Bird Table News

I feel a little sad. My carefree bird feeding days are certainly gone. I’ll have to put all the food in a caged bird table or caged containers.

One of the things about bird feeding that I like is watching the birds flit freely onto and off the birdtables and swoop onto the bird feeders - some birds have such infinite precision as they zoom down and land on one small perch.

I enjoy the open view of watching my garden birds from my kitchen window. It’s is an entertaining view and can also be amusing.

But I can’t do it any longer. I saw a squirrel at a bird feeder about two weeks ago. The feeder was hanging from a branch and the squirrel could get to it so I had to move that particular bird feeder

I liked to think the squirrel was only an occasional visitor. But yesterday I saw it in the garden. It was walking on the lawn towards the fruit bush where I put cheese and apple for the blackbirds! It was so fat and casual. Not a care in the world.

I watched this squirrel for a few minutes. Then this thug of a squirrel hopped onto the fence and from the fence onto the hedge. Chimpanzee-like it seemed to swing, jump and hop along the hedge, back onto the fence. It was so agile I knew it had done it before.

It even seemed to be posing for a photo!

Look how fat it is! This squirrel is not an occasional visitor. It is not even a visitor. This hedge and garden are it’s home. I bet it is always here. Oh dear.

It’s only one squirrel. I enjoy bird feeding. There are many squirrel proof bird feeders. Not everyone has squirrels in their garden and even if they had I bet they would still continue bird feeding.

Here’s a poem about a squirrel -

Like a small grey coffee pot,
sits the squirrel,
he is not all he should be.
He kills trees by the dozens and
eats his red/brown cousins

The keeper, on the other hand
who shoots him, is a Christian and,
loves his enemies which shows
The Keeper is not one of those.

I can’t remember who wrote this lovely poem.

I already have a squirrel proof peanut feeder, so that’s a start. I had it delivered to my door by Garden Birds Supplies. If you’re interested click here

Garden Bird Supplies make things easy for me. I live six miles from a shop so having some things delivered makes things a bit easier for me.

I’m pleased there are so many different bird feeders that suite all types of bird and all types of garden. If I’m not careful I’ll have one of every bird feeder there is!

I’ve been thinking about people who like birds but don’t have gardens. I’ve seen a bird seed feeder that has a plastic hanger that you stick on the window. Then you can hang this ordinary plastic seed feeder from this hook. Will lookinto it more.

Best. Trisha

I’m going to visit my daughter so am getting other people to feed the birds for me

What a going on!  I’m writing notes left, right and centre.  I think it’s more complicated than feeding a herd of cows.

It’s only for Saturday and Sunday so they won’t starve - the birds I mean not the family!

Yet these garden birds seem to come to expect it.  It is such a rainly day and I’ve had sparrows queing up for the millet feeder and seen shadows of birds flit on and off the feeders which are under the trees - so I must be doing some good.

I’ve one more note to write and then I’m off to catch my train and I’ll also make sure the bird feeders are topped up.

Birdtable which is well made and keeps off larger birds

John said ” The main thing is the roof is supported at all four corners and the table is
supported in the middle and on all four sides.”

John also said - “made a few alterations - changed some of the roof to plastic to let more light in for photography - put wire mesh round to keep out pigeons, rooks etc.”

bird table base

John Also

• extended the base. 
• added longer pieces of old wood under the base to
  make it more stable in the wind as all that wood at the top makes it top
  heavy.
• put some of the stuff used for damp proof courses between
  the old wood and the bottom of the table. This is to stop the damp from
  rising up . For the ‘damp proofing’ almost any plastic or other
  waterproof material would do.

John -Thanks for sending thes photos I’ll take note of these tips when I’m looking for a birdtable.

Wil it ever stop raining?

With weather like this the owls won’t be having a very good time.  Owls can’t hunt very well if their feathers get wet - so they go hungry.

This cold, wet weather’s bad for a variety of garden birds as well.

