't seen any since, my fiance has seen a couple, is it maybe the rain? I guess the road nearby is a little busier in the week too.

We have mixed wild bird seed, peanuts and meal worms which I asked my fiance not to get and he did anyway hmph.

 

[KLS52]

I bought a cheapo window feeder thinking it would entertain Bogart...and it did!



Then this bad boy came along and ruined all the fun.



Well, ruined it for the poor birds, not so much for us! Lol

 

[sallyomally]

Ah, the little stinker! It's hard to stay mad at them when they're so darn cute..

 

[SummerRain]

That squirrel is very cute, there are squirrels in a local park that get fed a lot, and they're incredibly tame. They'll climb up your leg and eat out of your hands and things. It's very cute, although I think it's damaging the trees (there's signs asking you not to feed them, but lots of people do).

Yesterday I saw another great tit, nuthatch and robin Very cute!