Please feed the birds

[Amber]

Just putting out some bird cake I made for the second time today - reminded me to post on here. Have a snout out of the stale biscuits, old dried fruit, out-of-date-by-several-years cereals, last night's leftover pasta: that kind of thing - maybe something for your children to do on a snow day is to make it into a birdcake (with melted fat, eg lard) and serve up? The birds really struggle in this so just spare a thought for them - some fresh water, a cleared patch of snow with some crumbs or peanuts, sultanas etc. Just don't give bread unless you have soaked it first.

[sindy123]

Thanks Amber, I have been feeding them nuts seeds christmas cake and bread. just wondering, what is best to soak the bread in? I never thought of doing that.

[scary mum]

Funnily enough I have just been having a rummage through my cupboards and was going to venture out to the garden soon.

[Ricky74]

Thanks Amber - I'm not very good at knowing which birds eat which food, so I can see the robins eating some seeds the Bluetits eating some fat balls (but not the seeds) and the blackbirds mainly coming down to the ground to get bread that I have put out (but just read your line about soaking the bread).

But as their school is closed will get the kids to make a mix of leftovers too.

[Amber]

Bread needs soaking in water as it can swell in their crops (stomachs) and make them full up but it has little nutritional value so they don't benefit much from eating it. Blackbirds and my favourite thrushes like fruit so chopped apples, dried sultanas etc; the **** and finches will enjoy peanuts, seeds and fatballs; sparrows will eat the latter as will robins but robins can't use hanging feeders very easily so will sit underneath and eat what the messy ones drop. Mealworms are super-expensive but robins love those, and suet for example. Wrens will eat bits of cheese if you leave them near hedges and fences where they might hang out. Water is very important as it freezes fast. We are lucky to have a couple of types of woodpecker here - the spotted ones can eat from nut feeders really well but the green ones want ants and when the ground is frozen they struggle.

Here is a link from the RSPB for anyone unsure, but a friend of ours is a really eminent ornithologist and says in this weather give them pretty much anything! At ours it is a toss up between our hens and the wild birds but I am favouring the latter at the moment as they are under such population pressure. It makes me really sad.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildl ... for-birds/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

OMG the forum won't let me say the name of the little birds! T its!

[skipsmash]

Oh no, going to get bread in! And soak it.

[JaneEyre]

Also, , when you brush your pets, keep the hair and peg it to your washing line or tree branches. It'll help keep the little birds extra warm when they make their nests. Just hoping that with the wind we have these days, they will not be blown away! Certainly something to think about once the blizzard/wind has calm down.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=17HcIr ... 4g58ROa0Z3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[loobylou]

Completely stupid question!
We can't get to our normal birdfeeder so I've put out water and plate of apples/seeds etc on the garden table (too many foxes and neighbour's cats on the lawn...) but how will the birds know to come elsewhere? Do they have a good sense of smell???!!

[Ricky74]

Thanks all - going to try some of those now. So far we have sweetcorn (hoping that the frozen stuff defrosted is ok) prunes and crunchy (unsweetened) peanut butter natural oats and a bit of fat from a bolognese prepping for later.

I wondered why the Robin wouldn't touch the fat ball hanger. It's hung very high so sways quite a bit at the moment. Will make sure my DIY fat ball is not hung up.

I never knew that about the pet hair either!

[Rugbymumto2]

Thanks, I keep thinking about this but when I am not home. As I am working from home today I have read this and put out a tray of seeds, nuts and dried fruit. Just waiting for the birds now!!