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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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david75

It’s mad since the thaw. I can loads and loads of smaller birds tweeting all day. Way more than usuall for this area. Migrates maybe?

DOCARCH

If anybody is feeding birds in the Marley Park (Rathfarnham/Ballinteer) area, can they have a look out for birds that from the aviary, in Marley Park, that collapsed due to the amount of snow!

https://www.dublinlive.ie/news/dublin-news/dubliners-asked-look-out-tropical-14365643

Lepidoptera

david75 wrote: »

It’s mad since the thaw. I can loads and loads of smaller birds tweeting all day. Way more than usuall for this area. Migrates maybe?

Big weather events and storms always cause interesting shifts with birds. Some birds would have fled West across Europe to try to escape the Beast and ended up on our shores exhausted as a last ditch attempt to survive.

This is also a big transition period for birds in general as we're entering the breeding season. Winter migrants will be leaving Ireland and heading to their breeding grounds soon while birds that breed here will be returning. A lot of people who fed birds during the storm reported sightings of unusual visitors to gardens - snipe, redwing, fieldfare etc. I had redwing in my garden, and they'll be leaving soon to continental Europe to breed as they are winter migrants.

Birds are currently looking to establish territories, compete for mates, find nesting sites, etc. Birds sing primarily to establish/defend territory and to attract mates, so you know spring has arrived when bird song starts ramping up

(unless we buried in snow, that is!)

Snowc

Had 2 pine martens at the peanut feeders for the last 2 days never seem them in the garden before and I followed their foot steps in the snow and they must have traveled a fair distance:eek: lovely creatures but they keep knocking the feeders to the ground and empty them and are frighting all small birds away.Just hope the move away when the thaw sets in as I believe they can be a danger to pets and farm animals.

John_Rambo

Snowc wrote: »

Had 2 pine martens at the peanut feeders for the last 2 days never seem them in the garden before and I followed their foot steps in the snow and they must have traveled a fair distance:eek: lovely creatures but they keep knocking the feeders to the ground and empty them and are frighting all small birds away.Just hope the move away when the thaw sets in as I believe they can be a danger to pets and farm animals.

Wow, could do with a couple of them here. We've grey squirrels raiding the bird feeders. I'd say the Pine Martins would put manners on them. Interesting to read Lepidoptera's post. We'd two curlews in our garden during the snow. The only time we've ever had them before was during the freeze in 2010. We live very close to the Bull Island nature reserve.

david75

One thing is abundantly clear.
My area is *plagued* with seagulls. I’m pretty sure we live in ground zero for their mating and nesting. Usually From February all the way through summer it’s constant shrieking from about 5am onwards by the adults and chicks.
And they’re beyond a nuisance once grown.

There’s Been no sight or sound of them at all so far. I’m not sorry either.
I know it’s weirs to favour one over another but they’re such a nuisance around here I don’t care.

david75

Snowc wrote: »

Had 2 pine martens at the peanut feeders for the last 2 days never seem them in the garden before and I followed their foot steps in the snow and they must have traveled a fair distance:eek: lovely creatures but they keep knocking the feeders to the ground and empty them and are frighting all small birds away.Just hope the move away when the thaw sets in as I believe they can be a danger to pets and farm animals.

Someone told me in another thread that the reemergence of the pine Martin is helping the red squirrel come back across the country. That’s a good thing

gozunda

archer22 wrote: »

I nominate that post for ********* of the year award...Foxes killing Dogs my hole ...

Doubters gonna doubt ... :rolleyes: if you actually read the post - it is about feeding foxes as suggested by one poster. The link was one reason why that might not be a good idea.

I didn't write the article - you do know that?

But did you read the news article? And the comments from the ISPCA as well about the fox attacks on the pet dogs in that area? Are they all liars as well?

You do realise foxes are predators and will predate / kill whatever and whenever they can - whether that is wild birds animals or small pets they are not that fussy imo.

https://davidjmobrien.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/fox-roe-fawn.jpg

http://www.freewebs.com/nwtf/03 Live stock & Pets Cat.jpg

Here a few more reports for you to read and tell the world that you know better

http://metro.co.uk/2018/02/15/killer-urban-fox-attacks-baby-bouncer-sneaking-family-home-7314171/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2276529/Fox-attacks-baby-First-picture-week-old-Denny-Dolan-finger-ripped-Bromley-home.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/10251349

https://amp.independent.ie/irish-news/news/elderly-woman-needs-twenty-stitches-after-vicious-fox-attack-34370130.html

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/irishman-killed-fox-stamping-death-9527344

Are they all "bullshyte"? I bow before your superior knowledge of course ...

mobil 222

John_Rambo wrote: »

Wow, could do with a couple of them here. We've grey squirrels raiding the bird feeders. I'd say the Pine Martins would put manners on them. Interesting to read Lepidoptera's post. We'd two curlews in our garden during the snow. The only time we've ever had them before was during the freeze in 2010. We live very close to the Bull Island nature reserve.

