On Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:02:05 +0100, Serena Blanchflower
wrote:

What other birds do you know are in the area and that you particularly
want to attract?

Hi Serena,

From a practical POV, I would like to attract anything that will be
beneficial to my vegetable patch. That is to say, particularly
anything that also likes slugs and snails!

From a purely visula/auditory pleasure POV, I'd be interested in
attracting anything that is colourful, with a pleasant musical song. I
have seen wrens, robins, cahaffinches, magpies, spotted flycatchers
(?) blue tits (?) and a few others I would be even more hesitant
hesitate to identify, along with the very very occasional, but much
appreciated kingfisher (there's a river nearby). A neigbour claims to
have seen buzzards circling nearby (there's an RSPB bird sanctuary
about half a mile away)!

I find that by far the most popular food is sunflower seeds; when I've
fed seed mixes, of any kind, there's a huge amount of waste, as the
birds pick out the sunflower seeds and leave most of the rest! The
only exception to this is the mix I get for the ground feeders, which
is pretty much like muesli.

I didnl;t realise there were specifically ground-feeder birds. Perhaps
that's why I'm only seeing great tits at the moment.

Nowadays I feed sunflower hearts, peanuts and ground feeders' muesli
throughout the year and add fat balls in the winter. That attracts a
pretty wide range of birds. As well as what to feed, it's well worth
considering where. The birds will feel a lot more confident if
there's cover close to hand, along with perches to use before and
after feeding.

Thanks for the tip. There is a large spruce tree ouside my window. I
'll try moving the feeders back onto that. I'll still be able to see
the show from my window there.

Thanks again...

JD