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Post by kleftiwallah on Sept 27, 2020 13:49:44 GMT
Good afternoon everyone, a crackin' afternoon aint it? The bird food catalogue has hit the mat and going through it I'm flummoxed with all the various mixes and seed types. Our small garden has the usual common collection of birds.
Some time ago I griped on about the (few)wild birds in our garden leaving so much of the grain/seed behind and I asked for your favourite mix of wild bird food.
I have used the search option but no joy, please tell me your secret mix.
Cheers, Tony.  |
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Post by Psamathe on Sept 27, 2020 14:00:18 GMT
Mine always ignored mixed seed - or rather perched on the feeder removing each seed and dropping it until the got a sunflower seed.
I've found what is favoured varies throughout the year and what "mine" like at any time can be very different from e.g. what "Mum's visitors" are eating.
Generally sunflower seed hearts seem very popular. In colder weather fat balls seem popular but when I gave my Mum a buckets of fat balls "mine" love, her visitors would not touch them!
Peanuts popular at the moment with blue tits.
I never got on with niger seeds - only seemed to appeal to gold-fiches and most ended-up on the ground until I got a tray when most fell out of the feeder and sat in the tray, got sodden and rotted.
So now I put out sunflower seed hearts (generally popular), fat balls (last well and the way they are made means less waste) and peanuts (only really blue tits).
Ian
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Post by Tringa on Sept 27, 2020 14:50:33 GMT
In our garden sunflower hearts are liked by most of the usual garden birds. We found, as you have, that there is a lot of waste from mixed seed. Sunflower hearts are more expensive but virtually none is wasted, any that drop are eaten by collard doves or the mice so I think, in the long run, it is not that costly.
Sunflower seeds are cheaper but there is the mess from the dropped husks to deal with.
Fat balls have never done well in out garden, but the square fat cakes seem to be liked by a lot of birds.
Until the last year or so peanuts were largely ignored but now the tit family eat them, as does the GSW.
Agree with Ian about niger seed. It was generally ignored by and rotted, and the goldfinches seem more than happy to have sunflower hearts.
Dave
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Post by rowanberry on Sept 28, 2020 8:17:17 GMT
I avoid anything with wheat or cracked corn... the only birds who seem to like it are pigeons, and in a small city garden it doesn't take long before they overrun the place.
I feed kibbled sunflower hearts and a bit of white millet in our front garden feeder, (the sparrows like millet) and kibbled sunflower hearts and chopped peanuts in the back garden feeder. (the bluetits and coaltits like the chopped peanuts.)
The goldfinches here do like nyger seeds and don't really go for the sunflower seeds, (it's funny how they vary from place to place!) but I've hung a mesh tray under their feeders to catch the husks and waste.
Of course one feeder with peanuts for the Greater Spotted Woodpeckers, and I only put out fatballs once the weather turns colder... they don't go for them so much in the summer.
I order from Brinvale- they do mixed seeds, but also straight grains so I can mix and match what I want.
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Post by kleftiwallah on Sept 28, 2020 8:40:11 GMT
Many thanks to all for replying to my plea. I'm envious of the various birds in other contributors gardens!
Cheers, Tony.
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