Bird feeders, no customers!

[bungeejumper]

A week ago, our four feeders were swarming with tits, robins, woodpeckers, nuthatches, you name it. And this morning they're nearly all gone.

Notwithstanding the incoming quick cold snap, I imagine that this is because our peanuts and fat balls can't compete with the alternative attractions in the hedgerows? (We are open-fields rural, west Wiltshire.) We also seem to have fewer blackbirds. Maybe it's that the migrants have pushed off and left the true residents in charge? If so, I shall be both happy and just a little bit sad.

OTOH, we have ravens nesting in the horse chestnut trees. Annoys the hell out of the rooks.

BJ

[Slarti]

Our feeders have been quieter over the last couple of days, but there are birds swarming all over the weeds in the back corner of the garden, so there must be something over there for them.

I expect that they'll be back on the feeders the next couple of days, if the weather forecast is right.


Oh, but they do keep coming to the bird bath.

Slarti

[Breelander]

...there are birds swarming all over the weeds in the back corner of the garden, so there must be something over there for them.

That's a likely explanation. I've just had a look in my compost bin - I've never seen so many invertebrates in one place before! So much activity from so many (predominately woodlice) that for the first time I have heard my compost working

[tjh290633]

It is probably down to the supply of other food sources at the moment. Blackbirds seem to be very active ground feeding as are dunnocks. Various tits drop in now and then for some seed or peanuts, but not as often as hitherto. Haven't seen a nuthatch for ages.

Wrens are nest building, as are bluetits and blackbirds.

The coming cold snap may change things.

TJH

[marronier]

I`ve noticed that the oak trees are yellow with sprouting leaf buds which may mean an abundance of juicy grubs are available.

[Nimrod103]

I`ve noticed that the oak trees are yellow with sprouting leaf buds which may mean an abundance of juicy grubs are available.

Frozen juicy grubs at present, I imagine.
During the recent Beast from the East, my niger seeds fed half a dozen siskins, a couple of goldfinches and a solitary greenfinch. But as soon as the snow cleared, they disappeared, and only one siskin has been back.
The peanuts and sunflower seeds fed all the usual tits, especially coal and blue tits, who are mainly still around. Only a few great tits and long tailed tits though. Plus an occasional nuthatch. The block of fat serves the tits and a spotted woodpecker.

[Nimrod103]

As of an hour ago the snow has returned, and so have the siskins and goldfinches.

[Slarti]

We woke up to a covering of snow and a frozen bird bath this morning and the usual birds round and on the feeders.

I scared them off by going out and putting water in the bird bath, but they started coming back almost straight away, for both food and water.

As it has not stopped snowing all day, the birds have kept coming.

Slarti