I, for years, have put out mixed seed and peanuts for our feathered
friends. Up until this year I have never had many peanuts eaten, I need
to refill the seed feeders daily, but the peanut one perhaps once in the
Winter. This year they are eating more peanuts than seed, I wonder why.
I would have put it down to the cold weather, except that they were
doing this in early Autumn before we were zapped by anti global warming.
Any ideas why this should be? I have the same selection of birds as
other years.
--
Residing on low ground in North Staffordshire

"Moonraker" wrote in message
...
I, for years, have put out mixed seed and peanuts for our feathered
friends. Up until this year I have never had many peanuts eaten, I need to
refill the seed feeders daily, but the peanut one perhaps once in the
Winter. This year they are eating more peanuts than seed, I wonder why. I
would have put it down to the cold weather, except that they were doing
this in early Autumn before we were zapped by anti global warming. Any
ideas why this should be? I have the same selection of birds as other
years.
--
Residing on low ground in North Staffordshire

Yes, I've always got through seed faster than nuts. In part I put it down
to the birds picking up some seeds and then rejecting them to the ground
(happens with "no mess" seed too) and I've learned to let them empty the
feeder and then given them a day to hoover around on the ground. It also
seems to be positioning. I've got a nut feeder close to the house which
goes down more slowly than one further away. It's also related to the type
of feeder. When we moved to Somerset the "squirrel problem" we had in
Berkshire went away but I still use the squirrel proof feeder and it goes
down more slowly than any of the others wherever I put it. The Woodpecker
can't use the squirrel proof feeder (it's one of the ones in a "cage").

Maybe the cold has bought something different to your feeders. We've had
wagtails recently which haven't visited before (not that they eat nuts).

"Graham Harrison" wrote in message
...

Yes, I've always got through seed faster than nuts. In part I put it
down to the birds picking up some seeds and then rejecting them to the
ground (happens with "no mess" seed too) and I've learned to let them
empty the feeder and then given them a day to hoover around on the ground.
It also seems to be positioning. I've got a nut feeder close to the
house which goes down more slowly than one further away. It's also
related to the type of feeder. When we moved to Somerset the "squirrel
problem" we had in Berkshire went away but I still use the squirrel proof
feeder and it goes down more slowly than any of the others wherever I put
it. The Woodpecker can't use the squirrel proof feeder (it's one of the
ones in a "cage").

Maybe the cold has bought something different to your feeders. We've had
wagtails recently which haven't visited before (not that they eat nuts).


Sorry to disagree- but our woodpeckers have no problem
with our "squirrel proof" wire cage encased feeder.

When both seed and nuts are available to general assembly - the seed is got
through
much quicker - agreed (:-)

Even after the woodpeckers have gobbled up more than their fair share of
the nut ration (:-(

Regards
Pete
www.thecanalshop.com

Two thoughts 1) are you getting more squirrels than usual? Round here they are still active and feeding.

2) You may be getting the same selection of bird species but not necessarily the same birds - life span is quite short. And birds learn different behaviours. For example, about 40 years ago blue tits learnt to attack bottles of milk on the doorstep,and the behaviour spread quickly. But now there are fewer doorstep deliveries, and fewer deliveries of full fat milk, and the behaviour seems to have died out. Meanwhile, ground feeding birds like dunnocks have started to use bird feeders ...

So maybe your current generation of birds have re-learnt to feed on peanuts?

RSPB site warns against fats in summer for two reasons 1) that it's not very good for nestlings b) that (particularly home made) fat products may go rancid quickly in the warm weather

But everyone still seems to be recommending fat for winter feeding.

And, thinking about it, our birds ignore fat in the summer, when our garden is stuffed with alternative insect food. So nowadays I feed fat only in the winter.

"Chris Hogg" wrote in message Piggy-backing on your
question, my wife has heard that it's not good
to put out fat for the birds, either on its own or mixed with oats or
breadcrumbs or whatever, as fat balls. As fat is a good source of
energy, why not? The birds seem to go for it.

