Right I have decided to feed the birds...tuppence a bag...sorry I couldn't resist bursting into song there :)

No seriously what and when do you feed the birds in your garden, I want to encourage them if I can
Karen

Anything.  This time of year fatty stuff is best.  Give them a bit of podge ready for breeding.  Take the nuts in once the babies come.  Put mealworm out once you see the first fledgeling.  They look awful but the birds love them  they also love soaked toast, pizza, yorkshire pudding and seeds.  I throw everything out and they eat the lot.  Fat lot of birds round Durham.  The feathered kind that is!! :)

Be prepared to clean bird poo off your house, car and head :D

Also arent lard balls supposed to be a favourite and good for them too
( sorry Joe , not talking about you here :D :D - couldnt resist that on a boring sunday morning)

Lel!! I expected more!  And at the risk of sounding like I haven't got a life - you can make your own lard balls rather than buying them at the pet shop.  By, what an exciting life I lead

Ta Joe, can I ask do you feed on a bird table or hang up fat balls.
Just saw them on countryfile feeding birds sunflower seeds-is that alright?

Karen

Karen,

I don't work for the RSPB!  :D.  I'm just a novice.  I have a bird table and I hang the nuts, fatballs, seeds from the trees.  They love sunflower seeds but if you're a gardener avoid the mixed seed.  it's full of grass seed and it grows in every crack!  Birds are very messy eaters.  Although I do somethimes just throw if on the lawn if I'm around - they still come down when I'm there.  Even have a robin that'll eat out of your hand.  Maybe I was a bird in a previous life - God forbid :D

Oh I don't know Joe you'd more than likely look good in feathers :)
Thanks though most helpful Karen

First thing Karen - make sure you are not "feeding the cats" !!

Make sure that wherever you are feeding them it is in the open and the the cats can't creep up on the birds - or I'll start into song with "I tort I taw a puddy cat a cweeping up on me" - sorry about that - just burst out!!!

I have 3 feeders full of seeds, two with nuts, a "blue peter type" concoction of fat & oats - the occasional apple that is going a bit rotten, and I always have a water bowl thingy, all hanging from our walnut tree.  We do get loads of birds with this lot - and also squirrels (whom we try to dissuade - they seem to think that the walnut tree is their own personal larder!

Margot

I decided not to feed the birds as we have 2 highly efficient farm cats and I know I'd be hopeless at keeping up to refilling so I just planted loads of berrying bushes and it's really made a difference to the number of birds that visit and nest in the garden. I made some bird boxes and even had a robin nesting in an old teapot last year. :D 

My Mum has quite a few feeders and feeds mainly black sunflower seeds now as they seem to prefer those to all the other stuff (peanuts, wild bird food etc) she feeds. I think the more variety of feeders and food you have though, the more different species you'll attract. Some birds are mainly ground feeders so scatter some on the ground too. Mum tried the squirrel proof ones but her squirrels just pulled the mesh off!

Look here for bird food and ideas. http://www.haiths.com/ Free catalogue too. :)

My mum gets her seeds by the sack from the local agricultural merchant as they work out loads cheaper.

This is a good site for identifying them. http://www.garden-birds.co.uk/

Have fun, the are so lovely and interesting to watch. :)
Kath.

I left a lard ball once on my table outside and the collie et it.
I have a nesting box on my fence, a pair of blue tits use it every year. they come in January. I spend hours watching them taking the twigs etc in for the nest. Once the babies are born there is a lot of toing and froing with food

Jean

When we lived in our first house, we had lovely, elderly neighbours who were ardent bird feeders :) It was not uncommon, if they had run out of food, to see a 1/2lb of butter on the bird table :D

Daisy

It's brilliant watching them find food with such dedication isn't it. We have swallows nesting in the farm buildings and they are continually circling and swooping to catch flies. I once watched a bird (can't remember what sort now) and it picked a butterfly off a clematis, I saw the butterfly's wings float to the ground and the bird took the body back for the chicks!

Kath.

have you looked at the rspb web site they give a recipe for lard balls and also a list of what to feed and when the web address is www.rspb.org.uk sorry dont know how to do links

i miss birds....
my dad is mad with feeding birds, he has every type of feeder, food, nestingbox imaginable in his garden, and so has every type of bird
i now live in a terraced house 100 miles away and i haven't seen a single bird ! too many cats probably !

Just to mention that you should avoid anything doughy with a low fat content like bread crumbs etc ... apparently it fills up the little birds so they stop looking for food, but because it's low fat it doesn't sustain them for long enough (ie overnight) during cold periods, so they die. I only know this because I had to take a long taxi journey recently with a rabid bird enthusiast, who told me everything I never wanted to know about birds. Yay!

Jo

I hope that he didn't bite you, Jo :D

Daisy

Oh I love watching the birds feed, I have a squirrel proof feeder for the nuts, and a seed feeder for mixed seed, yup grass growing in every nook and cranny, except of course in the brown patches on the lawn (term used loosley :rolleyes:  )

I feed them all year round too!

liberty :)

Thanks for the idea all. I 'll have a look at the site too. Karen going to the birds :)
Karen

Does anyone remember Blue Peter decorating the old Christmas trees with bacon rind etc for the birds?....seem to remember it was an annual event!!!!!!
Gail :) :) :)