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I got a bird feeder as a present a couple of Christmases back. It's a metal pole about 6ft tall with branches on top to hang things. I like to spend a minute or two watching the birds on it.
I'm puzzled about the lack of variety in the birds. There are blue tits all the time, an occasional sparrow, and pigeons and blackbirds underneath cleaning up the bits the other birds drop. I've seen magpies a couple of times, and now I know there's a crow. But where are the other small birds? I had a bird feeder as a kid, and got great tits, coal tits, bullfinches, yellowhammers, and occasional "WTF is that" birds.
I thought feeding birds would be straightforward: I put out food, and birds eat it. No. I put out seed mix and fat balls from the garden centre and the birds mostly ignore it. Maybe they get better quality stuff from my neighbours? The squirrels like it, but I'm not trying to feed them. I buy a squirrel baffle and more expensive seed mixes and fat-in-a-coconut-shell. Yes, they like that better. Then I find the coconut shell on the ground. Was it windy enough to blow that off? I replace it. Next morning, it's on the ground again. I tie the next one on more firmly. Today my SO sees the seed holder on the ground, the plastic water tray in pieces and a large crow waddling away. Well, that explains the vandalism.
I'm puzzled about the lack of variety in the birds. There are blue tits all the time, an occasional sparrow, and pigeons and blackbirds underneath cleaning up the bits the other birds drop. I've seen magpies a couple of times, and now I know there's a crow. But where are the other small birds? I had a bird feeder as a kid, and got great tits, coal tits, bullfinches, yellowhammers, and occasional "WTF is that" birds.
I thought feeding birds would be straightforward: I put out food, and birds eat it. No. I put out seed mix and fat balls from the garden centre and the birds mostly ignore it. Maybe they get better quality stuff from my neighbours? The squirrels like it, but I'm not trying to feed them. I buy a squirrel baffle and more expensive seed mixes and fat-in-a-coconut-shell. Yes, they like that better. Then I find the coconut shell on the ground. Was it windy enough to blow that off? I replace it. Next morning, it's on the ground again. I tie the next one on more firmly. Today my SO sees the seed holder on the ground, the plastic water tray in pieces and a large crow waddling away. Well, that explains the vandalism.
