when the food dosen't get eaten too quickly from my feeders I put some dried meal worms etc. in this encourages a wider range of birds to feed, especially robins and wrens. the food soon gets eaten, so prehaps you could change the food mix.

Fiona

In message ,
writes
In message , chris French
writes
I mostly use sunflower kernels now, so much less mess than those with
the shells, last a bit longer in the feeder.

CJ warn that the feed doesn't flow so well in the feeder and is
satisfactory only where you have a high turnover. Have you found this
to be a problem in practice?


no, I've not found any problem with that at all. But our feeders soon
get emptied (a few days ).
--
Chris French

"Fiona Byrne" wrote in message
...

Wrote:
In message , chris French
writes
I mostly use sunflower kernels now, so much less mess than those with
the shells, last a bit longer in the feeder.

CJ warn that the feed doesn't flow so well in the feeder and is
satisfactory only where you have a high turnover. Have you found this
to
be a problem in practice?

--
Kay

when the food dosen't get eaten too quickly from my feeders I put some
dried meal worms etc. in this encourages a wider range of birds to
feed, especially robins and wrens. the food soon gets eaten, so prehaps
you could change the food mix.

Fiona


Why is it a problem if birds do not eat food put out for them? Isn't that
perhaps an indication that there is sufficient natural food available for
them, which, if so, surely has to be a good thing? Unless it's my fruit or
seedlings they're after, of course :-)

BAC wrote:

Why is it a problem if birds do not eat food put out for them? Isn't that
perhaps an indication that there is sufficient natural food available for
them, which, if so, surely has to be a good thing? Unless it's my fruit or
seedlings they're after, of course :-)

Why do you always say what I think?! Again?! I've just came back from
another froup and they're all going mad about "should we soak the bread
in water?" "no NO the poor baby birds will suffocate" etc. There's
enough food stuff for the birds out there. I've never bothered - except
my son put some hamster food out once and the birds liked it )

Here check this, it's really nice. There's sound on it too ...
http://muriel.bernard.free.fr/araignee.htm

In article .com,
writes

Any reason for this?

Time.

Word needs to get about.

In the meantime, be careful to keep an eye on the food. That is, make
sure that it doesn't go mouldy in the damp weather. [I always try and
put out only as much as the birds will clear in a day, at this time of
year in particular. You can always add more. As periodically clearing
bird feeders/tables piled with gloop isn't a chore you'll get any joy
from! ]

The bird-table is on a patio, about 10 feet from the back door of the
house.

Ours is about the same distance. Not a problem. [Unless it's got large
amounts of traffic... Kids, cats, dogs, etc.] Close to reasonable cover
can be important, though. Birds like to see an easy escape route into a
nearby tree and/or hedge.

--
Flower Bobdew
South Facing Garden
South West: UK

[quote=jay jay] Hi, here's my update on the black sunflower seeds - I bought a huge bag for six euros and they have proved incredibly popular. We now have goldfinches (the first ones I've seen since we first came here three years ago), hawfinches and so far one lone starling coming to feed along with all the others. Took no time at all for the goldfinches to arrive, but the starling and hawfinch have only arrived this weekend, when the garden has been covered in snow. The goldfinches are a bit argumentative (can't wait to hear them sing though), but the rest seem to get along fine. So many thanks p.mc!