Best Garden Bird

[Ian_Sanderson]

opps

[BlueGate Alan]

Nice try Sanderson, especially as she is 83!!!

 

Am sure UM will delete you when he reads this!

[BlueGate Alan]

Chickened out already then ehh!

[Dagger03]

>>>Should you put bread out in the garden for the birds.

 

Yes.

 

You could also put out nuts and seed - if you put it on the ground, then there is always the danger of cats - so it you do put it on the ground, do not put it close to where a cat could hide, ie keep it in the open if possible.

 

If you buy the nuts and have a feeder pole, do not hang out the nuts in the string type nut bags as birds have been known to catch their claws in them.

 

Please note - you may also attract squirrels, and they can be quite spectacular.

 

If you are feeding bread to swans, please make sure you do not feed them whole slices, as bread will swell up in water.

 

If you have loaves of bread, you will find that the birds love the end slices, ie the ones with the crust - but again make sure you break it up.

 

[Eastside Urchin]

bread is fine,any birds that don't like it willsimply not go near it.My mother puts out crust for the little birdies but my dog used to beat them to it.

[BlueGate Alan]

Thanks for the advice lads!

[Big J R]

Great care should be taken when putting bread out, especially if its dry.

 

It's not a good idea to put bread out in the spring, because if it is fed by parent to the chicks it will swll in their stomachs with disastrous result.

 

Dried or live meal worms in a saucer will attract many birds, especially robins.

[BlueGate Alan]

I am confused again now then

[I am Spartacus]

Has to be the flock of about 70 Starlings that decide to dance outside at around 15.45 each night.

[Miss.A.F.C.Hornchurch]

Originally Posted By: Taffy_Alan

I am confused again now then

 

your always confused!

 

my fave garden bird, would be a Robin!

[Bitch]

Ditto Annie. These fellas can keep thier fancy birds, it's my Robins that make my heart glow. I've got a fat one and a thin one. I'll never forget them feeding during the snow from my garden. They are here all year round. It that normal? Maybe that's where the expression Round Robin comes from?

 

And, for Dagger. I feed the squirrels too. I love watching them.

[Eastside Urchin]

JR to a certain extent you are right but not putting it out in the spring only really applies if the conditions are very poor,plus most birds tend to feed their young with anything but bread when available

[Horace]

Originally Posted By: urchin_mentalist

lol,horace,where do you live???
waxwings are usually confined to the east coast,usually when the scandanavian winters are harsh,they come here for some nice warm weather!!!
Either that or they love watching hornchurch beat the ricay!!!

UM - sorry, didn't see this post. I live in Hertford and was v. surprised to see the waxwings! They sat on my roof/ aerials for a while then set off due north. Next morning there was one only! It too set off due north.

[tinky]

I dont really get them in the garden but i do love pied wagtails!! saw one whilst in upminster this afternoon and i havent seen one since my holiday and it did put a smile on my face. i like the way their tails wag...so cute

[Eastside Urchin]

horace,they do go inland after a while but tend to stay on the coast,this year they have been seen as far a field as shropshire & herefordshire so hertfordshire is definatly a possibilty,wish they were round here though,only a few records in essex so far,but it has been so far a reasonably mild winter in scandanavia

[Dagger03]

Tink - wagtails - very common around here - often at Dagenham civic centre on the green in the front, and also out the back - in some areas they are commoner than sparrows.

 

Waxwings - a bit surprised they flew due north - they usually head southwards, but more particularly they will aim for the nearest red berry bushes.

 

Bread - the story of bread swelling up inside birds is not substantiated by fact - it can happen if you feed dry bread in slices to a swan, and then it can cause the bread to swell up in the swan's throat, but just make sure you break it up.

 

Re-tits and small birds - very doubtful if this would happen simply because tits prefer nuts - bread is more for sparrows, starling and pigeons.

 

Bitch - squirrels are incredible, but I have seen them grab the but feeder, chew through the string and take the whole lot away - careful if you try to feed them by hand, they have sharp teeth.

 

Bitch - two robins in the same garden? Unusual, though not unknown.

[tinky]

Just seen two robins fighting in my friends garden whilst i was out being santa this morn. was rather funny to watch thm dancing around eachother

[Eastside Urchin]

i often have 2/3 robins in my garden

[tinky]

these were making one hell of a racket for to lil birdies

[Big J R]

Pied wagtails abound around these parts of leafy Surrey.

 

A couple of nuthatches live in the oak tree at the end of our garden.

 

Regretably, there are fewer and fewer housemartins each summer and the sparrows and starlings are definitely on the decline at the moment.

 

On the up-side, jays are on the increase and we've even had a visitation last summer from a black headed woodpecker in the old oak.

 

One of the pair of Buzzards now resident on Boxhill graced us with a visit a few weeks ago when it alighted on our bird table after chasing a wood-pigeon ! Boy, was it big. Unfortunately I didn't have time to pick p my camera.