If you have seen curlews in your garden then you are very lucky,
There numbers have declined substantially in the last ten years
Please see below.

https://www.npws.ie/farmers-and-landowners/schemes/curlew-conservation-programme

New Home

Capercaillie (over in the Nature and Birdwatching forum) has been doing a monumental amount of work to help them along. I'll see if I can find the threads.

EDIT: My mistake, I was thinking of corncrake. Still, I wasn't wrong about the monumental amount to work he's done.

erica74

Jomcc wrote: »

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:

It's funny you say that, the same thing happens in my garden. I have 10 different bird feeders, 2 of everything scattered across the garden and then I drop food in a few random spots and it's only when there's nothing else left that the birds go near the blocks and the fat balls.

I'm a soft touch myself, all it takes is one bird to land near the kitchen window, which looks out into our back garden, and I'm out putting out fresh water and food.

I love to watch the politics of all of the birds in the garden.

Graces7

One_Of_Shanks wrote: »

yeah raw ones are fine. This popped up when ya google it:

Uncooked rice may be eaten by birds such as pigeons, doves and pheasants but is less likely to attract other species. Porridge oats must never be cooked, since this makes them glutinous and could harden around a bird's beak. Uncooked porridge oats are readily taken by a number of bird species.

I have been taught the opposite. Soaked rather than cooked though. As they swell when they meet liquid the fear is that a hungry bird will eat too many and they will swell inside them dangerously. That makes sense to me.

Wine Goddess

Graces7 wrote: »

I have been taught the opposite. Soaked rather than cooked though. As they swell when they meet liquid the fear is that a hungry bird will eat too many and they will swell inside them dangerously. That makes sense to me.

Welcome back Graces7 we were wondering how you were!

Comhrá

Wine Goddess wrote: »

Welcome back Graces7 we were wondering how you were!

Indeed.....welcome back Graces7

I'm noticing interesting bird behaviour with my two feeders in the back garden.
One feeder is topped up with mixed bird seeds and they have it emptied in a few hours. The nearby one is filled with peanuts and there's no demand for it while there are seeds available. I ground up peanuts in a coffee grinder and it seems to have made them somewhat more appealing to smaller birds.

Also, I spread seeds on a dry concrete patch under my oil tank and even during the snow, they remained largely untouched. No oil contamination or anything, but the hanging feeders take priority all the time for some reason. The seeds on the ground were there for several days.

thomasj

Wine Goddess wrote:

Welcome back Graces7 we were wondering how you were!

It was great to see all the old familiar posters popup , it made a great week on the weather forum even better !

dogmatix

I've got a range of feeders up and running - the bird mix seed feeder is very popular - usually emptied in a single day. The fat ball feeder is next most popular, the sunflower seeds feeder is next up but no-one is at all interested in the nyger seed feeder.

Lots of different birds such as robin pair, male and female blackbird, collared dove, some sort of sparrow/starling flock, large numbers of tit's and chaffinches and some rooks, jackdaws and a few magpies.

The only downside is it is nearly impossible to put clean bedsheets out to dry on the washing line these days.

Graces7

Snowc wrote: »

Had 2 pine martens at the peanut feeders for the last 2 days never seem them in the garden before and I followed their foot steps in the snow and they must have traveled a fair distance:eek: lovely creatures but they keep knocking the feeders to the ground and empty them and are frighting all small birds away.Just hope the move away when the thaw sets in as I believe they can be a danger to pets and farm animals.

If you feed the pine martens? I shared a house with pine martens for years and never a worry with my pets and no evidence re predation on farm stock . One of my cats used to play with them, an enchanting sight and the little ones would run in and out of the house in summer.

John_Rambo

mobil 222 wrote: »

If you have seen curlews in your garden then you are very lucky,
There numbers have declined substantially in the last ten years
Please see below.

https://www.npws.ie/farmers-and-landowners/schemes/curlew-conservation-programme

They appear only when it snows for some reason!! I'm told they're not our native ones, but migrant ones. Still nice to see though. They're surprisingly big up close!

