Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => General Forum => Topic started by: mark smyth on January 01, 2009, 06:09:47 PM
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Do you feed the birds can come to your garden in the winter months? What do you use? Peanuts, sunflower hearts, fat balls, niger ...?
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I use only nuts, in wire feeders, and nyger.
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Do you feed the birds can come to your garden in the winter months?
I stopped doing this some years ago because of problems with squirrels, mice, and occasionally rats. We have a lot of berry- and seed-bearing shrubs and trees and are regularly visited by a wide range of birds. We have a pond which birds drink from and I try and keep a section free of ice for them.
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Yep, we use peanuts, sunflower hearts (less mess than whole seeds), suet treat pellets and live mealie worms (we find everything but Starlings ignore the dead ones). We've finally got a set of feeders the squirrels have failed to master and we don't spread seed on the ground which seems to prevent the rat problems we've had in the past. Now if we could just stop Magpies attacking their reflection in the bedroom window at 5 am in summer all would be well.
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We used to feed sunflower seed but found the black ones to be very messy as the husks built up on the garden. Then we moved over to sunflower hearts but these are expensive, even in 25Kg sacks, and our birds seem to like wasting a large portion of them.
This winter we have several peanut feeders around. The birds ignore expensive fat balls but we tried them with much cheaper ones from Lidl and they really love these. This is all supplemented with food waste such as wholemeal bread waste, cheese rind and similar thrown on the ground as we don't have a rat problem. They also like cat food if the cats don't clean their dishes :).
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We (i.e. Roger) feeds out native birds with sugar and water solution and we've always done this, bellbirds, tuis and wax-eyes sipping from the tiny hole in upturned lemonade bottles. The birds used to feed during winter and spring but now they continue through the entire year and we've had many more bellbirds and tuis nesting in our trees as a result. This year we have a dozen pairs of tuis so the air is filled with sound like bells on Christmas Day! (or a Mozart clarinet concerto :))
We also put out cakes of nuts, bird seed, crumbs and dripping for wax-eyes and the smaller introduced birds - chaffinches, green and gold finches etc. Dunnocks eat bird seed scattered on the ground and goldfinches ADORE the seed from lavender bushes.
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I must admit I've never heard of niger (also spelt nyger) but Googled it. Seems to be some sort of thistle? I used to feed birds but the waste attracted too many mice. :( A friend uses lard to feed woodpeckers. A neighbour over the hedge from my parents' former house plus 1 used to feed the birds with peanuts by the cwt! :o The year my sister got married (1984) coincided with the year our rockery was covered with seedling peanut plants! ::) I blamed the squirrels wanting to hide their nuts, but a little observation revealed the culprits: coal tits! 8)
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I have window bird feeders, mainly for chickadees but we get pine siskins, evening grosbeaks,rose-breasted grosbeaks, goldfinches, sparrows and the odd bluejay and woodpecker manage to get seed.
I only use the black-oil sunflower seeds.
In Summer, I have window feeders for the hummingbirds, the mix they get is half cup sugar to 2 cups of water.
I have never seen so many crows as there are in this province.
Btw, I read somewhere that black-oil sunflower seed hulls are toxic to plant life so I don't have any feeders near my garden :(
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Btw, I read somewhere that black-oil sunflower seed hulls are toxic to plant life so I don't have any feeders near my garden :(
I must remember that, as it would make a good biology project. :)
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I feed with sunflower seeds ,peanuts fatballs and homemade fatcakes with seed and fruit in it.Also bread but only in the morning when it is eaten before dark.I tried the nyger seed and it was a waste of time as is ordinary bird seed.
Last year I did have a rat eating the seed in the ground feeder which looked quite nice but did not tell Mrs W.
This has been our best year ever for birds. We normally find that by the end of October they all disappear for the winter,something our neighbour also has noticed.At the moment we have greenfinches,bullfinches goldfinches and several tits,great,blue,and coal. A flock of starlings(12) blackbirds (10) wood pidgeons,doves,jays,a thrush and a woodpecker. Also numerous brown things we cannot identify.
