# Feed the Garden Birds



## lightswitch (1 Dec 2010)

Just a little reminder re our feathered friends.  Bread with butter or olive oil etc will do them fine.  They need the fat/oil as well as the bread


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## Purple (1 Dec 2010)

The thing they need most at the moment is water.


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## truthseeker (1 Dec 2010)

Have been feeding and watering them since the weekend. They will not use the hanging feeder for some reason (perhaps too vunerable - I dont have a garden, so its hanging near apartment front door). Have been sprinkling food on the step (which they are clearing in no time) and have a dish of food and one of water on window sill which they are also enjoying.


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## oldtimer (1 Dec 2010)

I have a feeder in my garden for the past few days but no sign of any birds. Are they all dead around here. Never thought of the water.


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## pixiebean22 (1 Dec 2010)

Been feeding the birds and in turn the cats, aaah the circle of life   Just kidding!!  We've a few stray cats (one of which is black and amber coincidentally hehe) that hang around the house (and I'm sure any other house in the area, they are cats after all!) so we've been leaving stuff out for them, after the dog is in, and stuff for the birds, along with water


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## The_Banker (2 Dec 2010)

Any birds that enter my garden do so at there own peril. 

Stocks are running low and I might have to turn to nature for my food.


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## Yorrick (2 Dec 2010)

Anyone got a good recipe for blackbirds ?


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## Ciaraella (2 Dec 2010)

I've had a robin waiting for me the past few mornings, amazing how quickly they get used to it!
I've been melting frytex, mixing seed into it and then putting it on the bird table.
Lidl have bags of seed and an energy mix with oats in it, very cheep (!)


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## Purple (2 Dec 2010)

Yorrick said:


> Anyone got a good recipe for blackbirds ?



4 and 20 of them baked in a pie; a meal fit for a king.


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## lightswitch (2 Dec 2010)

savages


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## WaterWater (2 Dec 2010)

Have noticed small footprints in the fresh snow in the garden. Cat or Fox?


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## delgirl (2 Dec 2010)

I didn't think cats liked snow until I saw our fellow!  He runs around the garden at break-neck speed like a lunatic and even rolls in it until he's covered.

Never seen anything like it!


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## Sue Ellen (2 Dec 2010)

delgirl said:


> I didn't think cats liked snow until I saw our fellow!  He runs around the garden at break-neck speed like a lunatic and even rolls in it until he's covered.
> 
> Never seen anything like it!



Very strange.  You should video that for youtube.


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## Romulan (3 Dec 2010)

truthseeker said:


> Have been feeding and watering them since the weekend. They will not use the hanging feeder for some reason (perhaps too vunerable - I dont have a garden, so its hanging near apartment front door). Have been sprinkling food on the step (which they are clearing in no time) and have a dish of food and one of water on window sill which they are also enjoying.



If they have stopped using the feeder, it may be that you have left the seeds in it all night and they are frozen.


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## thedaras (3 Dec 2010)

Can anyone tell me where Im going wrong?
I have left bread out,with oil on a tray and a red pot with water in it.I put this at ground level then moved it to put on garden table.
Last night I put some more bread on the branchs of a tree at the furthest part of the back garden..
They are all still there..what am I doing wrong?


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## boris (3 Dec 2010)

Ah fed the little darlings yesterday morning.

Only problem was that the dog next door broke down the fence to chase them.


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## Ciaraella (3 Dec 2010)

thedaras said:


> Can anyone tell me where Im going wrong?
> I have left bread out,with oil on a tray and a red pot with water in it.I put this at ground level then moved it to put on garden table.
> Last night I put some more bread on the branchs of a tree at the furthest part of the back garden..
> They are all still there..what am I doing wrong?


 

Have you got a cat? 
or sometimes if you don't normally put out food it can take time for them to come.
I would usually put out food and we've had a frenzy of birds the last few days.
The most popular food i've put out is seeds or porridge oats mixed with melted lard/frytex, that always goes very quickly.


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## thedaras (3 Dec 2010)

No dont have a cat,but we have a dog who is indoors all the time.
Perhaps it will just take time for them to realise the food is there and that its safe.
Will try the oats now and see what happens..thanks


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## Sue Ellen (3 Dec 2010)

Over the past few days I have put out  bread but very little success. 

Our dog is indoors all the time and the wild cat that we feed only calls at night.

Will put out some water now.

