New Member (Short Intro)

[clover green]

Hi Ste, pleased to meet & greet you, welcome to the wonderful world of WAB. Have fun & enjoy, see you on the boards!

[STEinGUZZ]

Hi eveyone and thanx for a pleasant welcome,

With regards to your question Snowhound, I'll give you my ideas/opinion.

I am unlucky because my garden is bare and in the open, all I have had visit is crows, magpies and the occasional meadow pipit, but with no real photographic opportunities.

In my opinion important factors are the surrounding area (local parks, wooded area's etc), if any of these features are nearby there will be birds to attract.

I think the key to success will be offering a constant supply of food (water too, for drinking and bathing). Offer a variety of differant food types from seeds, nuts, fruit and even bread. My father back home in Liverpool has been feeding for a few years now, even though positioned in the middle of a housing estate the garden is well established. He gets finches, tits, doves, robins, wrens, and the normal city birds, however he has had goldcrests and even a woodpecker. The local sparrow hawks have it on there hunting route too, and appear virtually every day and they have sometimes been lucky and plucked their prey in the garden.

A bird box might aswell be attaced to your tree, this may be used by tits (blue/great) most probably. When you are getting constant visitors, my approach would be to set up some prop perches with bits of nuts/seeds jammed in on the side out of view. This is what I've read recently and it seems to me to make perfect sense to me, I intend on trying this next time i'm at my folks.

With regards to the cats, i wouldn't worry about them too much, most of the time birds will be alert and escape safely. One thing to take note of is, if you do attract sparrow hawks, watch for the other birds getting spooked and then maybe, just maybe expect a great photographic chance.

Hope this helps, good luck and thank yu for the welcome,

yours aye Ste

[Deer Stalker]

Hi Ste.

[wildlifesnapper]

Hi

welcome to the site.

neil

[snowhound]

Hi Ste,

Thanks so much for your very informative advice. Yes, my garden is pretty much in the open as well, which could be part of the problem. Apart from the lovely big tree, there isn't much else around in the way of parks or bushland. Downside of living in suburbia, I guess.

I've been living in Swindon for four years now, and come to think of it, the only birds I've ever seen anywhere in the town are crows, seagulls, pigeons, magpies, starlings, blackbirds and thrushes. Is it that the larger birds (like crows) frighten off the smaller birds or is it definitely the location, ie not enough parkland nearby. Sorry, my knowledge of wild birds is not very good. I am from New Zealand and we don't have the same birds as you have here, apart from the introduced sparrows, blackbirds, etc.

I will definitely take your advice and put up some feeders in the tree and see what happens. And will certainly let you know if I attract any new birdlife.

Regards, Snowhound

[Tormentil]

Originally Posted by STEinGUZZ

Hello Everyone,

Just thought I'd introduce myself and say hello to everyone, My name is Stephen (Ste), I am 28 years old, I serve in the Royal Navy and live in Plymouth.

WElcome to WAB Ste.

Don't forget to check out yer "Crows Nests".

[ron1863]

Hello sailor and a warm welcome