Feeding Birds

[madasafish]

And people have the temerity to have a go at fox hunters! - you do realise that badgers are now (rightly or wrongly) protected by law?

err I was referring to hanging the feeders and not the badgers.. but I suspect you knew that already...

My next door neighbour traps foxes and magpies (Larsen trap) and has a nice double barelled shotgun...

 

[theeggman]

We found that Larsen traps worked well for magpies but noway could we get a fox into the fox trap even with a dead fresh chicken in it. BB shot solved that problem though.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I think the best way to ensure the survival of songbirds and the like is to get the magpie popultion back down to a sensible number and eradicate nest robbing grey squirrels - one reason that my peanut feeder is exactly 20 yards away from the dining room window.

 

[Heather]

Yes, I fess up to shooting the grey squirrel, but only cos it is a verminous pest and damaging other species. And trashing my home with ripping wiring out, coming down chimney and biting a son.
Everything else very safe with me... but I lost a g.s.woodpecker to a sparrow hawk from my bird table.. Sad day.

 

[Ely]

I've had mixed nuts and niger seed out out all winter and they a have barely touched the mixed stuff. They haven't touched the niger seed at all. Would the fact that it is cheap wilkos seed matter?

 

[jonnybeegood]

I've had mixed nuts and niger seed out out all winter and they a have barely touched the mixed stuff. They haven't touched the niger seed at all. Would the fact that it is cheap wilkos seed matter?

Seed is seed, birds arent sucked in by brand names like people are, maybe its your location or position of your feeders?

 

[madasafish]

Niger seed appears unwanted and unloved here. Don't bother with it.

Mealworms on the other hand....

 

[Firefly]

Niger seed appears unwanted and unloved here. Don't bother with it.

Mealworms on the other hand....

Goldfinch lock on to my niger feeder and refuse to let go. They won't give way to other birds and don't bother about me standing a few yards away watching them. Breakfast is breakfast and not to be interfered with

 

[Firefly]

eradicate nest robbing grey squirrels

Pine marten?

 

[jonnybeegood]

Niger seed appears unwanted and unloved here. Don't bother with it.

Mealworms on the other hand....

Our goldfinches, chaffinch & bullfinches love niger, we also get greenfinch, siskins & redpolls on it.

 

[madasafish]

Goldfinch lock on to my niger feeder and refuse to let go. They won't give way to other birds and don't bother about me standing a few yards away watching them. Breakfast is breakfast and not to be interfered with

What's a "goldfinch"?

 

[Firefly]

What's a "goldfinch"?

Seriously? I'd describe them as "common" nowdays - and you are not that far away

 

[madasafish]

Seriously? I'd describe them as "common" nowadays - and you are not that far away

We have no arable land here within approx a 5 mile radius due to being on the southern side of the Peak District (Staffordshire Moorlands) so no locally grown grains.

So very few goldcrests.. (I assume that's the cause or it may be the weather)

 

[Swarm]

..........

Kinda over sensitive? Sounds like you didn't like the reply you got, hardly surprising considering your original contribution to a thread about feeding birds, IMO. As for name calling, I think that is against forum etiqutte.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Kinda over sensitive? Sounds like you didn't like the reply you got, hardly surprising considering your original contribution to a thread about feeding birds, IMO. As for name calling, I think that is against forum etiqutte.

Thank you, Swarm, only just seen this... offending posts now removed, sorry, but had to include your quote.

Perhaps we should also include this in our forum rules..........

Language/Profanity. It is not acceptable to infer the use of a profane word by an acronym, or using **** or $^@*!. By the use of such characters it's being acknowledged by the user that the word implied isn't acceptable. Do not use language that is lewd, vulgar, coarse, off-color, crass, derogatory, or obscene. Respect the sites desire to not have any form of suggestive language used in its forum sections.

 

[Firefly]

We have no arable land here within approx a 5 mile radius due to being on the southern side of the Peak District (Staffordshire Moorlands) so no locally grown grains.

So very few goldcrests.. (I assume that's the cause or it may be the weather)

Ah - if you meant goldcrest, that's different. I'm not sure I've ever seen one either

Just frightened a barn owl out of a tree into the top of the hedge, driving back from a very good BKA meeting about useful plants for bees. Nice to see there are still some around here - I think the one I used to have in the apiary has gone

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

could you also remove the one about Larsen traps, after all this thread was started to help birds

Exactly - every magpie trapped is a couple of songbird nests saved

 

[jonnybeegood]

Exactly - every magpie trapped is a couple of songbird nests saved

Magpies dont & cant raid nests all year round, they clear the roads of roadkill as do crows, they eat a lot of farmland pests & do a lot of good, as usual people that like to kill birds for no reason highlight a birds bad points to justify what they do to them. Woodpeckers, birds of prey, herons, owls, all eat birds in nests, they arent all targetted for this reason, its a poor excuse, for humans to kill them for what birds do naturally to survive, nature finds a balance, humans upset that balance, not magpies!

 

[MikeT]

The outdoor pig unit feed the crows every day. Thousands of them come in when the pigs are fed. They are an absolute nuisance. All ground nesting birds are in danger at nesting time, lapwings, grey partridges, wood cock, oyster catcher skylark and the very rare stone curlew young and eggs are taken, not too worried about the pheasants and French partridges as they are reared on the estate. Also tree and hedge nesting birds are in danger as the crow wait in the trees for feeding time and of course will take any eggs or chicks they find.

Had one interested crow in the garden this morning after the feeding session, it had a circular white patch on its chest about the size of a tennis ball. It may get caught in the Larsen trap so will have a chance of a closer look. (I have asked the keeper not to dispose of this one if its caught)

The fields next to our land are used for the production of salad potatoes. When the tops have been burnt off the crows have a field day, thinking the potatoes are eggs, they pull thousand out of the potato bulks, therefore causing considerable losses to the farmer.

 

[pargyle]

What's a "goldfinch"?

We get quite a few in the garden in the autumn but they seem to disappear when winter arrives ... being on the South Coast they may be migratory and probably more interested in the hedgerows in Summer ?

http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/g/goldfinch/

You are probably a bit far north for many of them ...