--

I can't think why not except that commercially available fat balls are
wrapped in nets and birds can get their feet caught in them. Might be a
Chinese whispers type of thing.
Home made fat balls & bird cakes must save many lives in this sort of
weather.
Don't use vegetable suet though, has to be the real thing.
I melt suet and mix with sunflower hearts, raisins, oatmeal, chopped
peanuts, put it into a plastic mould (anything you have to fit the qty
you've made) while it's still warm I poke a length of string into it then
into the fridge to set. You hang it from the string.
Voila!
If you can't get it out of the mould when it comes out of the fridge, just
sit the whole thing in warm water for a short time.
There's a nice birdie thread going on here which you all might like to share
on uk.rec.birdwatching. Full of nice people who'd be interested and are
very knowledgable.
Tina

On Dec 27, 9:38*pm, "Christina Websell"
wrote:
"Chris Hogg" wrote in message Piggy-backing on your

question, my wife has heard that it's not good

to put out fat for the birds, either on its own or mixed with oats or
breadcrumbs or whatever, as fat balls. As fat is a good source of
energy, why not? The birds seem to go for it.

--

I can't think why not except that commercially available fat balls are
wrapped in nets and birds can get their feet caught in them. Might be a
Chinese whispers type of thing.
Home made fat balls & bird cakes must save many lives in this sort of
weather.
Don't use vegetable suet though, has to be the real thing.
I melt suet and mix with sunflower hearts, raisins, oatmeal, chopped
peanuts, put it into a plastic mould (anything you have to fit the qty
you've made) *while it's still warm I poke a length of string into it then
into the fridge to set. *You hang it from the string.
Voila!
*If you can't get it out of the mould when it comes out of the fridge, just
sit the whole thing in warm water for a short time.
There's a nice birdie thread going on here which you all might like to share
on uk.rec.birdwatching. *Full of nice people who'd be interested and are
very knowledgable.
Tina

I have given up using suet but dripping instead. costs less and the
birds havn't complained

In message , Christina Websell
writes

"Chris Hogg" wrote in message Piggy-backing on your
question, my wife has heard that it's not good
to put out fat for the birds, either on its own or mixed with oats or
breadcrumbs or whatever, as fat balls. As fat is a good source of
energy, why not? The birds seem to go for it.

--

I can't think why not except that commercially available fat balls are
wrapped in nets and birds can get their feet caught in them. Might be a
Chinese whispers type of thing.
Home made fat balls & bird cakes must save many lives in this sort of
weather.

Some commercial fat balls come in the nets, but it's easy to buy them
loose - we by them in bulk packs, and put them in a suitable feeder.

Have made our own bfore, and the kids sometimes like to do it. But by
the time we've bought the fat (veggie, so we don't have any waste), the
seeds etc. it's probably just as cheap to by them ready made. Esp. give
the rate they can be gone through.
--
Chris French

In message , Chris Hogg
writes
On Mon, 27 Dec 2010 21:38:11 -0000, "Christina Websell"
wrote:


"Chris Hogg" wrote in message Piggy-backing on your
question, my wife has heard that it's not good
to put out fat for the birds, either on its own or mixed with oats or
breadcrumbs or whatever, as fat balls. As fat is a good source of
energy, why not? The birds seem to go for it.

--

I can't think why not except that commercially available fat balls are
wrapped in nets and birds can get their feet caught in them. Might be a
Chinese whispers type of thing.
Home made fat balls & bird cakes must save many lives in this sort of
weather.
Don't use vegetable suet though, has to be the real thing.
I melt suet and mix with sunflower hearts, raisins, oatmeal, chopped
peanuts, put it into a plastic mould (anything you have to fit the qty
you've made) while it's still warm I poke a length of string into it then
into the fridge to set. You hang it from the string.
Voila!
If you can't get it out of the mould when it comes out of the fridge, just
sit the whole thing in warm water for a short time.
There's a nice birdie thread going on here which you all might like to share
on uk.rec.birdwatching. Full of nice people who'd be interested and are
very knowledgable.
Tina

Thanks Tina. I eventually looked on the RSPB site (should have done
that first!), and it's fat from cooking that's not recommended.


They don't seem to like veg 'suet' though.

We made some once with it and the birds didn't really eat them . Lard
was much more to their likleing
--
Chris French