Greedy Birds.

Isn't it interesting how one garden can have such different birds to another....
these days, some gardens have no sparrows at all...

Do you think the sparrow hawk ate all the other little birds, such as Blue Tits, Chaffinches, Greenfinches, Thrushes and Wren... leaving just the sparrows to "brave it" with a quick meal morning and evening ?

~ put feeders out with sunflower seed and a good mixed one and another with niger, one with nuts in a caged feeder and you will find the birds will come back~don't be disheartened just wait and they' ll appear particularly as it is getting colder.I think the birds moved on because they were being pushed out by the sparrows.
You can buy small amounts of all the above in Wilkinsons so you can try everything without spending loads of money .Chaffinches bluetits greenfinches and goldfinches etc will feed from feeeders but wrens and robins are ground feeders and if you can put food somewhere safely at ground level they will find it!
Niger seed is supposed to be best for goldfinches but mine prefer sunflower so if you just want to try with one feeder that's what to go for~ bluetits will also it!

Hi Gertie, I also had a Sparrow hawk in the garden at the weekend, the birds have only started coming back today. I love to watch the hawks but not in my garden please :-)))))

Its great ur getting Lots of Sparrows Geretie as their numbers have declined due 2 lack of hedge rows in the UK :( I get so many different Birds visit me & no 2 days r ever the same even though i do put out the Same Food 4 them everyday? Hope ul see some of your other bird visitors again soon :)

Its true,they do seem to disappear for a while, it happens around my garden a lot and I wonder if its because my neighbours put food out in the winter therefore giving the birds more options, in the better months they don`t bother and I get my feathered friends back on my feeders......

I've had a magpie on the bird table recently - no wonder all the little birds stopped coming for a while. I'm afraid I chase him off whenever he appears. As for greedy birds, its the starlings here - in the winter, they descend on the bird table in droves and I wouldn't mind, but they're so noisy and squabbly that they knock most of the food off rather than it being eaten. And they've certainly got no qualms about messing where they eat, that's for sure...

` I had the same problem with 20 or 30 Rooks and if you think Starlings are bad you should see and hear Rooks!
in the end had to encolse 3 sides of the bird table with 50mm green mesh which most of the smaller birds can get through!

I thought of mesh, but then I know the collared doves won't be able to get in. I've discovered that fatballs distract the starlings from the table though, so am going with that.

~because of there only being three sides with the side nearest the lounge window open the blackbirds and collared doves can get in, but the rooks have been chased a few times and after having a few panics when they got stuck trying to fly out of the closed side, now most of them don't come at all~ during the summer they used to make such a racket at 5 am when the sun came up that they used to wake us up!

My table's suspended on the outside of my balcony, so actually, there's only two ways for most birds to get in, though I notice the acrobatic blue tits do go in on the side that's close to the wall. If the magpie persists, I might have to try some mesh, I know which side he comes in on. Damn thing wakes me up early as well - he sits on my bedroom windowsill with sunflower seeds he's collected off the table, and taps them on the window to crack the exteriors, oh, just great, between that and the parakeets squawking, hard to get a lay in around here!

Thankyou for your interesting replies. I've also been offered a 6 month old kitten, but do I have him or not? I'm thinking about the birds here. My last cat was sixteen when she died earlier this year and the day before she went she proudly brought in a half dead bird. I find this whole procedure very hard to handle. I think I've answered my own question.

Thankyou Gertie.

Do you really get parakeets in your garden Bamboo? I wish I did. they are lovely.

Its the starlings that are greedy here as well, as for sparrows i have quite a few come every day but never find them greedy at all.

Well, not exactly in the garden, but certainly on my balcony - there's a photo in my photos section of 3 lined up out there, have a look, tulsalady. and yes, they are beautiful, and very, very delicate, gentle feeders, but sooo noisy...

Your sparrows spend the nights in my Laurel, Gertie. I have not seen the Sparrowhawk. (We’re neighbours if anyone is wondering!)
Arlene, I have also ‘caged’ the bird table with plastic mesh which lets all the smaller birds feed. Collar doves have no problem reaching through the space at the bottom but it keeps the flying rats (wood pigeons) away.
I moved the bird-table from the patio to the Cotinus tree yesterday and there’s been quite a bit of Great Tit activity this morning. I don’t seem to see them very often.
My blackbirds are now targeting the holly, so that’s a job for later today – protecting a few sprigs before they denude it.
Didn’t I read that the parakeets had escaped from the zoo some years ago, Bamboo? I gather there are quite a number of them in the London Area now. They will probably, gradually, spread across the “warmer” areas of the country. That would be nice.

I have seen the sparrow hawk swooping over the field quite often, but never close up before, he was sitting on the hedge a couple of feet from the sparrows bird table.

I think thats the story, Ponty, re the parakeets, some escaped, but we've had colonies here now since the seventies, apparently. There are now officially too many and they've just passed a law allowing them to be added to the list of "things you can shoot" with an air rifle, presumably, which I believe includes rats as well as feral pigeons.

That's a shame, Bamboo. Can't they just move them on? LoL

Remember the six month old kitten? Well he turns out to be only twelve weeks old. Someone gave him to my son who already has two cats. He would probably have ended up at the cat Sanctuary otherwise. I went to stay with my son for a couple of days and fell in love and to cut a long story sideways, I've brought him home. His name is Bing! and he's as mad as a box of frogs.

Ponty has already visited as he likes cats.

Hopefully I can put a photo up of Bing.

A fascinating blog, Gertie...looking forward to pics of Bing :o)

I'm so glad you took the kitten, Gertie - I was coming on to say get him a collar with a little bell on it - it worked on one of my cats who caught birds all the time, but I wish I'd done it when she was young, because she hated that collar and bell and spent a lot of time trying to get it off - and often succeeded!

He does already have a collar with a bell on it but it will be some time before he can go out. I have bought him a new collar for when he is bigger.
My previous cat, Slinky had four bells at one time but she soon learnt to manover herself so they didn't make a noise, hence the name, Slinky.

I think some cats have more of a hunting instint than others, Slinky was a lovely affectionate cat but a killer. I hope this one is a kinder cat. But thankyou for the advice Bamboo, good thinking, start 'em when they are young.