Perfectly okay

yes it is. but don't put out full peanuts as the adult will take one and force it in the throat of the baby.

Peanuts are fine in feeders where the adult bird can only get a small piece of though...

Hi treetop. We have exactly the same happening. The fat balls are finished so fast, every other day. Wonderful to watch the baby blue tits being fed.

I would think that as in humans, mother knows best. Having said that, birds normally feed their young on worms and insects found in the wild. This require a lot of energy to find and the mother will take the easiest option and therefore go for the food left out by us... My question is, are we really helping the birds or are we interfering with nature by putting out food that might not be suitable for them?

Gosh Myron… big question! The RSPB tells us we need to feed our garden birds as they are in decline. I seriously doubt this is true where Bulba and I live bur we so love watching the rarities that appear to feed. Are we serving or not? At t he end of the day I have no idea!

MG, I sometimes think we are doing the wrong thing in thinking we are helping nature when in fact we are causing problems for them and ourselves. For thousands of years animals have fended for themselves, then all of a sudden we decided that we would give them a helping hand, put out food for them, build them little places to live and nest, etc. In my opinion this causes them more harm than good.

We now have foxes coming into urban areas because people leave food for them and they take the easiest option instead of hunting for their food as nature intended. When they do come into our towns for this food, suddenly everybody is up in arms about it. We Have a big problem in cities with pigeons that people feed, they carry diseases are now classed as vermin. Also, seagulls are now becoming a menace and feeding on infill sites and scraps of food for the same reason.

Personalty, I think that nature should be left to its own devices and under no circumstances feed ANY wild animals, they will take care of themselves, they always have and they always will. We shouldn't interfere no matter what the outcome.

Ask yourself this question. If all us humans suddenly disappeared from this earth tomorrow, would all the animals still survive? I think they would, and I think that they would survive a lot better without us.

Hi Myron I totally agree that animals, birds etc. would survive a lot better if humans didm't exist. The various conservation bodies point out that we have interfered so badly with the environment that we need to, for example, feed the birds that come to our garden. One of our friends used to be very high up in the RSPB and is now in SNH he firmly believes we need to feed. Me, I'm still not sure… but it is great having a woodpecker come to the nut feeder in winter! And, horror of horrors, seeing the sparrow hawk fly through the garden hunting for its food.

In all honestly I think we have mucked the environment up, there is plenty of food for the birds - so long as they have the space to bred and nest. Nobody feed the gannets, guillimots or puffins and they all survive fine!

but the gannets and puffins are suffering MG as we have over fished and there isn't the resources for them. I live a short way from Bempton Cliffs and the birds are really struggling there.

As to feed/not feed humans have destroyed so much of the natural landscape and continue to use pesticides etc that there isn't enough food in 'the wild' for many species. So I feed to make up for the fact I have 'sterile' short grass and few mature trees to provide food.

Ah the gannets and puffins aren't having feeding problems up here… we saw thousands of gannets, guillemots and fulmars when we visited Troop Head two weeks ago and when we next visit expect the puffins to have arrived too. Yes we feed the birds too SBG but I do sometimes wonder if we are doing the right thing, there are plenty of natural sources of food for them where we live.

Goodness me, have I opened a can of worms here "no pun intended" Alas I have to give you an update the fat ball have had to go, it's been attracting magpies, wood pigeons, crows etc. I really don't want the blue tits disturbed just yet whilst they are feeding their young. Thank you all for your response. I'll keep you all updated when the chicks fledge. Myron, I understand where you are coming from, but my thoughts are makind is rapidly destroying animals natural food source. Just look at the worlds rain forests, they are disappearing at an alarming rate. I can also admit to you that I am guilty of feeding our local foxes and will continue to do so. Also there is no way I would ever cease from feeding my garden birds, which I might add is what the RSPB encourage. My theory is mankind can feed himself, but not without the local stores & supermarkets were he can purchase what he needs to survive. We all need help to survive.