Feeding birds all year round? (1 Viewer)

[florall]

A second point is that since feeding is so widespread in the UK, probably it's only a question of jumping over a couple of fences and hedges to reach the next well-stocked larder.

I have feeders which 'self-fill' and can hold many kilograms of food, thus lasting 2-3 weeks if need be (but in reality I think the birds would disperse and find food anyhow).

Jos, what are these fantastic self-filling bird feeders that you talk about? Please give us more details. Do they stay full even after a prolonged absence in the middle of winter, which I seem to remember you had early this year?

I agree entirely about so many people feeding birds that the birds can just move to a station nearby. I can see one all year round feeding station a few gardens away from my house, I'm sure there are others nearby that I don't know about.

An interesting and obvious point that you make, about natural food resources running out and the birds just move on till they find something else.

As to the birds forgetting my feeders because of them going empty, I haven't found that a problem. Even after our three week gap last summer, once I filled them up again, all the species were back soon enough.

 

[Jos Stratford]

I put it on thread at the time, take a look at the thread below, it contains a picture. There was a minor 'design fault' in that the weight on nuts occasionally caused a blockage where there tube narrowed to the funnel. Redesigned for this winter - simply using a tube the same size as the feeders. The tube can be as tall as you need - theoretically ten metres even! Birds in my garden eat over a kilogram of nuts a day, plus the same in sunflowers and even more than that of seed, etc. By having several of these feeders, it is not a problem to have self feeders which would last two or three weeks or even longer. You would need to ensure the stored food can't get wet or perhaps in mild UK it could begin to rot - not out here, climatically controlled fridge is included in the design

www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=26967

 

[florall]

Brilliant. The old drain pipe solution. A friend of my mother's does something similar, though not attached to a wall.

 

[snowyowl]

Sorry, I posted to this thread. I didn't realize it was purely for European input. My mistake! :'D

 

[Tammie]

Sorry, I posted to this thread. I didn't realize it was purely for European input. My mistake! :'D

Oh, calm down, Dan!!

Up until this year, I fed the birds year round but figure this one out:

At the cottage in the bush, I could feed the birds 12 months of the year without bear trouble.

Move to town and by June, the feeders have to be put away for the summer because of bear problems!

Anyway, I was planning to slow down on the summer feeding anyway because the birds have SO much natural food out there. I do still keep some seed on a platform feeder daily and have two hummingbird feeders up (babies are now hitting those!)

It's actually much easier on my lawn to not feed in the summer as well. The mess under the feeders always did damage to the lawn in summer.

 

[florall]

It's actually much easier on my lawn to not feed in the summer as well. The mess under the feeders always did damage to the lawn in summer.

Tell me about it. We've had a dry spell, and I've frequently raked the sunflower hearts that the baby birds have dropped away from the feeders. the last week or two, we've had rain, and now I have a sunflower lawn, virtually no grass left. It looks awful.

 

[david2004]

Same for me florall! There are seeds germinating all over the place around my feeders! I spent an hour weeding earlier but there's still a carpet of them out there!

 

[Tammie]

Same for me florall! There are seeds germinating all over the place around my feeders! I spent an hour weeding earlier but there's still a carpet of them out there!

I've purposefully left a half dozen good hearty sprouts growing to act as natural feeders in about a month's time. I don't worry about the rest of the shoots. Winter will likely kill them off anyway.

 

[david2004]

That's a good idea Tammie. I'm going to leave some of mine for the winter.

 

[bluetit]

Can't resist putting my tupenny bit in here - although I like gardening mine has in the last few years gone back to before man lived here and as I feed in several places, in the trees, on table and the ground I've got the most interesting 'residue' sprouting everywhere some of which is in time being eaten each year. I'm now beginning to wonder whether I should ever go back to what remotely resembles a garden as the wildlife love it, apart from birds there is hedgehog evidence on and off, there are frogs and a super amount of insects.
The Bluetit

 

[Rathloriel]

Thanks for the posts - all very interesting and confirmed that I'm right and he is wrong!!
We have a blackbird family here that has recently fledged. The male is obviously a first time dad, as when the chicks were in the nest he would sit in the tree and scream his alarm call all day long! He nearly fell of his perch whenever he saw one of the neighbourhood crows and I had to close the windows because of the noise! All babies seemed to make it though and are now enjoying the seeds that the other birds throw down to them!
Also, We're hoping to move to Canada in the next few years, so the post about bear problems was food for thought - I hadn't considered what else you might attract over there! Going to have to get me a very large dog!
I'm definately going to continue to feed my birds whilst they want it - I was woken up at 6 am last week by a flock of hungry birds, very indignant because I had let the feeder run dry. Sparrows, blue tits, finches and doves were all begging me to give them an easier life - what's a girl to do!!

 

[Mary Evelyn]

Sparrows, blue tits, finches and doves were all begging me to give them an easier life - what's a girl to do!![/QUOTE]



FEED THEM :flowers: :flowers: :flowers: