Don't forget the birds

Stunning photos....
.. and well done on all your work in feeding the birds.... :o)

Lovely, clear photo's Tanny.
Yes, our birds need a lot of help in this weather. I too bring in un-eaten fat balls/cakes etc. or they go too hard overnight.

Wonderful pictures Tanny and what a variety of birds you have. Stupidly I hadn't thought of bringing the fat balls in overnight but will from now on.

Tanny we are feeding our birds morning noon and afternoon! They sit around waiting for the next feed! All our berries on bush and shrubs are long gone. We keep the feeders topped up all the time and put down food for the ground feeders at least twice a day.

Frankly I would expect anyone who cares about wildlife to feed the birds non stop right now!

Excellent work Tanny. We too feed the birds year round and as you say, at the moment the feeding stations are very busy. We are not very knowledgeable on the varieties of birds but can say for sure that our regular visitors are Sparrows, Blackbirds, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits, Song Thrushs, Robins and on the rare occasion the Great Spotted Woodpecker. Also not forgetting the regular Woodpigeons, sometimes up to 12 at once, whom I just adore. So I will watch your blogs with interest to improve my knowledge in the hope of having a visit from these wonderful birds and for any tips you may have. :0)

Useful blog~Thank you! ~what is the verdict on providing roosting pockets?~I have a large dense fir in the front garden which houses Blackbirds and my neighbour at the back has dense Leylandii about 12 foot high which seems to be a favourite as well as a large ivy covered oak tree~ we live about 30 yards from a beech wood.I really feel for the little goldfinches and wrens and robins in this cold and was wondering about anyone with experience of these little jute or whatever pockets?Would love to hear from anyone~
I provide every sort of food including niger,sunflower hearts,peanuts,suet pellets fat balls mealworms and fat blocks and have today had a Bullfinch and mate~4 robins plus a pair of blackbirds and two juveniles,Nuthatch,beautiful Thrush,and various green,gold and chaffinches. I could stand and watch all day!
I only used to have about half a dozen starlings at most but now I have a lot and they sit on my clothes line above the feeders even when not feeding and they seem to be intimidating the goldfinches and tits who arrive when they go ~
I have ordered a metal stand and will if necessary double up the amount of feeders but this is seriously costing a lot now without doubling the cost~how do I discourage the starlings from sitting there all day?They normally sit in my neighbours tree but recently have taken to staying where the food is! I already have low down food for the wrens,wagtail,squirrel etc~ but seem to have minimised the number of rooks (20 to 30) since I part enclosed the bird table, which is good because they were eating everything in sight and if I have to choose it is the small birds I want to help the most~

Thanks for this lovley blog Tanny.Your photos are excellent. We too are finding numbers of visitors increasing daily as word seems to have got around.To start with,a few weeks ago we only needed to make one fat dish of lard,porridge oats and sultanas,every other day.Now we are putting out two dishes a day ! Plus all the peanut and seed feeders which now have to be filled every day ! Sunflower hearts are a favourite,and we hide mealworms for the robins and wrens !
Throughout te day go out and add scones and grated cheese to the bird tables and scatter apple halves on the (frozen) ground. We stored apples from our 3 apple trees just for this purpose and have one boxful left.Whatever happened to the lovely apple pies and crumbles Jane promised me ???

lovely sharpe pics tanny, you must have a great camera, great minds think alike, i also did a blog on feeding the birds they are very precious to our gardens, i never stop feeding mine either, lovely to gain their trust and have them come close, i love it,
ray i think you need to perch up and tweet then you may get some cake lol

I have a lot of black birds in my garden Arlene and I wonder if they are rooks. I always get confused with 'a crow in a crowd is a rook, a rook alone is a crow' and wonder if it's the other way round. Or maybe they are Jackdaws

I just use all food scraps plus Tesco value sultannas,oats , crushed biscuits and apples it works out a bit cheaper than seed .I put the bird cakes out twice a day. Ginelle I think jack daws have grey on their faces.

That sounds like a good idea for food Mavis. Whatever they are in my garden they all swoop down the minute I go back inside - even the starlings don't stand a chance. I guess it's survival of the fittest, but I would like the little birds to get something.

Does this help?I know mine are rooks ~ thay all sit up in a massive group in the trees together~ occasionally there are a couple of Jackdaws with them~ Jackdaws y have grey shading along the back and sides of their neck~ they all belong to the same family group Corvidae~ including Magpies which also seem to be with them sometimes~
Crows are all black. They have massive beaks, and ruffled throat feathers.

The Crow is smaller than the Raven, and has a less powerful beak. When flying, its wings look less ragged than those of the Rook.
Habitat
Crows likes to nest in rocky mountains or on steep cliffs. Some can also be found in lowland forests.
During the winter, they can often be found in large groups, feeding or roosting. Most of the time they are seen flying alone or in pairs.
Rooks
This bird is black, with a purple-blue sheen. At the base of the beak, the adult Rook has a patch of pale, unfeathered skin.
Rooks are about the same size as the Carrion Crow.
The Rook is the most sociable out of all the birds in the Crow Family.
Habitat
The Rook is common in the countryside, where farmers till the land, because they can find lots of grubs, worms and insects in the dug-up soil.
The Rook also needs to have access to groups of trees in which it can nest.
Food
Rooks eat insects, worms, snails, slugs and small vertebrates such as lizards, mice and frogs.
They also eat berries, fruit and cereals.
Nest and Eggs
The nest is built high up in an Elm or other broadleaved tall tree.
There are often several nests belonging to different Rooks, all in the same tree.
This grouping of nests is known as a "Rookery". Each nest is made of sticks and mud, and is lined with grass, wool and hair.
Rooks breed from March to April. The eggs are greenish with brown spots.
Where and When?
ooks can be found throughout Britain all year round, but some of them fly off in October, to return in March.
Call
The call of the Rook is deep, short, "kaw" or a longer "crow" sound. As well as this, they can make some high-pitched calls that sound a bit like a seagull. I think this is what you have seen!
If you see one rook, it's a crow.

If you see lots of crows, they're rooks.

If you see a raven, you are in the Tower of London.

Rooks they are then Arlene, and very, very greedy.

Smashing photo`s Tanny and very interesting blog with useful info from all. It seem`s we are all getting extra visitors to feed and I do agree it does cost more so any hints on eking the food out is wecome..Thanks all..

Lincslass....Aldi sell sultanas very cheap and their porridge oats good value too.Lard might sound unappetising to us but invaluable to the birds..melt and add porridge..they love it .Gets them through these freezing nights ! x

I'm so glad to hear that all of you are doing your best for the birds during this extreme winter and am amazed to hear that you have Rooks at your feeders Ginellie, I thought these birds are usualy quite timid around gardens.
Thank you for the descriptions of the Corvid family Arlene, but you made one minor mistake and that is you described the nesting places of the Crow for the Raven who is the one that nests on isolated cliffs and ancient buildings. The Crow is the one that nests on its own at the top of tall trees. My Jay is also one of the Corvid family, also the Chuff but it would be a miricle to see one of them at a garden feeder.
A report from the R.S.P.B. has just been on the news asking everyone to feed the birds.
Keep up the good work everyone, and fingers crossed for this icy spell to end.

~ Sorry about that I think I got confused when doing the cutting and pasting~~ wouldn't say the rooks we have here are timid ~I have also seen them hanging on the feeders too!
There are Choughs here on Gower fairly local but not seen one at all!~apparently they used to be nesting on the cliffs near the castle~

Smashing photos and blog think we all do a great job for are garden friends. i love to sit and watch them aswell.

~ never seen them in my garden before but today a mixed flock of Thrushes turned up and we have at the moment eating apple grapes and sultanas/raisins newly bought from the local shop~ Fieldfare,Redwing,Really large Mistle thrush ~not seen anything that big in my garden before~the pictures are not good unfortunately as being taken from the house into the sun~

Our shopping trip today included bags of seed feed for the birds, sultanas and suet. This is on top of the nut etc that go in the feeders and the 'fat balls'. Mr MB just tried to take a pix. of a fieldfare but the little dear was on to him and off as he clicked the camera shutter.

We get rocks, crows, jackdaws and starlings along with all the little birds.

Getting coal yesterday Mr MB found a wee wren that had not survived the night - well it did drop to around -15... last night was milder but I suspect more birds are dying. All we can do is keep them fed and watered.

Oh that's sad Mg :-(((
I agree, we must do our bit to keep them fed and watered.

~it's not as bad here thank goodness MG~ forecast -3 here tonight but there is not much give in the ice on the pavements,My back garden is small and south facing and warms up during the day~

It is your recipe then Bonkersbon that the birds love as I have said on a couple of bird blogs this is easy to make.

The nuts in my large, squirrel proof feeder, are not being eaten so I was thinking of grinding them and mixing into the lard/flour/seed etc. mixture that I make into balls. Would that be nut overdose do you think?

~nuts are a good source of nutrition/energy for birds and if they are fairly small you could put some out loose for the bigger birds as I do~ I have a Nuthatch who zooms in and takes them or if you can chop them in a mixer, fill a feeder with chips~ bluetits will happily take them off your hands!

Busier than ever in our garden today as well.The rooks have been at the peanut feeders but not a problem as some little sparrows and chaffinches were on the ground below,getting all the bits that dropped !!! Also had our first Fieldfare...happily eating alongside the Redwing !

Well there !
Those Redwings and Fieldfares are spreading everywhere now :-)))))
Do you see yours in large groups Bb ?

Busy here too, the lower the temps the higher the number of visitors !

No Louise...strangely have only seen these individulat.Having said that not venturing further than own garden at moment with all this snow and ice,so if we went for a walk would probably see them in the hedgerows.Exhausted with havig to dig drive AGAIN !Lol

Miserable, isn't it ?
More of it tomorrow, Monday and possible Tuesday too :-((((

~ in a reverse we have had the goldfinches and bluetits feeding from the sunflower heart feeders and blackbirds on the ground getting all the dropped bits!