Having been back from an extended holiday for a week or so, I've managed
to re-establish my garden as a feeding stop for the loacl feathered
fraternity. However now they seem to be abusing my hospitality with
their voracious appetites.

Usually a tube of seed lasts a day, and niger seed about 2/3 days and
peanuts about 3/4 days, but currently I'm filling the seed 2/3 times a
day, the niger daily and the peanuts every 2/3 days!

I know that they are feeding young at the moment (watched them feeding
on the trelis, then try to encourage the young onto the feeders!), but
I've never had this level of demand before. Anyone else noticed the
extra demand?


--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

On Sat, 23 Jun 2012 11:38:29 +0100, Roger Tonkin
wrote:

Having been back from an extended holiday for a week or so, I've managed
to re-establish my garden as a feeding stop for the loacl feathered
fraternity. However now they seem to be abusing my hospitality with
their voracious appetites.

Usually a tube of seed lasts a day, and niger seed about 2/3 days and
peanuts about 3/4 days, but currently I'm filling the seed 2/3 times a
day, the niger daily and the peanuts every 2/3 days!

I know that they are feeding young at the moment (watched them feeding
on the trelis, then try to encourage the young onto the feeders!), but
I've never had this level of demand before. Anyone else noticed the
extra demand?

Sounds normal for here where we (the birds and I - "I" in the sense
that I put the stuff out for them) normally get through 26 kilos of
sunflower hearts and 13 kilos of peanuts a month.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Ethiopian proverb: When spiders unite they can tie down a lion!

Urgling from the East End of Swansea Bay. We don't yet have a
"dah dah dah dah dah dah dee" theme tune but we're working on it.

I can't tell an astilbe from an aranthus
but I can from an acanthus!

In article ,
lid says...
Sounds normal for here where we (the birds and I - "I" in the sense
that I put the stuff out for them) normally get through 26 kilos of
sunflower hearts and 13 kilos of peanuts a month.



Ouch, that sounds expensive! How many feeders do you have? (I have 2
sunflower and one of the peanut and niger) Where do you get your feed?

Last lot I bought online from Arkwildlife and what you get through in a
month would cost around £80 - £90 depending on grade.

By the way, is the premium grade of peanut and sunflower hearts worth
the extra, or does it encourage the birds to eat more!

--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

No, on the contrary, ours have moved on to the abundant insect life in the garden. We're still getting the big things (from starling and blackbird upwards), but only the odd great tit, coal tit, greenfinch, and about 3 goldfinches. Otoh, a pair of bluetits are introducing their young family to our fat, and the long tailed tits are back to feeding in flocks and visiting the fat most days.

On Sat, 23 Jun 2012 21:21:23 +0100, Roger Tonkin
wrote:

In article ,
says...
Sounds normal for here where we (the birds and I - "I" in the sense
that I put the stuff out for them) normally get through 26 kilos of
sunflower hearts and 13 kilos of peanuts a month.



Ouch, that sounds expensive! How many feeders do you have? (I have 2
sunflower and one of the peanut and niger) Where do you get your feed?

Last lot I bought online from Arkwildlife and what you get through in a
month would cost around £80 - £90 depending on grade.



In the village where I live we have a bird food purchasing
cooperative.
One person collates and pays for the order and the independent
supplier gives a further discount on his already keen prices and
delivers to the coordinator.
As with anything like that you have to trust people to pay up but we
are a small place and the members were asked if they would like to
join in rather than put themselves forward.
As to the original question then the demand I find is very variable at
the moment. For days the birds are using the feeders far more than one
would expect for this time of the year,then you get a warmish day or
two and with insects rising from the pond and other places the birds
eat them. Temp drops and they return to the feeders.


G.Harman

They seem to be perpetually hungry and are feeding almost
as voraciously as they do in a cold winter.

I am not surprised. I have had many winters here that felt warmer than this
summer. ( north Wales and wet) It has been so miserable that we still have
tadpoles and they are only just getting some back legs.

On Sat, 23 Jun 2012 12:14:06 +0100, Sacha wrote:

snip

I know that they are feeding young at the moment (watched them feeding
on the trelis, then try to encourage the young onto the feeders!), but
I've never had this level of demand before. Anyone else noticed the
extra demand?

Yes, we have. They seem to be perpetually hungry and are feeding almost
as voraciously as they do in a cold winter. Peanuts are visited by
bluetits and long-tailed tits, as well as sparrows.

It is cold weather here in Sheffield. Most days for a couple of weeks have been as cold as
it was in April.

On Sat, 23 Jun 2012 21:21:23 +0100, Roger Tonkin
wrote:

In article ,
says...
Sounds normal for here where we (the birds and I - "I" in the sense
that I put the stuff out for them) normally get through 26 kilos of
sunflower hearts and 13 kilos of peanuts a month.



Ouch, that sounds expensive! How many feeders do you have? (I have 2
sunflower and one of the peanut and niger) Where do you get your feed?

Last lot I bought online from Arkwildlife and what you get through in a
month would cost around £80 - £90 depending on grade.

By the way, is the premium grade of peanut and sunflower hearts worth
the extra, or does it encourage the birds to eat more!

I also use Ark and order every other month and get the cheaper price
for 26 kilos of peanuts and 52 of sunflowers so it works out about £78
a month. As I spend more time watching the birds than I do the TV I
think it's good value. It's not unusual to see 15 or more birds on the
bird table with others flying in for a quick grab from the nearby
tree. Now the rats have been sorted, I'm putting sunflowers on the
ground as well. Then there are two hanging peanut feeders (four in
winter but two get displaced for hanging baskets in summer) and a
hanging sunflower feeder.

The visitor list includes:

great, long-tailed, blue and coal tits
chaff-, green-, gold- and bullfinches
thrushes and blackbirds
sparrows and starlings
collared doves
greater spotted woodpeckers

Plus fly-overs and occasional landings from sparrow hawks, buzzards
and herons

So plenty of variety

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Ethiopian proverb: When spiders unite they can tie down a lion!

Urgling from the East End of Swansea Bay. We don't yet have a
"dah dah dah dah dah dah dee" theme tune but we're working on it.

I can't tell an astilbe from an aranthus
but I can from an acanthus!

In article , Sacha
writes
We've now got humidity and I hardly know which is worse. At least cold
is refreshing, if it's dry! Humidity is just draining.


And apparently Wednesday is supposed to be very warm! Very close here
tonight and no breeze, very warm indoors. Plants will be so confused
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk