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What's your feeding station like? (1 Viewer)

Dan123

Well-known member
I've seen a few suggestions made by people to possible have a thread about our current feeding stations in our Garden's. I think that is a great idea which can also give ideas for others who are just thinking of creating a bird station. I didn't see a current thread on this subject but if there is one I'm sorry about that :p Just thought it would be a kool idea.

I don't have any pictures of mine yet but I will take some. I currently have two Gardman Feeding Poles with Fatballs, Peanuts, Mealworms and Suet Pellets on. Whilst in the Trees, one No Mess Seed Feeder, another Peanut holder, one Woodland Mix Seed Feeder and a Sunflower Heart feeder. Also one Bird Table at the back of the Garden and one miniture table near the front of the Garden.

Anyways I thought that this would be a good sharing thread but if one has already been made thats kool :)

So what feeding stations do you have?
 
My outside space is a tiny courtyard which contains a Gardman pole where I supply peanuts, sunflower hearts, mixed seed, fat balls, a fat block and water. Bought a special patio base for the pole: it's ok but not really heavy enough in windy conditions so sometimes falls over. Last time it fell I saw rats eating the spilled food, so I've had to weigh it down with rocks around the base. Problem solved, hopefully. Water container got too cold in the winter and has broken. In spite of all that I've had 20 species using the feeder and it gives me a chance to practise my field sketching without leaving the house!
 
I have two feeder poles. The one has a mesh dish, water bowl a feeder full of sunflower hearts, a feeder full of sunflowers seeds and a feeder full of nyjer seeds. The other pole has a fat ball feeder able to fit 4 fatballs in, another mesh dish, a feeder full of mixed seed, a scrap holder full with nesting material, a scrap feeder that holds a suet block and also a coconut filled with suet.

Also have a hand built bird table with a roof that sticks into the grass and I put a floor feeder in there full of mealworms and on the post attached to the bird table I have two brackets hanging off and have one feeder for nuts and one feeder for suet pellets.
 
You guys saying that I forgot that I also have a Nyjer feeder, though no birds have touched it yet. And two mesh dish's on the Gardman Poles with the fatballs on and water tray :p

I do also have a Cocnut filled with Suet but they don't seem to go for it. Do you have much sucsess with it BirdGarden? We have had them in the past and it was gobbeled up in no time then. But this time it's only had little pecks. I find no point in buying them at the moment.
 
The coconut feeder I only bought because it was half price but like yours it has not proved very popular only a few holes to the inner shell I would just save your money unless you try at the same time your last one was gobbled up.

Im in the same situation with you with the nyjer feeder no bird has touched it yet, but I just bought a nyjer feeder with a tray someone said it might help.
 
Oh really, I don't think I've seen them around. It may actually help though of it is designed to catch loose seeds, might put them on display a bit more for our feathered friends.

We now have Goldfinches that seem to be becoming regulars now much to my delight, but they still haven't gone for the nyjer seed. I am not sure if they have even noticed it lol :p They go straight for the Sunflower Hearts in the Tree and occasionaly, the No Mess seed mix feeder. Maybe they prefer different foods at different times. Maybe when they get their young they would depend on the nyjer more?
 
Maybe someone else will answer that I have yet to see a goldfinch, a greenfinch yes they are common but a goldfinch I envy the day :)
 
We had several goldfinches coming to our feeders pretty much all winter.
We have nyjer seed, suet, regular mixed bird seed and black oil sunflower seeds. During the cold weather all the mainly seed feeding birds preferred the sunflower seeds, emptying the feeder every 2 days. They pretty much ignored the other seed feeders.
In the past few weeks the weather has warmed substantially and the finches are eating the nyjer seed again, emptying the tube, I filled in the fall, in about 2 weeks. The seed eating birds are now eating all the different seeds almost equally.
 
