Chesterfield Online Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Old Cruser on May 06, 2012, 11:08:33 AM
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Does anyone on here no anything much about garden birds and their habits.
A couple of years back daughter and partner bought me a bird feeder.
Have managed to cut right back on the large doves and pidgeons that were coming by buying a ground feeder as well.
recently I have had some blue tits feeding and am really pleased (sad as i am) as not had any before.
Now i have a magpie --- not that chuffed as i have been watching the blackbirds feeding their young in the ground feeder and their are other small fledglings coming.
sorry to rabbit on but could do with detering this maggie but can I?
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Air rifle?
Just kiddin'
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Air rifle?
Just kiddin'
:D :D do you know I was going to put in brackets - not shoot it! Cos I KNEWWW some clever clogs on here would say that! ;D ;D
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Here ya go OC - have a quick read of these:
http://bit.ly/KCfpxH (http://bit.ly/KCfpxH)
http://bit.ly/J0H1zQ (http://bit.ly/J0H1zQ)
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Many, many years ago, when I was in a pram in the garden, my Mum used to put netting over it to stop the magpies pecking my eyes out - it must have worked 'cos I've still got two eyes...
You could try hanging up some CDs around the garden, magpies don't like reflections and I've heard it said painting eyes on things around the garden works too as magpies don't like being looked at - no, I haven't made it up!
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Good advice Dave - just read something similar after doing a bit of Google searching.
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Does anyone on here no anything much about garden birds and their habits.
I've got two in our garden with habits - one of 'em smokes and the other one drinks!!
Or didn't you mean these sort of habits? 8)
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I've got two in our garden with habits - one of 'em smokes and the other one drinks!!
Or didn't you mean these sort of habits? 8)
::) Two clever clogs on here ---- :P ;D ;D
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Here ya go OC - have a quick read of these:
http://bit.ly/KCfpxH (http://bit.ly/KCfpxH)
http://bit.ly/J0H1zQ (http://bit.ly/J0H1zQ)
Thanks Pete but i have google on my desk top ?
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Not sure what you mean OC
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Both links are coming up as google Pete for some reason?
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Looks like I've broken the Internet!
Again... ;)
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Looks like I've broken the Internet!
Again... ;)
Strange that happened - never happened before.
Thanks anyway for trying, have been looking on the net and reading similar stuff from above and also saying - it's nature so leave well alone :(
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(http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz276/sailingqween/gardenbirds008.jpg)
It's taken me 18 months to get a Blue Tit feeding in my garden yayyyy done it!! ;D
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That's a damn site better photo than the one of my robin :D
Great shot ;)
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Whilst I wouldn't take to shooting them myself,
we get allsorts of wildlife on our back garden.
See my other 'garden' post.
They all seem to get on with each other as nature intended.
Google came up with this:
http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/british-birds/51302-what-law-regarding-shooting-birds-time-year.html (http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/british-birds/51302-what-law-regarding-shooting-birds-time-year.html)
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Something left a partial carcass of a pigeon the other day at the bottom of our garden.
I'll put this down to a cat.
£1000 for an air rifle, I take it your part of a shooting club ?
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A pidgeon wil probably have been had by a cat, or sometimes doves can be very teritorial and agressive. They may see off a pidgeon, but I'd find it unlikely
I'll put this down to a cat.
What he said LOL
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(http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz276/sailingqween/gardenbirds008.jpg)
It's taken me 18 months to get a Blue Tit feeding in my garden yayyyy done it!! ;D
Nice tits - (ooerr missus) :o
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Nice tits - (ooerr missus) :o
Trust you MR ------ thought I was chancing it putting that on here with you lot ;) ;D ;D
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I couldn't shoot anything living even the Magpie, will try and deter it in other ways, (just a big soft lump I suppose) Flash (cat) has had a pidgeon before now so I suppose it could have been a cat.
My brother and son are in a shooting club but still couldn't face him shooting a bird. Nephew doing very well in the competitions as well (I'm very proud of him :D)
Lovely photo of the finch.
Finches are the next ones I want to try and get to use my feeder, it's really annoying as my daughter only lives lower down our street, and has lots of lovely coloured finches etc around, maybe because at the back there is what once was an orchard, just overgrown now with quite a few trees.
I have managed to get rid of some of the pidgeons and doves they are proper greedy guts and scoffed most of the food in the hanging dish. I don't put anything in that now but have another dish higher up the feeding pole which has an umbrella over it and only the small birds can use it, the Blue Tits use it all the time rather than the ground feeder (do they not feed off the ground?)
Have to take phot's through window as not sitting at the top of the garden waiting ---- it's too cold!! (never make a twitcher will I) ;)
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Goldfinches are a bit picky when it comes to food. I used Niger seed in my last garden and got loads of them so it might be worth a try.
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We get loads in ours. We have pigeons, collared doves, sparrows, blackbirds, finches and jackdaws to name a few.
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Thanks for the tip Dave, I have been on the RSPB site and made a list of what different birds like to eat and I reckon that was on the list.
Also made a list of what NOT to feed them.
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We get sparrows... :-[
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From my back garden........
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Har, har, har, - and I'm the Duke of Devonshire :P
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Har, har, har, - and I'm the Duke of Devonshire :P
Yus m'Lord! :)
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I spotted the peacock on a wall as I was drove through Holymoorside this morning, got talking to the owner who says she used to have 2 but one got run over.
Below are a family of tits. I get a pair every year, who lay and raise their eggs, then disappear again 'till next spring.
We only get small birds ironically, because we have chickens.
We used to get loads of cats from the neighbours, and magpies, etc. Since getting the chics, the cats and larger birds see them as too much hassle, not something they are scared of exactly, but a reason to go somewhere else. So now all the smaller birds come into our garden and benefit from the chics food and water.
But the chics make a mess of the garden, so bear that in mind, its not the answer to everything.....just lots of free eggs too.
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That's a damn site better photo than the one of my robin :D
Great shot ;)
Fly - it's not that easy taking photo's of birds is it - they are so quick!!
@ C/Chris - thanks for the tips, I have a bird book which comes so on the next one I will see if they have any of the special feeders - unless Tansley Garden centre have any in this afternoon when I go up.
@ Pete, we started off with sparrows, but I am slowly trying to attract different breads.
(http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz276/sailingqween/gardenbirds003.jpg)
This ones a bit foggy cos I took it quick through the window
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(http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz276/sailingqween/gardenbirds002.jpg)
Another of the Blue Tit.
I watched a Starling ferking in the seed feeder, just flinging food out it was --- until it got to the meal worms I had put at intervals inside. ;) ;D
(http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz276/sailingqween/gardenbirds007.jpg)
and here's my cheeky Robin
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I had good results with a traditional wooden bird table close to a hedge on which I strung fat balls every few feet. The hedge gave plenty of cover so the birds felt safe when hopping to and from the bird table. I hung the Niger seed feeder from a corner of the bird table.
It's important to keep cleaning the bird table of droppings - just like humans, birds don't like eating sh*t with their food...
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What a good idea Dave, always a way round things if we think hard enough eh ;)
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Just put these feeders up.
Keep getting interested Blue tits checking out the bird house, but none nesting yet.
(http://www.taxiweb.50webs.com/100_1950.JPG)
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Cor - never seen a feeder like that before Fly -I like the nesting box as well, I haven't got one of those --- yet.
I bought a bird bath the other day, but not seen it being used yet, takes time for the birds to get used to it being there though doesn't it.
I watched a starling the other day - just sat looking into one of the hanging feeders :o :D I came to the conclusion it was wondering how to get the meal worms out which it could see as I have mixed them up with the rest of the seed. ;)
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It was a box of 3 feeders, one niger, one for blue tits and one for robins.
All different seeds, corn etc, and meal worms.
You can connect them together as we have. Tie wrapped it to the post.
Will be a pain to refill as I'll have to cut all the tie wraps LOL
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mmm bet that will be a bit of a pain - but worth it to watch the birds feed from them. :)
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Been to play golf this morning at Stanedge. Appears we have a blue tit nesting in one of the wall mounted ashtrays we have on the clubhouse.
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@ C Chris - and there's me chinning at hubby for scalping our lawn! ;) No thrushes here feeding I am envious!
@JR --- what a grand place to nest - bet you will be keeping your eyes on the progress of the young ones now - along with others :)
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Well the birds are now using the bird bath - where can I buy bird shower gel from?
Bought a nyjer feeder and seed today so set hubby on putting up another bracket, fingers crossed I get some results with it. :)
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:'( :'( :'( I'm gutted, having just found a small Starling dead in the umbrella feeder we have on the bird feeder. The lid had dropped down trapping the bird inside :'( =--- needless to say the umbrella feeder has gone into the dustbin and I have replaced it with a different kind.
We bought it from Wilco's and thought it a good idea at the time to stopp the large pidgeons and doves scoffing all the food. :'( :'(
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So sorry to hear that. Hope your not, 'too upset' :'(
Could it be a design fault, should Wilko's be informed ?
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@ Fly still thinking about it now :'( poor thing must have been terrified and this heat too to be pinned in that - hubby says it's because the screw which held the umbrella up was 'metal on plastic'???? :'(
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@ C/Chris --- it's gone in the bin! Couldn't get it out of my mind last night, they put their trust in us and then this happens. I will most certainly speak with Wilco's about it, for now though they have still got the ground feeder and other hanging ones. :(
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I once returned home and heard a rattling sound. It took me ages to figure where it came from, a vase on a landing window sill. Inside the vase, unable to get out because of the narrowing of the neck, was a starling. There were no windows open so it must have fallen down a chimney, perched on the vase thinking it could fly out through the landing window, slipped and fallen inside. I took the vase outside, shock it and the bewildered bird flew off.
The words 'bird brain' came to mind...
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11.30pm Saturday night.
Our_Lass finds a young fledgling on the back yard.
Not really sure what to do, we brought it in the house and made it comfy in a cardboard box. Food, water etc.
7.30am Sunday.
Got up and it's still in the box chirping it's head off.
She's took it back outside and put it under the conifer that the robin's are nesting in.
Within minutes, the robins are bobbing around and feeding it :-* We thought it was a spuggy chick !
8.00am. It's still sat under the conifer with 'ANOTHER' fledgling that's just appeared this last 10/15 mins :)
Read this webpage this morning from the RSPB's website.
http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/helpingbirds/health/babybirds.aspx (http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/helpingbirds/health/babybirds.aspx)
I didn't like it's chances last night, so hope we did the right thing.
Plus it's got me out of mowing the lawn today ;D
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@ Fly I would have done just the same as you!
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Both the chicks disapeared up the garden into the shrubs :)
Mr and Mrs Robin are still feeding them now 5.25pm
I checked the nest, there was a dead chick in the botton. No more than a few days old :(
I've removed it. The robins might come back at a later date and have more :)
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@ Fly --- what do the baby Robins look like??? We have two Robins feeding but no idea what their young will look like - do they have a red breast at that stage?
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A little darker than this chappy. No I didn't take this picture ;D
And no, they don't have a red breast ;)
(http://www.taxiweb.50webs.com/stuff/robin.jpg)
Here's the conifer. The nest was right by the fence.
(http://www.taxiweb.50webs.com/stuff/conifer.JPG)
Here's the now empty nest.
(http://www.taxiweb.50webs.com/stuff/nest.JPG)
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Ohhh thanks for the photo's Fly I will look out for them now i know what they look like.
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We have called into Wilco's today and spoken our concerns about the bird feeder which trapped and killed the young bird, he's taken our number and will give us some feed back from it.
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Good on ya OC ;)
I'd have had to say something aswell.
Still seeing robins round the garden, not sure if the chicks are flying yet :)
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I haven't looked at the birds as much Fly - have been really busy so not much chance to watch, maybe over the weekend. Would love to spot one of the baby Robins.
