The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Wildlife => Topic started by: pgkevet on December 10, 2017, 12:49:30 pm
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Same here - it's great to help isn't it. All summer we have mobs of tree and house sparrows at the feeders, now it's mainly tits - great, blue and coal - robbins, blackbirds, the odd goldfinch, greenfinch, woodpeckers and some sparrows, but they come in a bunch then go somewhere else, probably still mopping up the grain left from the rotting cereal crops. On the ground we have dunnocks, chaffinches, robin and suchlike.
We got them a mealworm feeder which we put up yesterday, but they are still a bit nervous of it - I'm sure that won't last long.
Feeding the wild birds really does help them to get through deep cold like we are having, then in spring it gives them some extra energy for producing and rearing young.
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V is the one who feeds them. If she's late topping up then there's always a bluetit that comes and circles her head as a reminder let alone the pheasant hens queueing up twice a day when she feeds the chickens and the robin that sits waiting on the fence-post for his ration..
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I have all those and BERTIE
Bertie is a wild buzzard which sits in the tree outside my kitchen window waiting for me to go out and throw him some meat (a great use for the scraps from butchered lamb)
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Bertie is wonderful. We usually have an Aldrin each year, which hangs around the fields, but not so close to the house and I've never thought to feed them.
I didn't mention a pair of birds which do also feed at my bird table, to spare folk's delicate feelings. Nemesis 1 and Nemesis 2 live in a parcel of trees across the road from us, and really do use our bird feeders to provide food for them and their families. They are so quick I have never had the chance to photo them, although they do sometimes sit on top of a feeder wondering where their lunch just flew off to :innocent:
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The sparrowhawks will love you forever for fattening up their lunch!!
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The sparrowhawks will love you forever for fattening up their lunch!!
Trouble is they've a tendency to eye us up too, through the window - just wondering if we'd fit in their talons ;D
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They are so quick you can't outrun them. Stay indoors :roflanim: :roflanim: