Does anyone else feed wild birds over the winter.

[BBH]

I do but I was hearing on the news that a lot of birds will die this year as people have stopped buying food given the recession.

I pick up bags when I get my horse feed but at over £5 a pop I can see its expensive if you are on a budget.

Anyone had a go at making anything for them.

 

[Mare Stare]

Nope.

I'd be my neighbour's cat's best friend if I did.

 

[JVB]

Yes I do and this has reminded me I need to refil the feeders - thanks!

 

[scarymare]

No

I do feed 6 feral cats though.....

Wouldn't really be fair to the birds IMO. Mind you it doesn't stop them stupidly nesting in the stables.

 

[Sayra]

I make fat balls with porridge oats, fruit, nuts and old cheese/bread/whatever. I don't buy bird seed or anything and the birds just get what ive got left really.

 

[FairyLights]

I used to do but we have 2 cats now and next door does too so they would just be cat food. A neighbour across the field feeds them,she has about 6 feeder and puts out different seeds and stuff,so I dont feel too bad knowing that. Last winter in that bad snow I fed they birds at the yard,lots of oats and mix and even put out some for the field mice.

 

[*hic*]

Over the year I fill up empty cat food tins with the fat poured off the meat I cook, rather than pouring it down the drain, mixed with a good handful of birdseed, grass seed or the sweeping when we've had particularly seedy hay / haylage. I hang the tins up on binder twine. It may not be the prettiest solution but it keeps the birds alive.

Mind you they don't get the duck fat - that's saved for confit meat and potatoes!

 

[flowersgirl]

I do, but just buy the fat balls and put these up and if my horse has left any mix/barley I put this out too

 

[Hollywood]

Yes I do - I buy sunflower hearts and fat balls but also throw out any old bread, cake and apples for them too - I love seeing the birds in the garden and although there are cats about the birds are very good at avoiding them.

 

[superted1989]

I do. I buy wild bird mix, suet tray things and save fruit/bread scraps. Don't have anything hanging though, just feed them from a table.
We haven't had so many visitors yet, the weather is still warm for the time of year and there's a lot of housebuilding going on 100 yards from my back garden. I think they get used to where the food is, last year, if I was late putting stuff out, there's be a queue along the fence and on top of the shed (with quantities of cr@p to show their displeasure at having to wait!).

 

[Shantara]

We feed them all year round.

Last year we fed some VERY large wild birds...swans!
I love my swans, they were called Er-Hong and Siegfried. There was 5, but 3 died when the parents left them, so we decided to look after the remaining 2. They were so friendly and would call to us when we came over.
We eventually called the 'Swan Lady' and she took them to the big pond. We even went to visit a few times and they still remembered us! When they turned fully white, they blended in with the others too much and we lost them in the crowd.

This is them with their mother, Odette, when she returned for a short while.

Er-Hong, Odette, Siegfried.

 

[*hic*]

Humph, living round here the swans can jolly well do their own thing! The only time I managed to get a really good covering of grass going into winter several thousand of the things landed on it, ate all the grass in a day and left it covered in swan poo.

THey all go back to Welney to delight the public at the evening swan feeding. They don't need my grass as well

 

[Shantara]

Humph, living round here the swans can jolly well do their own thing! The only time I managed to get a really good covering of grass going into winter several thousand of the things landed on it, ate all the grass in a day and left it covered in swan poo.

THey all go back to Welney to delight the public at the evening swan feeding. They don't need my grass as well

Usually we would just leave them, but these two were tiny when they were left, they would have died within the week (or so the Swan Lady said)

This was taken just a week or so before their parents left and brothers and sisters died. So tiny!!

 

[NoltonSeaShell]

I feed a variety of bird feed, I used to buy it from pets at home but it is extremely expensive. So now I buy it from wilkinsons which is so much cheaper. All worth it when I see hungry little birds hanging from a feeder.

 

[Wagtail]

I do but I was hearing on the news that a lot of birds will die this year as people have stopped buying food given the recession.

I pick up bags when I get my horse feed but at over £5 a pop I can see its expensive if you are on a budget.

Anyone had a go at making anything for them.

Yes. Feeding wild birds costs me around £45 a month. But I love seeing them so much. I have to be very strict with myself though and only put out the same amount of food each day, even though much of it is gone by lunch time. Each year, more and more birds arrive. I have the following visit regularly:

House Sparrows
Tree sparrows
Reed buntin
Coal tits
Willow tits
Great tits
Blue tits
long tailed tits
LOADS of gold finches
green finches
chaffinches
Yellow hammers
Dunnocks
Greater spotted wood peckers

Love them!

 

[Archangel]

Yes. Feeding wild birds costs me around £45 a month. But I love seeing them so much. I have to be very strict with myself though and only put out the same amount of food each day, even though much of it is gone by lunch time. Each year, more and more birds arrive. I have the following visit regularly:

House Sparrows
Tree sparrows
Reed buntin
Coal tits
Willow tits
Great tits
Blue tits
long tailed tits
LOADS of gold finches
green finches
chaffinches
Yellow hammers
Dunnocks
Greater spotted wood peckers

Love them!

