"Kate" wrote in message ...

I am not going to bother any more. I spend a lot of money on
proprietary foods and also make my own, but all we get in the garden
are pigeons and starlings. Occasionally a robin and a couple of
blackbirds will deign to visit, and now and again a blue tit, but
that`s it. The peanuts shrivel, the sunflower hearts get damp from
condensation and go mouldy - and so on and so on. As I mentioned in
an earlier post, I think our garden is bird-friendly, but the birds
just aren`t friendly to us. When I remember the varieties we used to
get in the garden when we lived in the Fens, I get very downhearted.
Admittedly, our quarter-of-an-acre garden there was an oasis in the
middle of intensively-farmed arable fields, but we didn`t put much
food out and we had : robin, blackbird, blue tit, great tit, wren,
fieldfare, yellow wagtail, pied wagtail, turtle dove, cuckoo
(youngsters that gorged on the hairy caterpillars bivouaced in the
hawthorn hedge), pheasant, partridge (I had a `pet` partridge who
would sit on my shoulder like a parrot!), warbler, greenfinch, linnet,
house sparrow and even a black redstart passing through. We had
hares, shrews, and stoats in the garden and horseshoe bats in the
roof. As I suggested before, I think there are too many people
feeding too few birds where we live now, but I can`t think of anything
else we could do to entice them, so I`m admitting defeat.

But is your garden full of mature shrubs and trees for them to feel safe
when perched on?
We find that the feeder on the pole in the middle of the garden (good view
all round?) does better trade than the one on the bird table next to the
fence, it's also within easy hop of our Camellia bushes (to 14ft tall) and
we notice the birds tend to land on there first and have a good look around
before coming to the feeder.

Haven't looked today. too busy, but the other day in an hour before lunch to
our amazement we saw in our tiny little garden...
Dunnock, Blackbirds, Robins (2 fighting), Starlings, Lesser Spotted
Woodpecker, Sparrows (lots), Coal Tits, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Greenfinch,
Goldfinch, Collared Doves, Wood Pigeon, and 4 Ring Necked Parakeets (big
population wild around here) you should have seen the Starlings scatter.
http://www.rspb.org.uk/birds/guide/r...keet/index.asp
Haven't seen our usual Wren & Goldcrest for a while though.

--
Regards
Bob
In Runnymede, 17 miles West of London