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I would love to have grosbeaks come to the garden. Can I swap you some starlings?
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I think we've already given them starlings Mark? :P What is the UK equivalent of the grosbeak? Hawfinch? Crossbill?
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I would love to have grosbeaks come to the garden. Can I swap you some starlings?
If you can get Paul to send me some Australian maggies, you can have some grosbeaks.
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Helen you can't insult them like that ;D You'res are stunning. They're finches and like Anthony says in the same family as our hawfinch
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Australian magpies are the best birds ever
I miss them so much, and the pied butcherbirds, they have the most glorious harmonics.
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I feed birds all winter. It's such fun to watch them. We had some hawfinches here today and a nuthatch. It' getting cold now, -7 C this morning and the small tits eat a lot of sunflower seeds.
Earlier today when I went for a walk with our dogs I saw some long-tailed tits. They are the cutest birds but never come into the garden.
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I use peanuts and sunflower hearts although the price has trebled for these items in the past two years. The sunflower hearts used to cost £12.50 for 20 kilos - now they are £ 37.50. My supplier tells me that this is because growers have now gone over to crops to produce bio-fuel. I used to feed niger seed for the Goldfinches but the Sparrows and Greenfinches found them and it became far too expensive to keep this up. However, the Goldfinches eat the sunflower hearts. I make my own fat crumbs from lard, wholemeal flower and peanuts put through a blender. These can either be scattered around under bushes or packed into a coconut shell. Every bird in the garden will eat this. Remember that birds need water as well so fill up a dish or shallow container every day. Apart from what I put out, our pair of Sparrowhawks feed quite well from our garden birdlife !
Regarding black sunflower seeds, I used these for about five years and used the resulting husks as a garden mulch. As far as I am aware, they had no affect on any of my plants other than as a useful mulch.
It's amazing to note the density of birds in a suburban garden. All year we have Starlings, Blackbirds, Song Thrush, House Sparrows, Blue, Great and Coal Tits, Dunnocks, Robins, Goldfinches, Collared Doves, Woodpigeons, Wren, Rooks, Carrion Crows, Magpies, Jackdaws and assorted Gulls... In addition to these, in Winter we have Blackcaps, Siskins, Goldcrests, Yellowhammers and the occasional Grey Wagtail.
Yesterday, we went a few miles inland to watch a Snow Goose that has turned up with a wintering flock of Greylags.
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There are photos of snow geese on the SOC web site
http://www.the-soc.org.uk/photos-2008-2009-winter.htm (http://www.the-soc.org.uk/photos-2008-2009-winter.htm)
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Grosbeak
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Grosbeak
Wild? He's absolutely furious! ;D
We've never had hawfinches.... had a nuthatch once, but we think he was lost :-X :-\
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What ever happened to camouflage?
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I would love to have grosbeaks come to the garden. Can I swap you some starlings?
If you can get Paul to send me some Australian maggies, you can have some grosbeaks.
How many do you want? 1,2 dozen, hundred?
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I feed the little birds and the little birds feed the bigger birds. What a good perch the feeder makes.9.30 this morning,needless to say there was nothing else feeding
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I would love to have grosbeaks come to the garden. Can I swap you some starlings?
If you can get Paul to send me some Australian maggies, you can have some grosbeaks.
How many do you want? 1,2 dozen, hundred?
[/quote]
As many as you can, I'll chuck in some crows for free.
Oh to hear a magpie serenade.
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I feed the little birds and the little birds feed the bigger birds. What a good perch the feeder makes.9.30 this morning,needless to say there was nothing else feeding
What a fabulous bird, not sure I'd want him here though, he might eat my chickadees.
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I feed the little birds and the little birds feed the bigger birds. What a good perch the feeder makes.9.30 this morning,needless to say there was nothing else feeding
Walking along our suburban (old) railway walk last year, I was startled by a sparrow hawk which landed 2m in front of me. I stood still and he/she disappeared underneath some dense cover. Moments later he emerged with a blackbird in his talons. I am not sure whether he had seen the blackbird go under there, or whether it was opportunistic having gone under there to escape from me, - probably the former. As sparrow hawks have to live too, I did not intervene, and we continued to stare at each other for what seemed an age. He finally decided that discretion was the better part of valour and flew off leaving behind a frightened, but otherwise unharmed blackbird.
