This weekend - 30th 31st January RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch

Judging by the 'bird' topics we get on here from time to time we must have some keen 'watchers'

Who's doing it?

I've done it for the last few years and like to see what we get, although my OH thinks I'm slightly obsessive.  One year I was pleased to report a Buzzard in the back garden, not that unusual here but this one was definitely viewing our pup with an 'Ooh lunch' expression and stayed nearby for weeks !!

We do it every year. Spend a fortune on bird food but get a lot of pleasure had wood pecker fieldfare and a resident crowd of goldfinches along with robins and a variety of tits, once had a pheasant on the bird feeder, rather unstable!
My big family of chickens pick up all the fallen seed.
Its this weekend enjoy

Yes i bought some more bird food today to put up more fat balls and seed,they love the half coconuts best i find.
Im ready for you birdies.

This is the second year I will be taking part, and I seem to have a bigger variety visiting this year, have a Woodpecker who comes every few days, as well as what I think is a Fieldfare, plus lots of Robins and Blue Tits, a pair of Woodpigeons and a bunch of Crows.  Don't seem to get too many Sparrows which is a bit strange.  I need to get the bird book out as I am not too good on identifying lots of the other little birds, which I think are Great Tits and Finches ( very colourful little things, all a bit bigger thn the Blue Tits).  I bought some new RSPB bird food last week, with lots of extra stuff in which the bag said Garden birds love - cost about £6 per bag but thought I woudl give them a treat - and they prefer the ordinary old mixed seed I get from the village shop at £1.5o per bag!

We do it every year as well.

Ive only just started feeding the birds, I never could before because of my female cat, she disappeared in August so this winter I decided to put some food out for the birds.  I started off with those red netting feeders and something has chewed through the sunflower seed one and the nut one has been stolen .. there is not a sign of it anywhere !!!!  (im hoping its a squirrel and not rats :(  )

I got a big sack of bird food from berriewoods and chuck some out on the pathway then I hang a plastic seed feeder and nut feeder in the big apple tree for the little birds, ive also got a shallow tray of water out.  I get blue tits and great tits, robins, goldfinches, wag tails etc.  Also blackbirds and ive seen a field fare.  Of the larger birds we have a huge family of rooks come down as well as randy wood pigeons and a couple of collar doves.

I will take a look at the RSPB website, I would like to do the birdwatch, my OH laughs at me because I have my binoculars and bird id book on the kitchen window sill !

My youngest son went through a phase of about a year in doing some bird watching, he was really into it and had all the books, binoculars and would keep logs, he would come rushing down the stairs to tell us what he had seen. :-D Now he is into a different kind of bird watching.  :-D :-D

I do love seeing birds though and always put food out for them, but no idea what most of them are still. I honestly couldn't sit still for hours and do it seriously waiting to see a particular bird. I'd never be any good at fishing either. :-D

Though I must admit we went up to Scotland last year and we stopped off at a peregrine look out there, I wasn't too sure if I would like it but it was fabulous, I really enjoyed it, it was a fantastic experience.

We do this, although this year will be the first year here in Norfolk. It's interesting seeing the different mix of birds that we get rather than those in Essex. One thing that has puzzled us here is that the tits won't eat peanuts from the nut feeder ?? They eat fat balls and seed, but nothing is eating the nuts, apart from the nuts that I put directly onto the table ?? Any ideas why not ?

Daisy

Those with filthy minds, look away ... my tits took ages to find my nuts (!) Daisy, but now they have, they love them. I bought squirrel proof feeders for nuts and seeds, and promptly came to the conclusion that the only thing that ate nuts was the squirrels as they went untouched for two months. They have the hang of it now.

A few months later I bought a squirrel/large bird proof feeder to put posh food (mealworms etc.) in to try and feed some more interesting birds rather than the army of starlings ... and not a bird has been near it. Am hoping they'll get round to that one eventually too.

I was beside myself to get a ring-necked parakeet eating the nyjer seed just after Christmas. Won't be quite so excited if he brings 500 friends eventually.

M.

> the tits won't eat peanuts from the nut feeder ??

Peanuts are a last resort here too for everything except the Great Spotted Woodpecker, although even he sometimes prefers the fat balls.  I've noticed that the peanuts go once they've been outside a while - I'm not sure but perhaps they soften a little?

I went looking for some sunflower seed a few weeks ago during the bad weather - nothing about so I bought a half coconut shell filled with fat and another hanging fat thingy.  Well the magpies really went for the coconut shell and it got thrown off it's hook several times until Meg managed to finish it off.  She ended up eating the sharp bits of shell and being sick - so I won't be doing that again.  As for the posh fat thingy - the birds are just not interested!!!!   I bought a whole tub of little fat balls from Costco last year and ended up throwing them away - the fussy birds didn't want to know - waste of money. 

The half coconut shells are favourites here too, they eat the fat balls as a last resort.  I tried to give them something a bit more varied after Christmas and refilled some empty shells with a fat/seed/dried fruit mix.  They were unimpressed!  They have slowly eaten the fillings, but nothing like the way they eat the ones I bought before.  Same with the fat balls, they go very slowly indeed.  The bluetits are pecking at the peanut feeder, but don't seem very excited, but the Woodpecker loves it.  I was delighted to see a Woodpecker, he is a very impressive looking bird and a newcomer to the garden, but does anyone have any idea if he is likely to peck at my tree?  My bird feeder are mostly hanging from my Cherry blossom tree, woudl hate to think he would have a peck at it!

I took part last year, but now I'm on Oz, obviously I can't.  I've encouraged my Mum (who should be resting!!! and what better way to do it than twittering) to have a go, as she has recently bought a new bird feeder :)

Gwen I think your cherry tree will be safe if it is not too old!  The Woodpecker taps to get insects out of the bark.  We have had one drumming away in the nearby woods for all he is worth recently.  He doesn't get into my garden though.  We had a visit from one once in our old place.  As for the green woodpecker that always used to be in the garden - looking for ants.  If I include the hedgerow just down the bank from my garden I will have a better count of birds - if it is just my garden then it will be hardly worth doing.

>I was beside myself to get a ring-necked parakeet eating the nyjer seed just after Christmas. Won't be quite so excited if he brings 500 friends eventually.

oh wow, where do you live ?

I have a wooden telegragh pole in my garden and have seen green woodpeckers gripping onto that and pecking at it, I assume they were trying to find insects !

> wooden telegragh pole

I have seen that too - thought the poles were treated but yes they did seem to be feeding on something.  However I don't know if green woodpeckers drum on the bark to get the insects out like the Greater spotted one.  I would have thought that any insects were on the surface to the poles.  Have never looked into that. 

So far the Woodpecker has just enjoyed the seed feeder and the peanuts.  The Cherry Tree seems to be quite old,  I have no way of knowing how old but has a stocky trunk which is a bit too thick for me to get my hands round, and loads of weeping branches which reach down to the ground.  However so far he has stuck to the branches which are very slender, so not much chance of him pecking them.  There is a telegraph pole right next to the tree, but it is covered in Ivy so does not give him a lot of scope for pecking!  I don't know what sort of Woodpecker he is, will have to check google, he is about the size of a collar dove, or a bit bigger, is Black and white with a bright scarlet cap on his head, very attractive.