In relation to this thread who is feeding our feathered friends in their gardens.
What are you feeding them and in particular what tactics are you employing for keeping your bird bath ice free?
Also has the cold weather brought any different species to your garden? I seem to be overrun with Blackbirds at the moment.
I walked past my local reservoir yesterday, couldn't believe how inactive the birds were. I went back and took 6loaves and 3 bags of wild bird seed,the blighters only had a 50ft ring of water to swim in...not much for a couple of hundred birds.Got fookin mobbed by swans,geese,ducks...shit it was like the scene outta HomeAlone2...scared the crap outta me!! Tennis ball in the water is an old fav...
Also has the cold weather brought any different species to your garden?
The cat brought a yellowhamer into the living room. Does that count?
Nyjer seed from proper feeders. Goldfinches love them. Black sunflower seeds. Get tens of finches, tits!, sparrows, etc etc all day long. They need it right now so garden's packed.
glad ian isn't one of the tits in my garden.
Also has the cold weather brought any different species to your garden?The cat brought a yellowhamer into the living room. Does that count?
Well that depends on how many Yellowhammers that the cat normally brings in.
Would love a bird table/feeding station but bloody squirrels seam to overcome every obstacle so far. Any pics of your feeding stations ?
Peanuts and sultanas seem to be going down well at the moment. Good high energy food.
First one (though there's often some live ones outside) I was somewhat pissed off with and a little git for catching it and a little suprised that it had got it at around 6pm when I'd have thought most birds would be well hidden, but the local bird conservationist suggested that it was probably old/weak and birds do have to die at sometime, which although obvious, hadn't really crossed my mind at the time.
I think it's great that people feed the birds, but not in my garden, as birds attract cats & they then shit all over your garden & then keep coming back over & over again, plus the birds shit all over your garden/ car etc. so you carry on feeding them, just not in my garden.
Yup I'm still feeding them, and thanks to the advice from this thread my nuts are now getting far more attention. Blackbirds are lovin the sultanas we're chucking out too - ran out of mealworms the other day though so the robins are having to make do with what they can find.
Only downside is that I spotted a rat under the feeder yesterday - seems heartless to stick poison out at the mo - hadn't seen any trace of it before so think it's being pushed this way to find food, so I'll hold off putting poison out until the thaw. Firm but fair.
The birds didnt seem too keen on the malt loaf we gave them the other day. Over Christmas, the blackbirds stripped the bits of meat still on the bone of our christmas lamb. Robins love cheese, my Dad had a tame one that would feed from his hand.
@Ian Munro
I guess it wasn't so it could get warm 
Mine are getting my mums Christmas cake as it's proper horrid.
Yep cheese is working for me as well at the moment.
But what about your bird baths? The birds need water as well as food and most open water is now frozen over.
I've been trying to share my seed with the birds but they're not interested in it. 
I seem to be feeding a sizeable proportion of the Sussex population of Redwings & Fieldfares right now. A "normal" winter here on the coast i might be lucky & see two Redwings, never Fieldfares. Yesterday i lost count at 60 
Chunks of apple are popular. I normally put some in the trees/bushes for Blackcaps who don't seem to like ground feeding, but those get eaten by the thrushes, so i use the RSPB "guardian" fat ball feeders filled with apple chunks.
Nyger seed & sunflower hearts from normal feeders, sunflower hearts & peanuts on the ground for the ground feeders (and unfortunately the bloody wood pigeons).
Dried mealworms & shredded fat balls for the robins, tits, wrens etc. put in saucers in places that the larger birds can't or won't get to.
Don't forget to keep the water sources free from ice.
The most unusual sighting so far this snap has been a female Black Redstart.
birds do have to die at sometime
They do, and once they've been lying dead for about a fortnight, full of maggots and stink thats when my old cat would 'catch' them and proudly strut into the the house with it and drop it at our feet, or if i was really honoured - on my pillow.
Water... I just keep changing it every couple of hours. Empty it every night, refill in the morning and repeat.
Sultanas, peanuts, mixed seeds, black sunflower seeds, fat balls plus blobs of lard (with seeds and stuff melted into it) - all in large quantities.
Squirrels give my garden a wide berth though if they were reds they'd be more than welcome, sadly just greys here.
We have blue tits, great tits, willow tits, coal tits, long tailed tits, dunnocks, sparrows, starlings, pheasants, woodies, collared doves, woodpeckers, chaffinches, greenfinches, robins, wrens (though not feeing), blackbirds, thrushes (song and mistle) and that's about it.
take one lightbulb (old style, not the shite energy saving ones), pull apart a lamp to take the socket out, get a large plant pot and a metal dog bowl, place the lightbulb inside the plant pot and put the dog bowl so it sits inside the top of the pot, plug the light in and fill the bowl with water. One of the biggest killers of birds in this weather is not the lack of food but dehydration!