On another occasion, I witnessed a stoat pursue and kill a fully grown rabbit, - a fascinating if gruesome sight. The rabbit knew what was coming and its screams were pathetic, but it was dispatched very quickly. Two incidents of being in the right place at the right time, - preferable to spending hours in the cold 'nature watching'.
Maureen
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I (or rather my dear wife :-[ ) feed the birds that stay over winter.
In Sweden you can buy balls of suet mixed with seed. They come in a net so you hang the net on a hook or in a dispenser that you hang on a hook.
The tits are especially fond of these.
We also give them a mix of sunflower seed and oats also in a dispenser. There is no problems with rodents as long as the contraptions are hung in a suitable place.
I agree the husks are a nuisance I sometimes think I should put a small tarp under to collect.
We have great tit, blue tit, Eurasian Nuthatch ( Sitta europaea ) Parus ater, the odd woodpecker and various others that I do no tknow the name on. The long tailed tit is unfortunately very rare - but charming. the Bullfinch Pyrrhula pyrrhula is supposed to signal extra cold weather when they show themselves.
Göte
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We have two peanut feeders, one on the kitchen windowsill giving a close view of red squirrels and birds, mainly tits (coal, blue and great). Chaffinches feed onthe ground and there are robins around. We often see tree creepers on the trees in the wood behind the house. Last winter there were hundreds of siskins feeding on the larch seeds, usually on the trees, but after windy spells they were on the house roof and on the ground (both sexes, Mark). Last year there was a heavy crop of cones on the larch, but this year I can't see any new cones.
The most exotic bird I have seen recently is a black pheasant. I didn't see him very well the first couple of times as he was a bit away on a dull day but yesterday he walked past fairly close and I could see he has a barred tail like a normal coloured pheasant though the rest of him is black. I saw him cross the road today so he may not survive much longer if he's not careful.
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We did feed the birds until last spring. The mild winters the last couple of years have mede the rat population explode and suddely ew had rats all over. They were under the birdfeeder in the middel of the day, picking up the food that the bids had scattered from the feeder. They got into the house and into the walls of my garage. I still haven't got rid of them. They are extremly intelligent animals and can work out how a trap works very quickly. So a word of warning. If you there is the rat with a fe wkilometers of where you live, keep yours eyes open for any sign of them. Once they have moved in they are very hard to get rid of.
Kind regards
Lars
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I second what Lars has said. We have mice in the loft which have been attracted to the debris from the bird feeders, made a run through the cavity wall insulation and have a nest somewhere under the loft insulation. I have a humane trap which catches them on a daily basis - 8 since they appeared indoors - and then I take them on a trip up-country and release them into the wild. At least they have a fighting chance of survival. I hope that there is no such thing as a homing mouse !!
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Two miles minimum Tom. I used to be plagued with mice, but since I got a snake that will only eat wild caught mice they are pretty thin on the ground. :(
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There certainly is such a thing (Sorry! 'person' ;)) as a homing mouse.
Put small dabs of paint on them. Then you can give them names and say hellow the next time you meet them in the pub ;D (Or if you prefer: 'trap' 8))
Göte
PS
It probably depends on the area but they are known to home after being let loose 2 kms away.
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Only just found this thread. We have bird feed out all year - nuts and fat balls. Seeing the thread made me become quite nerdish by deciding to count up how many species had been seen in the garden (as opposed to those flying over such as swallows, ravens,red kites etc) and the list came to 35. Not bad really. The most exotic was a cockatiel that hung around for a few days. Never did find who had lost it.