Cracking feeding advice from everyone here, thanks. Aldi currently have monster bags of nuts for birds. Four stone spud bag size for a tenner.

Akrasia

Well, the tadpoles in my garden pond seemed to have survived

At least some of them anyway

https://youtu.be/AUt_47gjErU

lolo62

OK I've kept feeding since the storm and snow and am thoroughly enjoying the little visitors to the tree behind my house. Only problem is it's getting expensive as 1kilo of sunflower seeds is gone in less than a week along with two coconuts with fat mix and 4/5 fat balls.
I found a big bag of fat balls in Dealz for €3 so am not going to bother with the coconuts as the fat balls are the same food. Anyone know if there's a better deal than €4 for a kilo of sunflower seeds in Tesco...? I'm guessing that's cheap as it gets but thought I'd ask here anyway just in case. Thought I'd have luck in b&q but they charge€10 for 2 kilos!

RockDesk

lolo62 wrote: »

OK I've kept feeding since the storm and snow and am thoroughly enjoying the little visitors to the tree behind my house. Only problem is it's getting expensive as 1kilo of sunflower seeds is gone in less than a week along with two coconuts with fat mix and 4/5 fat balls.
I found a big bag of fat balls in Dealz for €3 so am not going to bother with the coconuts as the fat balls are the same food. Anyone know if there's a better deal than €4 for a kilo of sunflower seeds in Tesco...? I'm guessing that's cheap as it gets but thought I'd ask here anyway just in case. Thought I'd have luck in b&q but they charge€10 for 2 kilos!

I get this delivered every month. Subscribe and save gives you free delivery.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B007QD0JMI/ref=sns_myd_detail_page

sdanseo

A snippet of recent experience - do NOT put any food on the ground and clean up remnants reguarly.

We have had to temporarily stop feeding all animals anything that isn't poison.

Kamili

Homebase also have cheep eats branded seeds for €1.78 a kilo. It's mixed seeds but my gang go nuts over it. They also do big tubs of fat balls starting at €6.99 for 30 if I remember correctly..

There's also 1.4kg of sun flower seeds too, just checked their website..

https://www.homebase.co.uk/search/products?q=Cheep%20eats&redirectFrom=Any

New Home

Some of the larger co-ops sell large bags of seeds and bird food at a reasonable price. If you're not looking for huge bags of seed, sometimes TK Maxx has wildlife food on sale, a few years back they had bags of food for hedgehogs.

Cornerstonelad

New Home wrote: »

Some of the larger co-ops sell large bags of seeds and bird food at a reasonable price. If you're not looking for huge bags of seed, sometimes TK Maxx has wildlife food on sale, a few years back they had bags of food for hedgehogs.

Pet Bliss Co. Wicklow have black sunflower seed @22.49 per 12.75Kg

Outkast_IRE

Have a seed feeder installed since Sunday - no sign of any activity yet. Had a robin check it out but was nervous and flew off.

Just waiting for them to properly discover it.

Kamili

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

Have a seed feeder installed since Sunday - no sign of any activity yet. Had a robin check it out but was nervous and flew off.

Just waiting for them to properly discover it.

Robins are ground feeders so they rarely use the feeders, although sometimes they do.

Hopefully word will get out you have it and it will start getting visitors!

Malayalam

Yeah, I tied a wooden box up into a tree so the birds would not have to compete with the cats over the cold winter. Forgot about the local bears though...

creedp

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

Have a seed feeder installed since Sunday - no sign of any activity yet. Had a robin check it out but was nervous and flew off.

Just waiting for them to properly discover it.

I have had a seed feeder up for the last 2 winters and it is visited by a whole range of smaller birds. However the problem I increasingly have is crows. They attack the feeder with a vengeance to the point of damaging it. In an attempt to make it more difficult for them to access it, I hung it in the middle of a thick whitethorn bush but while my arms are constantly scratched from refilling it, the crows are not put off by my natural defences and still maraud the feeder on a daily basis. Anyone any suggestions for effectively fending off the crows while allowing ready access for smaller birds as Im not so keen spending money feeding crows!!

Kamili

Instead of hanging it on a branch directly, try tying a piece of string on the hook part by making a loop between the branch and the hook (maybe 3-4 inches long) and use that to hang it.
The weight of the crows often makes it swing and they can't easily keep a grip on it to get the food out. Should be fine for the smaller birds as they are not weighty enough to make it swing.