The birds are eating the bird seed and peanuts in our garden in Kent very quickly,
The rate of consumption is much quicker than I have seen before.
Has anyone else noticed a similar high rate, or able to explain why this is happening?
I've noticed the same from one of those squirrel-proof feeders that look like a cage around the feeder itself. Then noticed that a rather fat pigeon has found out how to fly onto the nearby fence, fly up to and hang on to the feeder causing to to wobble all over the place and spill seed on the ground. Fly back down to the ground to feast on the seed. Rinse and repeat.
Does it have a relation in Kent or is there some sort of Pigeon Internet for the dissemination of useful pigeon information.?
Andrew
Yes, there's even an RFC for data packets by pigeon.
I've only just started feeding the birds this year, so don't have any historical consumption rates to compare with, however, I agree that our standard size peanut feeders are getting emptied pretty well every week. We do have the occasional visit from a woodpecker, but it's mostly very industrious sparrows, sometimes as many as five at a time. Still, watching them squabble is entertaining!
Graham (Feeder outside study window so I can watch it when I'm supposed to be working :-)
What kind of birds are you getting? There's loads of crows round these here parts (Thanet) and plenty of magpies. More than usual, especially the crows. I can't see how that is relevant but it's the only thing I can think of that's different this year.
Si
See post about clever pigeon, same could be said for squirrels or other large birds. Have you altered anything to do with the feeder, where it hangs, pruned nearby bushes? The wind shakes our seed feeder enough to empty it in about 3 days. Yes it is the wind 'cause we find the seed on the ground...
We noticed that earlier this year, then I spotted a family of very plumps rats attacking them. The rat catcher sorted that out and the birds then got their fair share. That is, until some despicable shit nicked all the bird feeders. The bird bath was nicked last night too.
Same here, but this is first time I've used peanuts. The bird seed doesn't vanish so fast. Both from Costco.
My bird table in decreasing order of visitors is:
Wood pigeons Feral pigeons Collared doves Crows Magpies Sparrows Jays The odd tit
A family of blackbirds around, but they seem much more interested in digging out ant nests than in nuts.
A fox usually appears at dusk and hoovers up any peanuts the birds have dropped into the grass.
Next door's cat got a couple of pigeons (garden looked like there had been a pillow fight), but I've raised the bird table and that hasn't happened again since.
The thing that amazed me was that with feathers all over the lawn, the bird table stayed piled up with nuts for a week and nothing came to eat them. Normally, it's emptied in half a day. After I'd cut the grass which also picked up most of the feathers, birds started appearing again.
Sparrows? Haven't seen one of them for yonks.
Round here - Luton - it's gluts of bluetits that empty the feeder: the young ones probably think its the only food they can eat. Sad really. Mind you, haven't bothered this year as can't beat the squirrels. And - strangely - we now don't get our strawberries or cherries attacked. Not such a good idea to invite birds into the garden after all...
S
Plenty here in north Hampshire. A family of 6 or more empty our (quite large) feeder in two days, by chucking everything on the ground until they find a sunflower seed. The spillage is quickly eaten by dunnocks, pigeons and collared doves.
Yes, significantly so. In our case I an sure that it is down to the noticeably higher number of fledglings this year compared to the last, a lot of the local birds have had a successful second batch. According to my weekly BTO bird counts we usually experience a drop at this time of year, probably due to the abundance of cereal crops on nearby land for the last few years but this year we are currently getting more than a third more visits to the garden.
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