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35 is really good Alan. We have red kites here now but unfortunately one has already been poisoned
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Only just found this thread. We have bird feed out all year - nuts and fat balls. Seeing the thread made me become quite nerdish by deciding to count up how many species had been seen in the garden (as opposed to those flying over such as swallows, ravens,red kites etc) and the list came to 35. Not bad really. The most exotic was a cockatiel that hung around for a few days. Never did find who had lost it.
Where abouts are you Alan?
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I am in South Wales Antony. The easiest way to place me is by saying that I am only 4 or 5 miles from the end of the M4.
Sorry to hear about the poisoned Kite. They look beautiful and have really made a come back. In mid Wales where I have family farming connections I have seen numbers of them at one time and just a few years ago a pair started nesting in a copse on the farm. They do no harm at all as they are scavengers and it makes me so annoyed to hear about people's attitude.
The same thing happened a few years ago to a pair of Choughs I spotted whilst walking on a coastal path. They had moved this way from Pembrokeshire and just a few days later someone shot them.
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We have taken two years to build up a good visiting bird population and have a "pet" racing pigeon with a broken wing which i rescued a few years ago -he is in a large run in the garden but can only fly 6" in the air. We have lots of neighbour's cats who visit the garden and use it as a toilet and have to put up with this-though we "chunter" about it as we say round here.
This morning we saw a new young black cat trying to get at our pigeon (Sid) and frightening the poor bird witless. His run is pretty secure and my husband is at present working to make it even safer for him but I am worried that all our lovely birds will desert us now. Also that though Sid is safe he will be being harassed when we are not there to chase off the feline.
I have read about the Catwatch device which the RSPB sell and would like to buy one but at around £50 would like some in dependant opinion as to its effectiveness-
i have searched the forum and found the cat question comes up frequently so wondered if anyone has experience of the device. Like most people its not that we do not like cats-its just what they do.
ps we have a friend who calls them Cooking Fats!!!! ;D
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Anne,
Amazon sell a variety of electronic cat repellents at reasonable prices. I have two, one in the front garden & one facing a long border in the back garden. An universal adapter with an extension cable is also useful.
It is said that black, and old, cats tend to ignore them but they do keep the majority away.
Alan
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Thank you for your reply Alan
I had read rather negative reports on the internet and did not want to buy one if not effective.
Mind you we are only 20 miles away in Chesterfield I hope they are not that effective that yours are sending the Belper cats here!
Anne
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Well Garden Bird day has gone and went and I didn't see many in my garden. As Frank McAvennie probably never said "where's the burds?"
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What an awful day for the bird count. Two weeks ago we had upto fifty at any one time in a dozen species. Today four starlings a woodpidgeon and a bluetit.
Perhaps they have all gone of to the country for spring.
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I opened my bed room window this morning to see what was feeding and could see a brown blob moving on the snow. Went to get my glasses only to see a rat. I rushed down stairs to get a metal rod, opened the door and slowly moved towards it. It heard me and made a dash for it hole and I was in the middle. It leaped several feet from the raised bed to trough and disappeared down the back. AAAAGGGGGHHHHH
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birds in December in my garden
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I opened my bed room window this morning to see what was feeding and could see a brown blob moving on the snow. Went to get my glasses only to see a rat. I rushed down stairs to get a metal rod, opened the door and slowly moved towards it. It heard me and made a dash for it hole and I was in the middle. It leaped several feet from the raised bed to trough and disappeared down the back. AAAAGGGGGHHHHH
You might want to get the pest control people in, where there is one rat there are more...
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or simply try with cats... ::)
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or simply try with cats... ::)
No sane cat will attack a rat, they are too big for them - we had a serious problem when we were living on a small holding in Aberdeenshire and even the farm cats would not attempt to catch them. Being the idiots we were we caught and killed them ourselves - a really revolting operation which can still leave me feeling sick to my stomach to this day. Something like a Jack Russell terrier on the other hand will go for and kill any number of rats.
