On Thu, 24 Nov 2011 10:04:13 -0800 (PST), Dave Hill
wrote:

On Nov 24, 5:04*pm, rbel wrote:
On Thu, 24 Nov 2011 16:33:19 +0000, Moonraker
wrote:

I have the usual choice on my bird table, assorted seed, peanuts and fat
balls, though they have been out for some time now I getting very few
birds feeding. Is this a general problem, or is there something keeping
my birds away? For the life of me I cannot see any reason.

The splendid spring followed by plentiful rainfall during the 'summer'
and a very mild autumn lead have resulted in a bumper crop of seeds,
berries, acorns, beech mast etc so the birds have almost a surfeit of
food available. *The mild autumn has also maintained a good supply of
available insects and other invertebrates. *(Still butterflies and
moths about here in S Devon).

To a degree this happens every autumn but this year it is more
evident.

--
rbel

I've had the same thing, but I put it down to our Sparrow Hawk who was
patroling along the track several times a day, our sparrows have moved
their roost down to a couple of leylandii down by the road, and now
just pop accross the road to my neighbours feeders.
I quite miss their chatter morning and evening.

There's been an SH here on and off the last few days but it didn't
seem to be deterring the usual range of visitors. Yesterday it swooped
down onto the cat (who was sunning himself on the shed roof near a
hanging feeder) and the cat reacted somewhat violently to the
disturbance. SH hasn't appeared today and cat has returned to his
usual sunning spot near the bird table. Birds continue to eat me out
of house and home unperturbed. Cat continues to watch them without
bothering to get up (ok, he's suffering from a paw injury today and is
limping a bit but could easily make the bird table if he wanted to
jump).

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
URGling in between collecting leaves at
the dryer (east) end of Swansea Bay.