On Sun, 10 Nov 2002 22:06:00 -0000, "trevor.appleton"
wrote:

Back in September my bird feeders were covered in greenfinches, colat tits,
blue and great tits, the odd tree sparrow too.

In October they suddenly stopped coming so I threw the peanuts away and put
up fresh - they returned.

A few weeks ago I spent 20 quid on a large sack of peanuts, and guess what,
yes they've deserted me. It it likely to be the peanuts (they are also
ignoring the black sunflower seeds).

I've noticed the peanuts are all slightly pecked along the full length of
the feeders.

Have I blown £20?

Trevor


I think the birds will probably come back to you when the weather gets
colder and times get harder. There's still a lot of natural food
around and probably the birds don't feel the need to make much use of
your feeders.

In my garden there are visiting flocks of chaffinches (and some
brambling too -- rather to my surprise). There are mature beech trees
on the edge of my garden and the finches come and feed on the
beechnuts lying on the lawn. I've only got one nut feeder which the
chaffinches and bramblings ignore at the moment. However, I reckon a
few icy December days (and the end of the beech mast) will make them
more enthusiastic. I do get quite a few greenfinch on the feeder, and
last year great tit, blue tit, coaltit, goldfinch, and also the
occasional sparrowhawk.

Norman Tulloch