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Two hands of poison has been eaten suggesting more than one
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It is often said that Jack Russell terriers are the best ratters but that the most efficient ratters I have ever known were miniature Dachshunds........small, fast and utterly fearless, they could kill a huge number of rats in a very short time indeed . If I were ever keeping horses again and had hay barns to keep clear, I would have a couple of Daxies in a heartbeat. Lily's chum Molly ( another Westie) is a great mouser, but I haven't seen her with rats so I don't know how she'd get on....pretty well I reckon. Lily isn't such a determined hunter as Molly...but then she's ten years old now and a bit of a spoiled, kept woman in her treatment by the BD ::) ;)
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Mark we even tried cyanide on our rats - damned things seemed to thrive on it!
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I am just sitting hear reading this thread and am aware of a sharp shrrip, shrrip, shrrip noise from outside. As I look up from the laptop I can see a redwing perched on an Acer not five feet from the window.
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Many moons ago my former neighbour's cat had a go at a stoat. The cat caught the stoat by the head at the same time as the stoat latched on to the cat's tongue! :P The vet had to separate the cat from the dead stoat. The poor cat's tongue swelled up and it couldn't eat for a week. :(
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I am just sitting hear reading this thread and am aware of a sharp shrrip, shrrip, shrrip noise from outside. As I look up from the laptop I can see a redwing perched on an Acer not five feet from the window.
Would that be an Acer laptop, David? :D
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Would that be an Acer laptop, David?
Boom, Boom ;D
Spot on Cliif, Acer Aspire 3630
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Mark we even tried cyanide on our rats - damned things seemed to thrive on it!
Carol, did you ever read "Lair" by James Herbert?
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"The mutant white rats had grown and mated, creating offspring in its own image. They dominated the others, the dark-furred ones, who foraged for food and brought it back to the lair. Now the dark rats were restless, tormented by a craving they could not satisfy. But the white slug-like thing that ruled them knew. Its two heads weaved to and fro and a stickiness drooled from its mouth as it remembered the taste of human flesh. "
Luit, you don't read this stuff, do you???!!!! :o
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It's not Rupert the Bear, is it!!!!! :D
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It's not Rupert the Bear, is it!!!!! :D
I don't know?
"Algie met a bear;
the bear met Algie;
the bear got bulgie;
the bulge was Algie!"
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Mark we even tried cyanide on our rats - damned things seemed to thrive on it!
Carol, did you ever read "Lair" by James Herbert?
Nope and think I will give a miss
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"The mutant white rats had grown and mated, creating offspring in its own image. They dominated the others, the dark-furred ones, who foraged for food and brought it back to the lair. Now the dark rats were restless, tormented by a craving they could not satisfy. But the white slug-like thing that ruled them knew. Its two heads weaved to and fro and a stickiness drooled from its mouth as it remembered the taste of human flesh. "
Luit, you don't read this stuff, do you???!!!! :o
Maggi, is it strange that you made this quote and did not read this before?
Really didn't expect YOU were reading such stuff. ;D ;D ;D
To be honest, I never would buy such book or get it from the library but a friend
gave me the book and said I should read it and he expected I would not sleep well after reading it.
Well, polight as I am, I read it and I slept very good. He for sure will ask me how I find it.
I saw the first printing was from 1979 and obviously lots of people seem to like such stuff.
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"Algie met a bear;
the bear met Algie;
the bear was bulgie;
the bulge was Algie!"
Must be 50 years since I last heard that little ditty. :)
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After two feeds the rat is now dead or got the hint. The third feed is still behind the troughs
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Good news Mark - just make sure nothing else eats the poison
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hi all--
in the country here--i feed, so far only in winter, i figure those poor little things can use a bit of a hand in our tough winter conditions (minimum -45C, though we dont hit that often or for long, prob not quite -40 ever this year, and not much of that), esp when/if there is significant snow cover, as there is this year;
i use some of the mixed seed bags, though the birds i have are not so much interested in millet and similar things--i get a mix that is mostly black oil/other sunflowers--which the chickadees (we have at least black cap and boreal) and nuthatches like;
occasional other finch species, woodpeckers around a lot, though i think they feed little if at all at the feeders;
tons of redpolls (a small finch), they mostly like the nyjer seed(in a sock type feeder), though i think they also eventually clean up the millet etc that the chickadees throw on the ground--my main misgiving about the nyjer is that it is heat sterilised in north america, since its believed to host dodder; would like to try growing my own to have live and therefor more nutritious seed, but so far have only found commercial agricultural size suppliers ( i looked it up last year, its not really a thistle, but i think it is compositae, forget now...