No wagtails Wagtail?

 

[stacey_lou]

By a bag of wild bird seed and mix it with suet, place the mixture in say an old coffee lid or co**** shell leave it to set and put that out for them, they will go mad for it and gives them extra fat in their diet to help keep them warm over the winter

 

[BBH]

Yes. Feeding wild birds costs me around £45 a month. But I love seeing them so much. I have to be very strict with myself though and only put out the same amount of food each day, even though much of it is gone by lunch time. Each year, more and more birds arrive. I have the following visit regularly:

House Sparrows
Tree sparrows
Reed buntin
Coal tits
Willow tits
Great tits
Blue tits
long tailed tits
LOADS of gold finches
green finches
chaffinches
Yellow hammers
Dunnocks
Greater spotted wood peckers

Love them!

Thats wonderful.

I also have a lot of wood pigeons who eat loads and people say they are horrible but they still need to eat so I bought some dispensers that only smaller birds can use. Now everyone is catered for even the squirrels who are very partial to the monkey nuts on offer.

Its lovely to realise people don't forget our feathered friends and also the feral cats. In fact anything easily overlooked.

 

[*hic*]

By a bag of wild bird seed and mix it with suet, place the mixture in say an old coffee lid or co**** shell leave it to set and put that out for them, they will go mad for it and gives them extra fat in their diet to help keep them warm over the winter

stacey_lou what on earth did you type instead of coconut?

 

[BentleyBelly]

I do...I get big bags of seed from Scats and loose peanuts (so much cheaper than pre packed) and fat balls from The Range when I am nearby. I love seeing the birds in the garden...especially the woodpeckers. I do try to be sensible and only fill the feeders once or twice a week as it could get terribly expensive!

 

[*hic*]

. Now everyone is catered for even the squirrels who are very partial to the monkey nuts on offer.

OUr squirrels have a merry old time collecting the walnuts. Then they dig little holes all over the school and bury them!

 

[Wagtail]

Thats wonderful.

I also have a lot of wood pigeons who eat loads and people say they are horrible but they still need to eat so I bought some dispensers that only smaller birds can use. Now everyone is catered for even the squirrels who are very partial to the monkey nuts on offer.

Its lovely to realise people don't forget our feathered friends and also the feral cats. In fact anything easily overlooked.

I found a couple of baby wood pigeons a couple of year ago, just stumbling around in my sand turnout. I couldn't find their nest and after watching them for most of the day, it was clear the parents were not around. They were only tiny but proved really easy to hand rear, unlike all the other fallen birds I have found over the years.

 

[peanut]

I feed the birds. They love pecking at a jacket potato cut in half with sunflower oil soaked into it and left to cool

 

[touchstone]

I feed the wild birds and have four cats!! The cats tend to leave the birds alone as the feeder is one that they can't reach anyway and the two cats that usually sit watching the birds are too fat and lazy to bother catching them.

 

[stacey_lou]

stacey_lou what on earth did you type instead of coconut?

LOl I did type Coconut lol though my mind in on the wonder today could of contained a K instead of the second O lol

 

[Enfys]

Yes. It is like having an aviary outside my window. I make fat balls but buy a $25 sack of feed a month as well.

4 sorts of woodpeckers, sparrows, goldfinches, juncos, chickadees, doves, blue jays, cardinals mainly, oh and then a peregrine and a couple of sharp shins sit in the hemlock and periodically pick off anything that isn't up to speed. The sparrows live in the hay barn and de-seed the round bales!

We have red, black and grey squirrels and chipmunks, and the raccoons come and clear up in the night, and so do the deer.

I feed in summer too, we get the hummingbirds of course and a lot of migrants just passing through - better than an aviary!

 

[Benlot]

I do, I have three bird feeders hanging around my little yard and each morning once the horses have been fed I fill up the feeders.

 

[rhino]

Annie - would be really interested to know who the 'swan lady' is as it is illegal to move mute swans without written permission from the Queen's swan marker David Barber.. which isn't easy to obtain.

Also, if the cygnets were last year's brood you will still be able to tell them apart from older birds as they will not be fully white yet, they are 2 before this happens. Even as a two year old they won't have the vivid beak colour of an adult

If a similar thing happens again, please, please contact a recognised welfare agency - wildfowl and wetlands trust/swanline as there are a huge number of legal implications when it comes to swans

 

[Zimzim]

Yes I do, we usually get fat balls for them,and also any bread we dont use ourselves we put out for them.

 

[Shantara]

Annie - would be really interested to know who the 'swan lady' is as it is illegal to move mute swans without written permission from the Queen's swan marker David Barber.. which isn't easy to obtain.

It's a fully licensed swan sanctuary, can't remember the name though, my mother did all the arrangements with her, I just took pictures every now and then