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Child Item

Feed the wildlife.

Markgc

Okay so many people are having a good time with the snow and a couple days off work. Good on you. Enjoy it.
The wildlife though has a difficult time in these conditions with snow measuring half a meter in depth in places, creating great difficulty for it to find food.
Give a hand and help it survive.

This is a tough time for birds. Keen gardeners will know that their natural food source has been depleted, leaving our feathered friends struggling to find food under the heavy cover of snow. They need all the help they can get.

They will eat seeds bread and apples.
DO NOT FEED THEM PORRIDGE OATS. When wet this can glue their beaks shut, starving them to death.

Foxes like cooked or raw meat and tinned pet food. Foxes also like other savoury items such as cheese, table scraps, bread soaked in fat, fruit and cooked vegetables.

Also call-in to elderly neighbours.

Thanks for taking the time.
Stay safe.

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Green Peter

Wheatbix? I just crush it and throw it to them, gives the small lads a chance when the big boys are around. I think

Elmer Blooker

lolo62 wrote: »

Oh really?! S**t! I thought I was being conscientious...whats good to give them then just bread?

Thats just my opinion because they never go off. They must be laced with preservatives. Birds go mad for sunflower hearts.

Markgc

lolo62 wrote: »

I've been feeding them smashed up fat/seed wild bird food balls from Tesco. They're going down a treat... Are these OK?

Brilliant. Birds love them.
But I'd advise to get a fatball feeder. It can hold 3 to 4. It allows small birds like finches and such to feed. Smashed up on the ground, crows and pigeons will swarm and steal it all for themselves. All seeds and nuts should be put in feeders so all bird types can avail.

You can find them cheaply in Heatons and €2 shops. They last a long time.
Dealz sells cheap seeds and nuts and fatballs too.

I'm glad to see so many people get involved.
Birds migrate throughout the year and you will see different species arrive in your garden. Great interest fir the kids too.

Hang the feeders up away from a cats reach. Mine are 5 feet off ground. Cats can jump a crazy distance. I've got five of them ><.
Give birds a line of sight so cats can't surprise them.

Markgc

lolo62 wrote: »

I hung two fat balls in a bit of onion mesh bag from the tree out the back and they didn't go near them... They went for the plate when I broke them up. Are the plates up nice and high?

The right idea but onion mesh can trap bird's claws by twisting around them as its not rigid.
Cheers.

Larbre34

We made a couple of extra feeders out of plastic water bottles and pencils and hung them in a cherry blossom near the upstairs window where i could restock them. I put a pre made seed mix in them although it took the birds a bit of time to cop on to them, they are lashing off them now, i have at least four different families of Chaffinch, Thrush, Great Tit and Coal tits emptying them in relays!

Markgc

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/how-you-can-help-birds/feeding-birds/safe-food-for-birds

John_Rambo

Doltanian wrote: »

Why would you feed foxes? They are vermin and should be eradicated at every opportunity.

They're indigenous apex predators in urban areas and keep the vermin (rat) population down. So, we'll hang on to them here!

RockDesk

I use sunflower seed all year round. I've tried other things but I think the birds got use to the sunflowers now and others weren't as popular. I actually tried sunflower hearts for a change but I saw the birds hammering them on the side of the feeders because they were expecting them to open!

My patio is destroyed from putting extra out these past few days with the snow. I'll have sunflowers popping up all over the place!

CH3OH

Threw a sunflower party today in the garden,
snapped a few friends who called around..

RockDesk

Oh wow, they're great photos! I love the 2nd photo, is that a young robin?

Markgc

CH3OH wrote: »

Threw a sunflower party today in the garden,
snapped a few

Quality pictures CH3OH. Nice close-ups and the colours wonderful.
What camera do you use?

CH3OH

RockDesk wrote: »

Oh wow, they're great photos! I love the 2nd photo, is that a young robin?

12
34
blackbird thrush
chaffinch 4 could possibly be an eurasian collared dove but not sure

joujoujou

Plenty of birds in my garden every day. Feed them all year round, whatever the weather. 2 mesh type feeders filled with peanuts + loads of bread on the ground. Small birds attracting various birds of prey and (sadly) my cats as well.

Foxes and some weasel-like animals calling in for bread on daily basis, but they have hard task, as my cats treat their territory quite seriously.

CH3OH wrote: »

[...] 4 could possibly be an eurasian collared dove but not sure

The very one indeed.

CH3OH

Markgc wrote: »

Quality pictures CH3OH. Nice close-ups and the colours wonderful.
What camera do you use?

canon 60d with a Sigma 150-600 mm lens . Was struggling to hand hold it as it wasn't very bright today

John_Rambo

Is it a Ringnecked Dove?

david75

I was delighted to see all the birds I know and am familiar with around my back garden and surrounds today. They’re regulars. Even the a*shole magpie couple. You’d wonder how they survive against the cold in serious weather events like these.

Tzmaster90

Seen 4 different types of birds around table outside to get the water we left for them and food.
It was nice to see

kavanagh_h

I don't know what it is about sunflower seeds but they do not last a day in my garden. You'd swear there was alccohol in them!!!

kavanagh_h

Im sure its a really stupid question but why can't the birds eat snow as a means of getting water? Is it not the same as cold rain water only icy?