We buy wild bird seed & make it up with fat to make bird cake
goes down a treat on the bird table & garage roof
put out water!! (I can't stress this enough)
I live next to the Tyne - I don't think they are thirsty 
Sunflower hearts, nyger seed, mixed seed, peanuts, fatballs and sultanas, and keeping the bird bath and bowl as unfrozen as possible - saucepans full of boiling water come in handy here.
Haven't had a Yellowhammer so far this winter, but male and female Reed Buntings are fairly regular visitors in cold weather, and Bramblings visit occasionally. Always worth checking that flock of Chaffinches, as Bramblings (same family) flock with them.
I wonder how birds never went extinct before we started feeding them.
I wonder how birds never went extinct before we started feeding them.
Well there was much more food availible in woodland and mixed scrub before we chopped it all down or cleared the land for making boats to fight the french/dutch etc with, or for agriculture, then started ripping all the hedges out to make fields bigger or jam a lower maintainence fence in instead. Or built all over the green field for row upon row of identical brick boxes, flooding the area with feline preditors and engendering mass biodiversity reduction by skewing the environment masively in favour of scavenger species such as the pidgeon and seagull which can easily out complete the displaced species for resources.
enjoyed watching them at my parents' house over Christmas - there are 4 (at least) pheasants who were eating loads.
But to be fair I don't really feed them cos I'm genuinely worried they'll starve. I just like to have wild animals in the garden.
I don't even particularly mind the odd visit from a rat, provided he doesn't nest in my shed.
One of the biggest killers of birds in this weather is not the lack of food but dehydration!
Why ? What's wrong with snow ?
.
plus the birds shit all over your garden
It's a bugger that - innit ?
Plus, the little feckers come into your garden in the spring to steal all the twigs and bits of moss to make their nests. Every year before the warm weather kicks in, I have to go round the bleedin garden picking up all the twigs bits of moss and hide them in the shed to stop the thieving gits.
One of the biggest killers of birds in this weather is not the lack of food but dehydration!Why ? What's wrong with snow ?
As snow is frozen I would imagine they find it hard trying to melt it.
Knocked the ice out of our bird bath at lunch time and then watched a young Black Cap having a lovely warm bath. Very satisfying.
> to stop the thieving gits.
Lol!
Re squirrel-proofing - there's a few variations of something called a 'squirrel-baffle'eg:
http://www.charliesdirect.co.uk/products/gardman-squirrel-baffle
-some are intended to go directly under a feeder, or you can place then partway up. Works a treat
I would imagine they find it hard trying to melt it.
Why ?
I've seen birds eating snow. Snow melts in my mouth, why wouldn't it melt in theirs ? ....... they are after all warm blooded.
And sure, birds like their daily baths, but it is certainly not that critical - they can go a few days/weeks without a bath and without it being life-threatening. Any bird which has evolved in a temperate climate, should cope with sub-zero periods during winter - as far as water is concerned.
Food might be more of a problem, specially due to reduced availability as a result of human activity. But birds have evolved to deal with lower food supplies in winter anyway. The short days mean that they are less active and their metabolism slows down to a degree, there is also less activity such as nest building, egg production, and feeding youngsters, and every importantly, there is no moulting - moulting places huge demands on a birds physical strength. I can expect anything from 30% to 50% drop in the food consumption of my birds (of the Corvid kind) at this time of the year compared to at the height of the moult in summer - despite the drop in temperature. Having said all that, I do think that it is important to leave food out for birds because human activity can have such a dramatic effect on supplies - it's probably just as important in summer though.
Ref the squirrel threat you can make one of those Squirrel Baffle yourself with by cutting the bottom off of an empty 5 liter water container and then punch a hole in the lid and slid it onto the pole on which your feed sits.
Needs to be high enough up the feeder pole though so that the squirrels can't leap over it from the ground.
Well there was much more food availible in woodland and mixed scrub before we chopped it all down...
But yet they've still survived ok there's less of them but they're still here.
Just been to Sainsburys and forgot a feeder and food, I've been feeding them at work this week. As Ernie says I've sat watched them eat snow too.
The snow in my back garden is covered with bird footprints of all sizes. There isn't any food on the snow so I doubt they would just be strolling about the place and not eating/drinking the snow.
The old biddy a few doors down keeps feeding the Seagulls, I hate seagulls, there's bird cack everywhere. Now I just let Springner out for a wee when they fly in.
They look like they are harrasing all the other birds, I don't know for certain though.
We have Cormarants??? on the local lake now, that's the first time I've seen them here.
And also the Red Kites are getting nearer to town.
The old biddy a few doors down keeps feeding the Seagulls, I hate seagulls, there's bird cack everywhere. Now I just let Springner out for a wee when they fly in.
They look like they are harrasing all the other birds, I don't know for certain though.
We have Cormarants??? on the local lake now, that's the first time I've seen them here.
And also the Red Kites are getting nearer to town.
I should say I live in Bedfordshire, of course I'd put up with it if it was the coast.
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