many birds in summer, but our woods and pastures are full of natural foods,and they enjoy fruits and berries in the yard too(which is not really distinct from the natural habitats---this yard was inserted in the bush/meadows, and never totally supplanted them, lots of wildflowers/bushes/trees) though i may think about some feeding just for the viewing fun(many more species in summer, of course); i have intentions to grow various plants for seed for birds--i've heard they like echinacea and safflower among others; grew some black oil sunflowers that the birds planted this past year, they are marginal here, but managed to ripen a few small heads which chickadees and woodpeckers cleaned up..
had to reposition the feeders, as a squirrel which was feeding below the feeder was running to our vehicle to hide when disturbed!! they can do tremendous damage to vehicles very quickly..
cohan
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Hi Cohen
Where are you? -40C is seriously cold, I'm surprised that any of the birds survive at all ::)
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had to reposition the feeders, as a squirrel which was feeding below the feeder was running to our vehicle to hide when disturbed!! they can do tremendous damage to vehicles very quickly..
cohan
Hello Cohan,
We have had squirrels eat our house wiring and outdoor telephone line but it had never occurred to me that they might eat the wiring on the car. Thanks for the warning I shall keep a closer watch on them!
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hi again--
i am in west central alberta, canada--halfway between the two large cities of edomonton and calgary, and then straight west from that line; about a half hour drive from where the foothills biome starts, but about an hour from the serious hills, and 90minutes will put me in the rockies..
we are usda 2-3; this winter we had about 3 weeks in december with many daytimes in the -20'sC, and some nights close to -40; nothing quite as cold since..
it is surprising the birds are able to hang around--over winter we have 2 or 3 kinds of chickadees, several (native, no english sparrows out here in the country) sparrows/finches, though none as common as the redpolls, 2 kinds of nuthatches, some woodpeckers, kinglets (smaller than chickadees and one of my faves, they are in small numbers, travelling with chickadees, i havent seen them at feeders, but small numbers mean i might not notice, esp since i moved the feeders away from view of the house because of the squirrel), waxwings(not common in the countryside, but i THINK i've seen them in winter), several kinds of owls, bluejays, ravens,magpies, ruffed grouse(like a small chicken), hawks (not around much this winter, too much snow to catch mice easily),occasional bald eagles etc ..these are not all at my feeder, but most have been on the acreage at some time, and are around the area;
re: squirrels and cars--the internet is full of horror stories, we were very worried when we saw it going in there, luckily moving the feeder meant it was not a handy hiding place anymore, and i guess it has enough other places for regular 'roosting' (heavily treed here, and some old sheds)
cohan
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Cohan,
Not surprising that you don't see many kinglets at the feeder. Both species are insect/insect egg feeders and are likely foraging in nearby trees for their dinner.
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thanks, carlo--
that is, in fact, where i have always seen them, usually just a pair or two travelling with a flock of chickadess and nuthatches; often a small woodpecker in the groups also
--the nuthatches and chickadees of course also spend lots of time combing the trees, but do also like the seeds; i have read that the chickadees (nevermind all the other species) have a major impact on insect populations in the boreal forest, and i believe it!
the redpolls are especially fond of native tree seeds, too, esp spruce (which have had a bumper crop of cones last couple of years) and birch..
our chickadees mostly go away in spring/summer--i guess they go somewhere even harsher and less populated! to nest and come back after they are done..
cohan
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It is surprising but small rodents sometimes eat (at least gnaw) plastics. Our squirrels do not but our mice do. This is a problem if a car is parked outside in a rural area for some time.
They positively do love the gasoline hoses on trimmers and such impliments. >:(
Göte
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It is surprising but small rodents sometimes eat (at least gnaw) plastics. Our squirrels do not but our mice do. This is a problem if a car is parked outside in a rural area for some time.
