Bird Feeding Stations?

[davetee]

Just interested - how many of you have bird feeding stations in your garden, what food do you leave out and what birds have visited this year. Mine below.

Feed: Mixed Wild Bird Seed, Peanut Feeder, Fat Balls (no jokes please), Suet Treats

Birds seen: Blue Tits, Great Tits, Goldfinches, Greenfinch, Magpies, Starlings, Collared Doves

[Pigeon feather]

I have a bird table with mixed wild bird seed on it then attached to it a seed feeder with black sunflowers, another feeder with beef dripping that the starlings love! I also have two coconut halves attached to shrubs filled with semolina and mashed potato ( I made a bit too much the other night! )
The birds I have visiting at the moment are collared doves, starlings, sparrows, dunnocks a blue tit and a robin, although I'm sure I saw a long-tailed tit on the table the other day and I do occasionally get greenfinches too

[ChrisJB]

I use pretty much the same, but also sunflower hearts, which is the best food of the lot. I also use a 'ground blend' and sultanas, which keeps the 'thrushy - type' birds happy.

I seem to get all the common stuff, but more unusual visitations I've had are, Siskins, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Bramblings and Reed Buntings.

Regards, Chris

[geordie graham]

I have two feeders with sunflower hearts and a tray with Bill Oddie general seed mix and sunflowers.I also have a fat ball feeder.Sometimes I put out baked potato with some marge soaked in.The main visitors are Goldfinches and Greenfinches with the odd blue tit, willow tit,and Robin.Ran out of hearts once and put out normal sunflowers and Goldfinches/greenfinches wouldn`t touch them.Spoilt or what.

Graham

[Ollie]

I have three feeders with mixed seed in, two niger feeders. peanut feeder which is not often touched. Fat balls, coconut half filled with fat and seed mix. Two more fat blocks in hangers. A hanging table on which there is Robin and Wren mix, sunflower hearts, raisins, suet based insect pellets, dried meal worms and any other bits such as grated cheese etc.

Birds visiting regularly are Collared Dove, Robin, Wren, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Greenfinch, House Sparrow, Starling, Dunnock, Blackbird.

Occasional or one off visitors have been ChiffChaff, Goldfinch, Long Tailed Tit, Tree Sparrow, Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Roger

[stephen p]

I have a Bird table with Mixed seed on it and Sunflower Hearts I have to fill that every day!!
Also a Bird Feeder station with a Sunflower seed feeder, Mixed seed tray, Peanut feeder and a Fat filled Coconut.
On the fence in the bushes and by the oak tree i have a Large wooden peanut feeder which they love. And last two Wood log fat feeder in the tree

This year we have had:
Bull Finch
Green Finch
Collared Doves
Wood Pigeons
Starlings
Blue Tits
Coal Tits
Wrens
Blackcaps
Robins
House Sparrow
Black Birds
Magpie
And a Grey Heron on the Roof

Still waiting for a Woodpecker thats the one i want to see in the Garden.

[galanthus]

Hanging from my Rowan I have a sunflower seed feeder, sunflower heart feeder, 2 peanut feeders, fat ball hangers and later will have fat blocks. I also have a ground table which has nuts, sunflower hearts, robin mix, dried mealworms, suet insect/berry pellets and the odd bit of grated cheese, scraps etc. I also throw around 7 apples a week onto the, (now a little shabby after building work ) lawn. Berried trees include pyrocantha; cotoneaster;hawthorn;rowan.

My gorgeous customers are Coal tits, long-tailed tits, blue tits and great tits; feisty yet loveable robin; male and female and juv blackbirds; dunnocks;chaffinches;greenfinches;wren;bullfinches ; Thrush and sparrowhawk on occasion but usually am in work and miss it Oh and nuisance jackdaws

[Muggsy]

does nobody here have problems with Ring Necked Parrakeets ?

I cant have a feeding station these days, cant afford it actually, the ring necks are so numerous they can consume 15lb of peanuts daily

[John]

I have four feeding stations with bird tables at three of them. My main feed is Sunflower hearts but I also use a premium seed mix that has a large variety of good seed as well as meal worm mixed in. I also use Peanut and kibbled peanut (crushed), Nyger seed, fat balls plus I make my own concoction from lard, Porridge oats, all the seeds I have mixed up plus in the winter I add mixed fruit to it. It gets ladelled out into Coconut shells and I use the plastic trays that the suet blocks come in to form a square so I can put it into the square suet block cages. It doesn't last long.

I also have a pond and a stream I have built where a lot of birds come to bathe.

I have only lived here three years but I have had a wide variety since I set up the feeding stations. My main visitors are:

Goldfinch
Greenfinch,
Chaffinch
Blue Tit,
Great Tit
Sparrow
Blackbird
Robin
Dunnock
Wren
Starling
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Collared Dove
Wood Pigeon
Magpie
Jackdaw
Sparrowhawk (sits in the tree amongst the feeders)
I had a pair of Bullfinch this year on a daily basis for three months.

Occasional visitors:
Green Woodpecker (on a daily basis at some times in the year)
Coal Tit
Willow Tit
Long-tailed Tit (at times quite often then blank periods)
Brambling
Siskin
Reed Bunting
Blackcap
Chiffchaff
Crow
Grey Heron
Mistle Thrush
Song Thrush
Grey Wagtail
Pied Wagtail

Single visits have been

Whitethroat
Goldrcrest
Treecreeper
Nuthatch

Most bizarre in the garden (or should I say house)

Mallard (landed on my roof and stayed there for most of the day)

I also had a Little Owl fly above my head at 00:10 on 06/08/2007. That would have been an unexpected visitor to my garden. Oh well, I can only hope that it decides to land one day where my security lights can pick it up.

John

[davetee]

John...nice idea about doing your own concoctions. I just gave it a try...be interesting to see any results. Used beef dripping as the base added wild bird mix, nyger seed, sunflower hearts, variety of kibbled nuts, blueberries, goji berries and raisins - put it into one of those shallow plastic storage containers and let it set in the fridge then put a 3rd of it onto a bird feeding tray.