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(http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz276/sailingqween/gardenbirds008.jpg)
(http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz276/sailingqween/gardenandmumwithhermum001.jpg)
(http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz276/sailingqween/gardenandmumwithhermum005.jpg)
(http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz276/sailingqween/gardenandmumwithhermum007.jpg)
This youngster made me smile - it was watching a cat!!
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Thanks for the tips and info folks woke this morning to see --------
(http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz276/sailingqween/gardenbirds011.jpg)
(http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz276/sailingqween/gardenbirds014.jpg)
;D ;D ;D
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Love goldfinches :)
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Sick of the pigeons getting on the bird table.
This should sort them :)
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Note the perfect positioning to get my shadow in the shot :P
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@ Fly good idea that, we had big probs with pidgeons and Doves --- greedy guts aren't they, to big for garden feeding. Managed to get rid of them by altering the feeders as you have (not heard from wilco's yet). Have looked at the wooden ones like you have but wondered how well they clean - let me know at some point please.
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Forgot to get some bird seed this weekend.
Usually get the Wilko's stuff. £2.89 for a 1.5kg bag ??
Our_Lass just called at the pet food place in Carr Vale.
£9.50 for a 20kg sack, guess we won't be buying Wilko's again ;)
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@Fly good buy!! We buy meal worms which can be so expensive as well but the birds luv em, a friend of mine buys live ones to feed her garden birds!!
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Sorry I'm drunk.
If you have Blue Tits may I recommend this compcny.
https://www.marksandspencer.com/Womens-Thermals-Thermal/b/1568182031 (https://www.marksandspencer.com/Womens-Thermals-Thermal/b/1568182031)
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:)) :))
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Forgot to post this. We had a call from Wilco's last week, letting us know that the bird feeders had been looked into - and it seems ours was the only one which did this ??
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Let's hope it was a dodgy 1 off then. At least they got back to you ;)
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Gracious me -- they are hitting the Nyjer seed! Had five Gold Finches at it yesterday - they were forming a que, granddaughter had bino's on them --- need some more ===== off out soon to get some
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Will look forward to having a gander at that photo Chris, doubt if I will get any of those, are they big(ish) to be using the feeders?
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Brilliant photo Chris. I have only ever seen one once and that was in brimington cem on a tree. Certainly looks to be coping with that feeder though, wonder if they will bring their young :)
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Best photo in the thread IMHO :)
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Agreed Fly :)
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I had obviously been missed by my feathered friends whilst on holiday (just thinking about their bellies though!! ;))
We finally got out to the feeders around 7.00pm last night, they certainly had been hungry little gits! Just a quater of seed left in one feeder and about the same in the Nyjer feeders.
The Robin came as soon as we went out - at one point I thought it was going to sit on my shoulder ???.
The black birds were the same, coming very close in anticipation of the meal worms I had.
They are now all fat and well fed/watered. :)
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I have a new type of bird feeding when I opened the curtains this morning.
Not sure as yet what it is.
Small (maybe a bit fatter than a sparrow). Very quick in movements. black and white. It's not a Pied Wagtail as I know they hop along. Am thinking it is a Coal Tit? Daughter says is it a young Magpie :-? I hope not! But think it would be larger than that by now anyway. So am bird watching and will try and get a clear photo, not easy through the window.
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(http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz276/sailingqween/In%20the%20Garden%202010/Garden%20Flowers%20etc%202011/unknownbirdingroundfeeder2012002.jpg)
(http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz276/sailingqween/In%20the%20Garden%202010/Garden%20Flowers%20etc%202011/unknownbirdingroundfeeder2012005.jpg)
Sorry I know these are not at all clear but the bird was black/grey with the white markings around it's head. Moved very fast as well. I didn't see it feeding from the hanging feeders. q?
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Feeding the birds from our bird table in winter.
(http://i1057.photobucket.com/albums/t382/Barry_Fly/100_3758_zpscaf1de83.jpg)
Next door neighbour attracting rats.
(http://i1057.photobucket.com/albums/t382/Barry_Fly/100_3760_zps3d9190e5.jpg)
Going to have to have words with him ::)
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Some people just don't think do they.