They positively do love the gasoline hoses on trimmers and such impliments. >:(
Göte
In Germany martens are responsible for destroying cables and tubes of cars.
This happens in urban areas too. There are special repellent sprays, which are offered against these animals.
Gerd
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A friend living near-ish Seattle had her Landrover burst into flames as she was driving home one day - squirrels >:(
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Do we feed birds? Yes:
This is a feeding bird. ;D
It is in the town centre but unfortunately seen from the second floor.
The prey is a Sturnus vulgaris or possibly Turdus.
Yes we have hares in the town center!
Göte
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when i lived in edmonton, alberta, there were peregrine falcons nesting in the top of an office building, right in the very centre of the city; i presume they were feeding on birds...
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There are peregrine falcons nesting in the centre of Aberdeen, also. Mostly taking pigeons.
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Gote great photo of a male Sparrowhawk. Here is one on Birdguides.com
http://www.birdguides.com/pictures/default.asp?v=1&f=194229&r=0&st=0&q= (http://www.birdguides.com/pictures/default.asp?v=1&f=194229&r=0&st=0&q=)
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Thank you Mark,
I will tell my wife who is the photographer. She was uncertain. it looked unusually large but that could be the unusual view from above.
In Kungälv on the Swedish west coast I have seen peregrines nesting on a factory building as were it a cliff.
Göte
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i work in the cafe in a supermarket, in the town of rocky mountain house (just at the edge of foothills biome) and yesterday an announcement came over the speakers:
"To the owner of a black Ford Ranger: there's a raven eating your groceries in the back of the truck"
these huge black birds, sometimes, it seems, as big as a medium sized dog, are common around here, and in town..often checking out the open backs of trucks to see if they can find anything--of course usually the groceries are not left out there...lol
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That's the trouble with pick-up trucks ........ ravens..... raccoons, bears..... anybody can eat your cornflakes!
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That's the trouble with pick-up trucks ........ ravens..... raccoons, bears..... anybody can eat your cornflakes!
indeed--i feel much safer with a minivan such as we have--or at least a covered box for a pick-up truck...lol--even in a big city, where there might be less problem with wildlife, the local humans just might help themselves to anything left unattended... ;)
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Yes, they tell you that nyger is heat-treated to prevent it germinating, but we had a load of it sprout one time! Unfortunately, our season is so short that none of it was able to bloom, so it was quite underwhelming anyway...
From where I work downtown, I see the odd peregrine falcon cruising around and putting a scare into the pigeons... I've been tempted to keep some binocs around, but I fear it may not go over well to be seen gazing out the window too often.... ;)
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Do you feed the birds can come to your garden in the winter months? What do you use? Peanuts, sunflower hearts, fat balls, niger ...?
Lumps of rendered beef fat hanging from strings. The little fat-eaters (bushtits, chickadees) have no trouble landing and feeding, but larger, greedier birds like crows and Steller's jays can't reach the food, nor can rats or mice.
Sugar syrup in special feeders to keep the winter-resident population of Anna's hummingbird (Calypte anna) alive until spring.
Had to give up feeding seed years ago because the inevitable spillage attracted rats.
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Yes, they tell you that nyger is heat-treated to prevent it germinating, but we had a load of it sprout one time! Unfortunately, our season is so short that none of it was able to bloom, so it was quite underwhelming anyway...