La.de.da

At one stage I had about 10 crows, blackbirds and other smallies out the garden yesterday. Put out some cheese, chopped apples and oats.
They seemed greatfull poor things

gozunda

Markgc wrote: »

Why are you describing them as vermin?
Because they attack lambs as a source of food? That's nature. It's up to farmers to protect their 'assets'.
What about Elephants native to Tanzania for example. Farmers grow crops in the animal's natural roaming pathways and elephants tend to eat them, destroying potential yields.
Should they be eradicated at every opportunity?
Or take tigers in Asia. They often live in close proximity to humans and tigers have killed more people than any other big cat. Should they be eradicated at every opportunity?
Today in the news a newborn lamb "frozen to the ground" and left for dead is recovering after being saved by a pet dog. Its mother had struggled to give birth to twins during Storm Emma, which had left the animal in freezing conditions. As she gave birth to the second lamb in those conditions, the mother must have left it and it became frozen to the ground!
The farmer left the sheep outside to struggle on. Is this cruelty?
Shouldn't these type of farmers be eradicated at every opportunity?

AH the old 'nature' argument :rolleyes: in that case may I suggest we should leave pets children, babies etc for wolves and other predators. Shure the poor things are only hungry and doing what's natural....

See:
https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/fox-kills-pet-dogs-housing-2141800.amp

Oh and you do realise the number of attacks of foxes on children and adults have increased in the last few years Why? Because idiots are feeding them and they have less fear of human interaction or habitation. Do not feed foxes - its not good for them and they can more than adequately feed themselves.

In snowy weather foxes find easy pickings in the local wild bird population and they find it relatively easy to predate wild birds which are cold and on the ground looking for food. Another good reason to use a proper bird table.

Btw foxes are not endangered and managing fox numbers in this country is not about 'eradication' - its about controlling predation activity for example where foxes break in and slaughter an entire house of chickens during the night but eat one or two only.

You dont know much about sheep farming I can tell you that as well.

Lepidoptera

kavanagh_h wrote: »

Im sure its a really stupid question but why can't the birds eat snow as a means of getting water? Is it not the same as cold rain water only icy?

It's a really inefficient way of getting water - they end up burning way more metabolic energy than they get in hydration. For one thing, it requires metabolic energy to heat the snow inside the body, so the birds have to eat more food in order to stay warm if they eat snow as well.

It's a poor return for the energy expended as well. Snow provides deceptively little water for it's bulk. If you want to see for yourself, put some snow in a pot or container and warm it until it melts - you'll be surprised how little water you end up with for the volume of snow. Then consider that little birds can only eat very tiny amounts at once. They'd have to eat a fair bit in order to get the equivalent of a gulp of water, and they would lose body heat at the same time. Small birds already require a lot of calories to stay warm, so they really can't afford to lose out like that.

fryup

Markgc wrote: »

With regards to porridge oats, if you throw out dry oats birds may eat them but the chances of the oats remaining dry is usually slim in our variable weather.
Cheap alternatives are readily available.

so giving them cooked porridge is a no no ?

lolo62

fryup wrote: »

so giving them cooked porridge is a no no ?

Yep few posts back they can cause the beaks to become glued shut and the birds starve. Great thread this I'm learning so much and definitely never knew that

Jomcc

Haven't had a Nyger seed feeder in my yard for best part of 6 months. I have 2 peanut feeders which are filled constantly and get a good few small birds. I see the odd Goldfinch.
I bought a Nyger seed feeder yesterday and put it out. Place is full of Gold Finches this morning. How did they all know:D

Also put out a Suet block hanging in a feeder. I've often put these out before but always end up throwing it in the bin because nothing seems to go near it. Even today, it's not being touched.:rolleyes:

New Home

Give it time, "if you build it, they'll come" (to paraphrase Hollywood).

Jomcc

New Home wrote: »

Give it time, "if you build it, they'll come" (to paraphrase Hollywood).

ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚. I suppose my real question was, do birds communicate with each other & say did you see yer man down the road left out a Nyger seed feeder.

archer22

gozunda wrote: »

AH the old 'nature' argument :rolleyes: in that case may I suggest we should leave pets children, babies etc for wolves and other predators. Shure the poor things are only hungry and doing what's natural....

See:
https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/fox-kills-pet-dogs-housing-2141800.amp

Oh and you do realise the number of attacks of foxes on children and adults have increased in the last few years Why? Because idiots are feeding them and they have less fear of human interaction or habitation. Do not feed foxes - its not good for them and they can more than adequately feed themselves.

In snowy weather foxes find easy pickings in the local wild bird population and they find it relatively easy to predate wild birds which are cold and on the ground looking for food. Another good reason to use a proper bird table.

Btw foxes are not endangered and managing fox numbers in this country is not about 'eradication' - its about controlling predation activity for example where foxes break in and slaughter an entire house of chickens during the night but eat one or two only.

You dont know much about sheep farming I can tell you that as well.

I nominate that post for BULLSHYTE of the year award...Foxes killing Dogs my hole :rolleyes:.

Are you a bit bored this weather because you can't get out Tally hoing

New Home

Jomcc wrote: »

&#55357;&#56834;&#55357;&#56834;. I suppose my real question was, do birds communicate with each other & say did you see yer man down the road left out a Nyger seed feeder.

They definitely do.

Lepidoptera

Birds can be very quick to discover when there's a local food source. You'll also probably hear a fair bit of chirping/squabbling once you have a couple there, and that noise will just attract even more. They travel around a fair bit scouting for food. The past few days have been unusual, but in general they'll move around a bit during the day looking for multiple sources.

I was reading a book on birding awhile back called Lost Among the Birds. If I remember correctly, the author is somewhere in Alaska in the dead of winter looking for a rarity but the area is completely deserted - not a sight or sound of birds anywhere. He finds a local, who goes into his house and grabs some seed and scatters it around outside. Within 30 seconds the first birds appear, seemingly from nowhere, and within a couple minutes there are dozens and dozens.