Keeping feeders clean and dry in wet weather is a challenge.

I’ve just had a count up and I have 10 different bird feeders in my garden!  (11 if you count the window feeder which I had to take down so I could put it on another window)

I started off years ago with one bird table.

But I really believe that variety helps birds.

I have three bird tables.  They are all very old bird tables.  Two don’t have a top and I put a mixed bird food and kitchen scraps on them.  The third birdtable is old and is propped up against a fence until I find a new one I like.  It has a roof.

I have two feeders I’ve just strung on a washing under the shelter of two trees.

I have two other feeders strung on an old washing line in the front garden.  These are open to the full blast of the elements.

I have a meshed ground bird feeder that I put near the garden bush

I have a droll Yankee Feeder that I put only millett in and that always has a group of sparrows round it.

I have one feeder ‘drying out’ as the rain was lashing down last night and it got inside the port holes clogging up the food and stopping the food coming out.  I will put it out soon. Is that Ten?

I got a bit wet this morning.  I  cleaned two bird tables by pouring very hot water over them to get rid of all the wet bits of bird food. 

Just walking round the garden and checking the bird feeders  and filling them up takes a bit of time.

But this way seems to attract a few birds.  Today I saw a blut tit for the first time in ages.  It was at the peanaut feeder.

Will this wet weather make it more difficult for them to get natural food I wonder. 

From September I like putting whole peanuts onto the bird table  and watching blue tits especially fly down.  But as I now know I have a big, fat, thug of a grey squirrel  residing near the garden I will have to stop doing that.

I put a variety of bird food out as well.  Some of the food I put out  is peanut granules, a bird food mix, black sunflower hearts, millet, grated cheese and cut up apple

If you would like any more information about the types of bird feeders I use then please leave a comment in the comment box or Click Here to get details about my PRODUCT REVIEW ITEMS

If you’d like some more information about bird food please leave a comment in the comment box or type ‘bird food’ OR ‘ bird feed’  into the search tab on the right hand side of the page.  Or go to Garden Bird Supplies and have a look at what they are selling.

Or if you would just like to say ‘Hi’ and leave a note about your bird feeding then leave a comment in the comment box.

The combine was going well, there was only one hours combining to do. What could go wrong?

The answer is thunder, lightening and torrential rain. With only one hours combining to do the rain started and the combining ended.

This is the last of my harvest and combining notes. The growing cycle continues and we are still busy but the combining has nearly ended.

The cost of bread should not increase because wheat prices have fallen since last years harvest.

Fuel costs are really high but we still had to dry the corn, which is a bad thing.

It’s been a long harvest and we are still not really sure about the quality of the wheat because of the rain that stopped the harvest.

Let’s hope the land soon dries up -

This is part of what corn we have left to harvest -

I’ve read that we will soon be the most heavily populated country in the European Union.  So let’s hope next year is a good harvest.

My garden birds seem to be getting used to the different locations of the bird feeders.

The thrushes still disappear into the garden bush every day and appear with cheese and apple  in their beaks.  I wonder if they think it’s a  bush that grows cheese and apple.

Hi,

I’m pondering about adding something to my Bird Table News diary / blog.  I’m thinking of adding either an

• email newsletter

or a

• forum

With a forum we could meet and exchange chats and info.   I love the comments box I have.  Comments are good and I enjoy hearing from you.  I enjoy the stories that are sent, advice your ask for  and advice you give me. BUT, comments get lost in the passage of time and people who make the comments don’t ‘meet’ any other birdy people. 

With a forum A, B, and C could chat to each other.  In fact we could all chat to each other.  Maybe everyone is busy flitting here and there and  think Bird Table News is OK as it is.

Email newsletter:  I could sent out special bits of info that I may forget to put on my Bird Table News online diary /blog.  I could root out special offers and pop in bits of bird news I never get round to putting on here.

Just wondered if anyone had any thoughts. 

Best. Trisha