There is a bird feeder hung in my back garden about six feet from the
window. It has a constant stream of the common garden birds but just
now a Woodpecker decided to have a go. It ate everything except for
the peanuts. I've never seen a Woodpecker from such a close distance
before.

Steve

--
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SwingNN. Forecast with Neural Networks. http://www.swingnn.com
JustNN. Just Neural Networks. http://www.justnn.com

On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 18:09:38 +0100, Stephen Wolstenholme
wrote:

There is a bird feeder hung in my back garden about six feet from the
window. It has a constant stream of the common garden birds but just
now a Woodpecker decided to have a go. It ate everything except for
the peanuts. I've never seen a Woodpecker from such a close distance

Nice, what variety was it? The greater spotted that visits here
only seems to go for peanuts even though there are feeds available
from nearby feeders. They are about 20 yards away from a window, a
large niger seed feeder is about 4ft from the window, had about 14
goldfinch on it this afternoon. The window does have some stickers on
it designed so that birds can see it where it is.

G.Harman

On 16/10/2012 18:48, Janet wrote:
In article ,
says...

There is a bird feeder hung in my back garden about six feet from the
window. It has a constant stream of the common garden birds but just
now a Woodpecker decided to have a go. It ate everything except for
the peanuts. I've never seen a Woodpecker from such a close distance
before.

Lucky you. Was it the black white re one or the green sort?

Janet.

The green woodpeckers are ground feeders.

In article , damduck-
says...
Nice, what variety was it? The greater spotted that visits here
only seems to go for peanuts even though there are feeds available
from nearby feeders. They are about 20 yards away from a window, a
large niger seed feeder is about 4ft from the window, had about 14
goldfinch on it this afternoon.


Our greater spotted visitor tends to go for the fat balls first,
then when they are gone moves on to the peanuts. Doesn't seem to
touch the sunflower hearts feeder. During the breeding season,
they did seem to just go for the peanuts, and brought the
youngsters along, sat them on the trelis and fed them there, until
they were big enough to feed themselves. Not had a visit in recent
weeks.

As for goldfinches, we had loads, and siskins, but all of a sudden
they all disappeard. I left the niger seed out, and we now have a
couple visiting (takes them over a week to get through a small
feeder). Not seen any siskins since early September.

--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 20:31:22 +0100, Roger Tonkin
wrote:


As for goldfinches, we had loads, and siskins, but all of a sudden
they all disappeard. I left the niger seed out, and we now have a
couple visiting (takes them over a week to get through a small
feeder). Not seen any siskins since early September.

As I've said before, ditching nyger seed and putting sunflower hearts
everywhere has resulted in increase in both numbers and variety of
birds here. Today had copious quantities of green and gold finches,
sparrows, collared doves and tits of various types. And the lesser
spotted woodpecker is still visiting the peanut feeder.

Squirrel has given up trying to get peanuts out of the feeder and now
visits the bird table for sunflower hearts. Birds don't seem to mind;
they coexist on the table with him.

Tom Cruise rat is still doing his morning obstacle course to the
hanging bird feeder but has, I think, been defeated by the removal of
the adjacent hanging basket which he used as a launch pad to jump onto
the feeder (other rats have been observed entering the garden via the
bait box tunnels, presumably after a lethal feed as bait blocks in the
boxes are being eaten).

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the East End of Swansea Bay where sometimes
it's raining and sometimes it's not.

On 16/10/2012 18:47, wrote:
On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 18:09:38 +0100, Stephen Wolstenholme
wrote:

There is a bird feeder hung in my back garden about six feet from the
window. It has a constant stream of the common garden birds but just
now a Woodpecker decided to have a go. It ate everything except for
the peanuts. I've never seen a Woodpecker from such a close distance

Nice, what variety was it? The greater spotted that visits here
only seems to go for peanuts even though there are feeds available

We get greater spotted and lesser spotted on the feeder for peanuts, and
once had a green woodpecker concuss itself on a patio door. It went with
a heck of bang and I got a photo of the stunned bird out cold as it came
round. Time to go and get a camera and wait for it to wake up!

http://www.nezumi.demon.co.uk/garden...e/wildlife.htm

Interestingly whenever the greater spotted woodpecker turns up
everything else scarpers but it is an incredibly nervous bird despite
its size and fearsome beak. Any movement or noise at all and it is off.

from nearby feeders. They are about 20 yards away from a window, a
large niger seed feeder is about 4ft from the window, had about 14
goldfinch on it this afternoon. The window does have some stickers on
it designed so that birds can see it where it is.

