Bird feeding, any tips?

[herring99]

Hi all,

this year i've made a big effort to get more birds into the garden. I've put in a small pond, berry plants, cherry tree, butterfly bushes and let the ivy and bramble run riot on the back fence. Until this weekend i had only limited success with the usual tits, robins and blackbirds, so i changed the amount i put out and the variety, adding a fat feeder and a sunflower seed feeder. This morning i had 3 blackcaps (2 males and 1 female) which used the fat feeder and ate the old fruit on the brambles, goldcrest in the ivy, a coal tit which has adopted the feeders, dunnock on the table, 2 robins and a pair of blackbirds. The tits are also feeding in greater numbers and this effort has shamed the neighbour into feeding the birds again. The grey squirrel is back but i can keep him off the feeders by leaving a pile of peanuts on the ground near the ground feeder.
I still can't get the rest of the tit flock into the garden including about 15 long tailed tits. A small finch flock and thrushes also ignore the food on offer. The garden is about 20x20 feet, borders a line of trees and a ditch, next to a road in the middle of a town in Hampshire, UK. We do have cats in the neighbours gardens but the feeders are situated to give the birds the best view and chance of escape. Is there something more i can do to get a greater range and numbers feeding?

Have a Happy New Year, and good birding to all B (:

Herring

[Elizabeth Bigg]

Hi Herring - I've been delighted with the success of my niger feeders. We used to get one or two goldfinches in the garden occasionally, but they ignored the niger seed in the dish on the bird table, and also spurned the teasles I grew for them. Then I read of the importance of using a special niger feeder, so I bought one of these. (My husband was very sceptical). Within four days, two appeared then numbers built up so much that they were quarrelling, so I bought another niger feeder - and the other days I had eleven. Most of them were on the feeders, but some were on the ground beneath mopping up the spillage, with the help of four chaffinches and a dunnock. Two collared doves often spend ages pecking around there too.

You certainly seem to be working hard to attract a variety of birds, so I think the only other thing you need now is patience! :eek!: When we first moved here there were very few birds, but following the sort of plan you used, we have a good number of birds now.

I use this company for things I cannot buy locally:
http://www.gardenbird.com/index.htm

[LuBird]

Hi Herring. This year I found I could buy a 40lb. bag of deer corn for $3.96 at Walmart. So I added this food to all of the other kind mentioned on this thread.This corn is used by hunters to lure the poor deer in so they can kill them. It's not in the Bird Feed Dept. but is in with the hunting gear:(
This corn is the best I ever used and I scatter a scoop under the feeders and also on flat rocks on the deck.The Squirrels come and eat through the centers and this opens the hard shell up so the smaller birds have a chance to partake of this nutritional food. The Blue Jays love the corn too and are choosing it over peanuts at least for now.
Juncos,Finches,Cardinals, and Sparrows eat the rest. It is working out better than I ever imagined. Today,a very young squirrel came to eat at this feeding station and it has been a pleasure to watch him mimic the grown-ups.

A good year to you too,Lucille