Birds have all gone ???

[greenace233]

Hello Everyone

Once again i am at a blank, so i ask for the experts to maybe offer some answers. Up until friday last week i have been feeding the birds twice daily including lots of water in this hot whether. I have feeders and a bird table offering the usual seeds, mealworms, and raisons. The birds come and go and all the feed gets eaten. Friday evening i got home around 7 and the food hadnt been touched, Today is wednesday and i havent seen any of the resident birds. The odd blackbird here and there. Not even the starlings had visited. I have washed and replemished all the feeders etc and nothing. No tweeting, its awful. Am i missing something or have they all been spooked? Thank you to anyone im really missing them all.

Debbie

[leon_heller]

Perhaps their chicks have all left and they don't need so much food.

[rossbells]

My birds have all dissapeared as well

[bobbarber]

Hello Debbie, it could be that a lot of your garden birds have gone into moult and are replacing their feathers after a hectic breeding season. They are very vulnerable during this period and tend to skulk under hedges and other quiet places...Bob
P.S. Any cats about@

[willowjay]

We have a sparrowhawk in the area, and our garden is on one of his regular fly-pasts. It's amazing how quickly the birds just melt away into cover and wait for him to move on. Perhaps you have a sparrowhawk visiting your garden?

[Jonners]

Debbie, I think it must be the time of year (or something about Suffolk) as I've hardly had any visits to my feeders in the last few weeks. Did have a family of goldfinches visit briefly this morning, but a few weeks ago they were there every day. I'm sure yours will return - I do hope so

[Paul mabbott]

By and large such 'disappearances' are because the birds have found better food sources - trees and smaller plants at the moment have their peak load of aphids, caterpillars and other invertebrates. Another thing to consider is that it's not easy to see small birds at the moment: my feeders are covered in foliage - I'm pretty sure there are birds on them but wouln't like to say what or how many!

[Ben Orme]

Could it be the bad weather perhaps?

[thebeard]

This time of year is generally quiet anyway, even when out in my local patches, commoner birds such as tits and finches are few and far between, like has been said they'll be skulking around in the bushes and recuperating after the breeding season.

[Rob_D]

As the harvest is going on around here now and there's plenty of food in the fields, I'm trying to encourage the fledgling sparrows to move out of the garden for a while!