I'm very disappointed because I walked to the shops yesterday and carried two big bags of seed home.  It took nearly an hour to walk home and now most of them won't eat it.  The small birds were eating the seed this morning but some of the larger birds drove them away


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## Ciaraella (3 Dec 2010)

The porridge oats from lidl are very cheap, around 50c per bag.
Also chopped apple, bits of cheese and bacon rinds are good to mix in!


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## JP1234 (3 Dec 2010)

Unfortunately every time we put something out we get about 20 seagulls swarming down into the garden! Fairplay to the solitary crow who tried to face them down yesterday....


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## delgirl (3 Dec 2010)

We've had Oyster Catchers and Lapwings in the garden today. At least the bad weather brings some interesting birds into the garden.


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## truthseeker (3 Dec 2010)

Romulan said:


> If they have stopped using the feeder, it may be that you have left the seeds in it all night and they are frozen.


 
Theyve never used it. If I take the seeds out and put them on the ground they come and eat them but they just wont use the feeder!!


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## dockingtrade (3 Dec 2010)

dont put any fat or bacon rinds in a bird feeder it only draws rats. On very cold days the seeds will draw them too


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## Ciaraella (6 Dec 2010)

delgirl said:


> We've had Oyster Catchers and Lapwings in the garden today. At least the bad weather brings some interesting birds into the garden.


 

Last year we had a pheasant on our back wall, very exotic for tallafornia, or at least i thought so!


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## RonanC (6 Dec 2010)

Ciaraella said:


> Last year we had a pheasant on our back wall, very exotic for tallafornia, or at least i thought so!


 
We had one too in our garden for a few days, got a couple of poor quality photos to prove I wasnt going mad - oh i'm down the road from you in Clondalkin so it may be the same bird???


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## Phibbleberry (7 Dec 2010)

I've put out bread and cooked rice (had a load of it going off so boiled it up for them) and nothings been eaten since Friday...we have a kitten, but it doesn't go out very often, so I wouldn't think its putting them off.  Put it up on top of the bin, to give it a bit of height...??


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## lightswitch (22 Dec 2010)

I'm getting just about every variety of bird at this point, including Gulls.  I guess they are hungry too..........  Keep feeding folks, the poor things are starving.


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## Teatime (22 Dec 2010)

The birds were unbelievably excited when I went out this morning. They were kinda screeching at me. They looked distressed to be honest. They love chopped apple and it gives them well needed fluids.


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## Teatime (22 Dec 2010)

WaterWater said:


> Have noticed small footprints in the fresh snow in the garden. Cat or Fox?



Could be either, foot prints are alike and you can get small foxes and large cats. I have seen a lot of fox prints including on the snow that is resting on iced over streams and edges of lakes. Fox prints are more like a dogs footprints. With cats, the toes are usually further apart. Foxes are on the move whereas cats prob stay close to home and paths/roads.


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## truthseeker (22 Dec 2010)

Teatime said:


> The birds were unbelievably excited when I went out this morning. They were kinda screeching at me. They looked distressed to be honest. They love chopped apple and it gives them well needed fluids.


 
Thats happening me as well! So funny yesterday, I went out at 7.45am and over to the car to start clearing it and a robin came right over to me at the car (im in a communal carpark so well away from my front door), and started tweeting madly at me. I went back over to my front door and he followed me, joined by some other birdies and it was like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock!! They were all tweeting at me until I fed them.


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## Sol28 (22 Dec 2010)

truthseeker said:


> They were all tweeting at me until I fed them.


 
Facebook isnt their preferred social networking tool then.


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## truthseeker (22 Dec 2010)

Sol28 said:


> Facebook isnt their preferred social networking tool then.


 
No - seems to be twitter


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## Purple (22 Dec 2010)

Ciaraella said:


> Last year we had a pheasant on our back wall, very exotic for tallafornia, or at least i thought so!



I had a pheasant for my dinner last week, well part of one, and it was very nice.


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## z107 (22 Dec 2010)

When I was living in Clondalkin, I too saw a pheasant in the garden. Also heard very low flying birds making a whooshing noise. By the time I got out to investigate they had gone.

Today I saw an interesting bird, about the same size as a blackbird. It had a speckled chest, pink sides and white V shaped marking from the beak out past the eyes. Anyone have any ideas what this could be? (It was a redwing http://www.birdwatchireland.ie/IrelandsBirds/Thrushes/Redwing/tabid/1074/Default.aspx)
(Really pleased to see something that wasn't a sparrow )

We buy bird seed in bulk and feed all year. We get large sacks from the pet shop for about €20.


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