pond ice

Our Bird bath is frozen over too,Fran..and will have to remain so ,for the next few days,as it is too Icy to risk going out there..Any food for the birds has to be thrown from the back door step..apart from what is left in the Feeders..and it's said to get even colder brrrr !

Trouble is the feeders do freeze as well, so just looking through the window can be misleading, because the feeder is full doesn't always mean the birds can get their food, my cheeky blackbird was yelling at me through the window this morning, the snow is packed solid because it drizzled with rain last night before the freeze set in, its lethal in places, so I cheated as well and instead of another apple I gave him mince pies and seed on the patio, luckily I also have a bath I can reach without going right down the garden today....

my pond had ice on it this morning too. lots of frost patterns on the car and greenhouse.

I hadn't thought of frozen food, but I suppose they would be. I moved my bird feeder to the paving, the only farily level place i could find cos it kept falling over everywhere else. also got frosted grass but the pics don't look to brilliant - no doubt there'll be plenty of furtehr photo-ops before the season's over.

Our village pond was frozen over this morning too - the ducks were not impressed! I tread very warily when I go out into the garden, the log stepping stones look good but are lethal :(

would it help to sprinkle salt on them? I keep a large bag of salt for putting on paths in icy weather - not needed it much in recent years. of course, i had \ totally paved "garden" before, so n salt could get washed into the plants. but isn't there somethng that can take hte edge off slippery stepping stoneS?

I have some sand I could sprinkle on them - that should work. Thanks for giving my memory a jog, Fran :)

perhaps if you glued the sand on, that'd stop the wind taking it off. or lol just nail sandpaper patches down

I don't think my feeder is frozen>>going down so fast. The big metal port one is off line for hygiene reasons. I still put bread out but tread warily. All the bird baths or water saucers are frozen up. Thanks for reminding me to chuck out some apples lurking in the bottom of the fridge. The other day I broke up very thin ice on the bird baths I think its solid now. Best watering place is the top of the canopy butt cover. It has an indented lid with 'bobbles on it and retains a little unfrozen water. A wren and a robin have just used it. A better more restful NEW Year for you this year I hope Fran. Just been out to renew bread and water. No ice anywhere now after 3-4 days frozen solid.

I've not been outside for a few days (got a cold taking pics of hte snow!) so I haven't checked to see if the feeders are frozen. I had to move the whole thing nearer to the house, as that was the only fairly level piece of ground - fed up of having to kep picking it up, even though it's fitted into a parasol base, weighted with water - so maybe it's too close to the house for the birds now. I could jsut chuck some seed, bread, apple etc out on the grass, but being from an inner city, we were discouraged from doing that cos it encouraged pigeons and rats.

My bread no longer goes on the ground. On 2 swinging bird tables. I did see a small rat on the tree swinger one time after the bread.....can't win. Household scraps go on these tables too. Sloping ground is no help when you want something level. I think, if you seldom go out, the birds will feed near the house in winter Fran....so keep up the good work. It takes time to build up the clientelle!

I don't have anything to hang feeders from - no trees, and the ones at the back of the fence are conifers no no room to hang aything there either. I'd love to have something hanging, then it would get blown by the wind, rather than blown over!

I had a quick tour round the garden today, the feeders seem to have gone down a bit, but not much, so I scattered some more busicut fragments on the ground.