Woodpeckers are one of the few birds that can survive flying into a
window at full pelt. The force that they can put into a hammer strike
with their beak is amazing but requires fast video to see it.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 18:47:00 +0100, wrote:

On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 18:09:38 +0100, Stephen Wolstenholme
wrote:

There is a bird feeder hung in my back garden about six feet from the
window. It has a constant stream of the common garden birds but just
now a Woodpecker decided to have a go. It ate everything except for
the peanuts. I've never seen a Woodpecker from such a close distance

Nice, what variety was it? The greater spotted that visits here
only seems to go for peanuts even though there are feeds available
from nearby feeders. They are about 20 yards away from a window, a
large niger seed feeder is about 4ft from the window, had about 14
goldfinch on it this afternoon. The window does have some stickers on
it designed so that birds can see it where it is.

G.Harman
--
EasyNN-plus. Neural Networks plus. http://www.easynn.com
SwingNN. Forecast with Neural Networks. http://www.swingnn.com
JustNN. Just Neural Networks. http://www.justnn.com

On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 18:47:00 +0100, wrote:

On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 18:09:38 +0100, Stephen Wolstenholme
wrote:

There is a bird feeder hung in my back garden about six feet from the
window. It has a constant stream of the common garden birds but just
now a Woodpecker decided to have a go. It ate everything except for
the peanuts. I've never seen a Woodpecker from such a close distance

Nice, what variety was it? The greater spotted that visits here
only seems to go for peanuts even though there are feeds available
from nearby feeders. They are about 20 yards away from a window, a
large niger seed feeder is about 4ft from the window, had about 14
goldfinch on it this afternoon. The window does have some stickers on
it designed so that birds can see it where it is.

G.Harman

It was a greater spotted. Probably the only one that doesn't eat
peanuts.

I have not had any goldfinch on my niger seed feeder but it's only
been out a few days. We only just moved to this house and it's been
empty for over a year so the local birds have not had any feeders to
attract them.

Steve



--
EasyNN-plus. Neural Networks plus. http://www.easynn.com
SwingNN. Forecast with Neural Networks. http://www.swingnn.com
JustNN. Just Neural Networks. http://www.justnn.com

"Janet" wrote
In article , david@abacus-
nurseries.co.uk says...
The green woodpeckers are ground feeders.

http://www.food4wildbirds.co.uk/greenwoodpecker.htm

"Habitat
the Green woodpecker can often be seen feeding from the ground,
heaths, downlands & pastures. It climbs up tree trunks and branches
and had become proficient at hanging from garden bird feeders in
search for a regular food source.
Behaviour
climbs, hangs, takes off & lands from vegetation, tables, feeders."

We get green woodpeckers feeding on our lawn quite regularly and
stopping off at the birdbath for a drink, but they're also fond of
flying up onto the side of a telegraph pole that's just behind our back
hedge and going round it in an upward spiral. I'm not sure if they're
investigating all the cracks and crevices for insects as if they think
it's just another tree, or if it's a convenient place to cackle from -
which they do, rather loudly.

--
Sue

On Wed, 17 Oct 2012 13:25:01 +0100, "Sue" wrote:


We get green woodpeckers feeding on our lawn quite regularly and
stopping off at the birdbath for a drink, but they're also fond of
flying up onto the side of a telegraph pole that's just behind our back
hedge and going round it in an upward spiral. I'm not sure if they're
investigating all the cracks and crevices for insects as if they think
it's just another tree, or if it's a convenient place to cackle from -
which they do, rather loudly.

We are lucky to have both Greater Spotted and Green varieties. The
Green only feeds on the front lawn (40+ ant nests at last count) and
the GSWs use the fat and peanut feeders in the back garden.
--
rbel

Our northern goldfinches don't like this new-fangled stuff. With sunflower hearts and nyger in adjacent feeders, they cluster on the nyger and ignore the sunflower.

Our biggest increase in variety came when we added a ground feeder table (although we've fastened it to the side of a fence post out of the reach of the cats). In an urban environment, the main requirement is to provide food that your neighbours don't provide! - in our case, fat, nyger and food for the ground feeders.

Although just when I think I've seen the complete birdlist for our garden something new turns up - this year it was our first greater spotted woodpecker, and a chiffchaff/willow warbler on the ground table.

On Oct 16, 9:25*pm, The Original Jake wrote:
(other rats have been observed entering the garden via the
bait box tunnels, presumably after a lethal feed as bait blocks in the
boxes are being eaten).


I recall one factory I worked at where the rats would eat industrial
(!) quantities of poisioned bait without any apparant ill effect.
Tough little buggers. We had to get a company terrier.