From where I work downtown, I see the odd peregrine falcon cruising around and putting a scare into the pigeons... I've been tempted to keep some binocs around, but I fear it may not go over well to be seen gazing out the window too often.... ;)
hi lori! i was interested in your input on the Cyclamen kuznetovii (sp?) thread over in bulbs....
supposedly the big thing with nyjer is that it potentially carries dodder, so its sterilised... i have meant to try germinating some, perhaps it would have to be started indoors to get maturity; i THINK i read sites about its potential as a prairie crop, but i'd have to go back and look now, that was last year i was researching, and never found a retail source; i had meant to try germination tests on it...i never did see any sprouts outside, but perhaps they didnt carry it as far as the sunflowers, and it didnt reach any open enough soil..
i also wanted to try growing safflower for the birds, and actually have heard they love echinacea seedheads..
the brids replant the black oil sunflower seeds everywhere! i even found a seedling back in the bush, on the edge of a wet area! of course that came to nothing, as do most, but there was a little patch near the house that reached flowering and seed--i just left it there and the birds harvested it; i think, overall, it needs a longer season as well, and would probably benefit from an early start indoors;
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We've never had birds show any interest in safflower here... Black oil sunflower is universally popular, though, as is nyger.
It was great fun camping and birding in Rio-Bentsen State Park in Texas many years ago (no camping there any longer - much changed)... the local birds, which included such wonders as green jays and chacalacas would eat everything from bananas (the chacalacas) to breakfast cereal. The only thing they wouldn't eat was processed cheese slices... very sensible of them. (If birds couldn't recognize it as food, I had to wonder why we were eating it! ;)
From the cheap bird seed we'd buy to toss out, whatever the birds didn't eat, an amazing variety of ants would haul away...
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Lumps of rendered beef fat hanging from strings. The little fat-eaters (bushtits, chickadees) have no trouble landing and feeding, but larger, greedier birds like crows and Steller's jays can't reach the food, nor can rats or mice.
Ah, Rodger, if only you could have seen "our" mice climbing like acrobats out along the stems to slide down the string to eat their fill.... then having a hard time to climb back up again because their paws were oily from the fat and so the string, or wire became like a greasy pole. Sometimes they would get fed up of the effort, or is they were surprised, they would just then throw themselves off to the ground. Give themselves a shake and carry on with their mousey business!
That was some years ago, the mice we have now, though, do not seem so acrobatic or adventurous.
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If birds couldn't recognize it as food, I had to wonder why we were eating it!
Lori, that might be a good hint vis a vis the processed cheese, but our garden birds will not eat rice in any form.... and surely one thousand million Chinese cannot be wrong? :o
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The starlings have discovered the cage with 4 fat balls and are having a field day! Ah well they deserve the right to eat too. I also bought one of those huge fat balls shaped like a fir cone and hung in the weeping flowering cherry - the birds think that is great as they can just sit on the branches and feed. We decided against any form of sunflower seed this year due to the mess, between the fat balls and the peanuts we seem to have kept all our local birds happy.
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Our birds won't eat rice either but our larger dog likes to snuffle in the grass and get every grain if I throw out some left-over cooked.
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Our birds won't eat rice either but our larger dog likes to snuffle in the grass and get every grain if I throw out some left-over cooked.
Our birds will eat thrown out rice and any, wet, food left in the cats bowls after 24 hours... that is if they can beat daughter cat to it! Having ignored in her bowl she will happily eat of the ground outside ::) Both she and mummy cat prefer to drink out of the pond than from their water dish or, even better, a shallow container where David has been plunging plants into water after repotting, come to think of it they even prefer to drink from a puddle on the patio than from their bowl ???
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Dogs too, like water other than their clean, fresh every day bowlful. Our springer spaniel really likes the contents of an old bucket which gets drips from the garage roof. It is green, slimy and full of dust, dead leaves etc but Cain drinks their daily. He and new Teddy also drink from puddles, and from the hollows of a few bricks in a paved area.
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our cats are the same--always trying to climb into the rain barrel(can be funny when its not full, and they are trying to balance on the edge..), and filling up my rain or melted snow water for indoor plants with cat spit too...lol
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If birds couldn't recognize it as food, I had to wonder why we were eating it!
Lori, that might be a good hint vis a vis the processed cheese, but our garden birds will not eat rice in any form.... and surely one thousand million Chinese cannot be wrong? :o
Our birds eat rice, but don't get the chance now because of Heidi who would eat anything given the chance. She even eats paper napkins in preference to her own food! The one before last gave Vivienne a turn. It was a Christmas red one, and came out unchanged in both form and colour! :P