My goldfinches have dwindled from a hefty 46 down to 6 or 7 and 2 or 3 greenfinches.Here are some crackin feeding stations i've found.
The second one is mine and i'd love to claim responsibilty for the birdhouse but sadly not
 

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My feeding station is an 8ft piece of 4X4 (not the car type) with a brush handle cut into four and stuck on either side of it. On to each of them is a self-tapping hook, onto which go the feeders. Took about 30 minutes to make, dig a hole for and put up.

I started with a fat ball feeder, nyjer seed, sunflower seed and peanut feeder. Swapped the nyjer seed for a suet block holder as i wasn't getting any goldfinches in. Then this winter shifted everything into a tree instead and put the nyjer feeder up with them. Don't bother with a suet block feeder anymore as during the cold spell it was to hard for anything to eat.

Everything has had to come out the tree now due to the great tits using the box on it (hopefully). So Im back down to four feeders, 2 sunflower seed and 2 nyjer seed. Found some space towards the back of the garden for the fat balls and mixed seed feeder and have a ground table as well. Might get the suet block feeder back out come may, the starling chicks love them, but they destroy them within a couple of hours, which does get expensive.

Im now trying to get more natural food in (bugs and wildflower seeds) it's free after the intial outlay of buying plants or digging the pond. And if a few caterpillars make it through the summer then I can live with a few more butterflies knocking about.

Adam
 
well I think a picture should be compulsory here . :t:
This is our feeding area under the lilac trees which looks like it was abandoned two years ago :-O
 

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In the back we have a four hook gardman feeder pole with a smaller hook futher down the pole also has on it a mesh seed tray and drinking bowl.around the front we have another gardman feeder pole which is the same as the other one but only has two hooks not four hooks,feed wise we giv em mixed seed,sunflower hearts,peanuts,fat balls,suet blocks.suet pellets and dried meal worms,they get better fed than me lol.oh I forgot also small bird table around the back aswell.As for coconuts WE tried them a few times in our other house and birds would"nt touch em now we never buy them think there a waste of money.
 
A nice addition to my feeder station is a five foot pine tree log that I stood upright and drilled holes into it with an auger drill bit one inch diameter and drilled them at a downward angle. I fill them with a little bit of oil sunflower or suet. It is a natural setting and pictures look good as they poke thier heads inside for the treat. The bark is gone from the log there are a few branches broken off next to the main trunk to add as perching platforms.
 
I've finally taken some pics. Just a couple shots of the different feeding areas.

Pictures032.jpg

Pictures033.jpg
 
We had hanging feeders up for two years, and not a single visitor.

Over Christmas, I got fed up with the food going off uneaten, and chucked the last of the bag on the lawn.

Guess what turned up?

For some reason, our local birds turn their beaks up at hanging food. I've bought a traditional roofed table, and a ground-feeding tray, and now we have blue tits, wrens, great tits, starlings, blackbirds, robins, collared doves and wood pigeons.

The doves and pigeons turn up most often, and seem to hog most of the food - if I criss-crossed nylon line around the roofed table, would that be a safe way of keeping them off at least some of the food?
 
we have the same problem with the greedy woodpidgeons :C

I lowered the roof on my bird table considerably which at least keeps them out of that.:t: I guess they mainly eat the corn which the smaller birds arn't interested in anyway so it works out ok most of the time
 
The roof is fairly snug anyway - even the collared doves have to duck.

I think I'll try the line, because it's easily reversible if it doesn't work, and I'll do it at the weekend, in case something needs rescued.
 
My station is a simple platform feeder made by using a clay pot base. It's about 15in (38cm) in diam and 1in (2.5cm) high. It's easy to clean and replace if necessary. For inclement weather, I invert it so the water doesn't pool in it; then flip it back over when the showers end.

The watering pan is 9in (23cm) disposable aluminum pie tin. I weight it with a rock. I like the aluminum tin because it reflects the sunlight and attracts birds to its location. And, it's easily replaced. So far, having it ground-sited seems to work o.k.

Drawback, both are vulnerable to the pesky squirrels. But, the way I see it that's nature's plan.
 

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