My garden never seems to attract many birds. I see the occasional blackbird on the lawn, and there are always sparrows around - some nested in the roof last summer - but my nestbox remains resolutely unoccupied, and I haven't seen a single avian customer on my brand new deluxe peanut feeder.
I don't know if it's because there isn't enough food or suitable cover for the birds: my garden is so small that it does lack trees, although the neighbouring gardens provide a lot of cover in the form of various mature shrubs, hedges and trees. Perhaps, what with a full time job and spending time at the allotment I simply don't spend enough time in the garden to see the birds that are there.
It's not as if I have trouble seeing birds when I am out in the countryside. I've always counted myself as being a rather observant birdwatcher, spotting a tiny flurry of wings on a tree trunk that heralds a nuthatch, or a bright flash of blue above a river that means a kingfisher is in residence. I was hoping the feeder would lure in some of the tits that I occasionally see flitting between my neighbours' pine trees, but so far, nothing.
Annette of Gardenopoly blog left some very useful hints on attracting birds at the bottom of one of my earlier posts, so I guess I am going to have to follow them now rather than staring forlornly at the feeder from my study window.
Oh, and while I am on the subject of birds, can I suggest that you go and look at the beautiful robin pictures on Mike's Allotment Diary? You can tell he's an ex-professional photographer.
Annette is right, birds are creatures of habit and it will only be a matter of time before you start receiving regular visitors. They will cautiously realise that there is new feeding source and test out the lie of the land. I have an eight foot high post from the top of which I have a hanging squirrel proof cage feeder with peanuts. This attracts in the main, the tit family members, but I have often see sparrows and the occasional frustrated robin trying to feed from it. Lower down I have a hanging bird table that will attract most birds other than blackbirds. The higher feeding station prevents cats from finding their prey and the lower one acts as a swing for squirrels. The squirrels and I have a wary relationship. At one point they would know to scamper when they heard the back door open. Now they wait until I am half way across the lawn.
Posted by: Gnome | January 14, 2006 at 03:20 PM
I put out feeders for the birds for the first time this year. Initially it was very frustrating and I had to throw away quite a lot of the food I'd put out because it went mouldy it was undisturbed for so long. I don't think the position I used first time was very good - a bit too exposed.
Since I moved the feeders so that they are nearer to bushes and trees they very gradually started to visit. The word obviously spread and now we've seen a lot more activity. I find that crumbled fat balls sprinked across the back wall disappear quickest, with the wiggly seed mix being a close second. I do have a peanut feeder and although the nuts do show signs of some interest they definitely don't seem to be as popular.
We don't see the birds much at the moment, but thefood keeps disappearing. I suppose that's the time of year and the short days as much as anything. I expect as spring gets closer that you will start to get more visits. Also, are you putting water out?
Posted by: Clare | January 14, 2006 at 04:57 PM
We've been lucky to have 20+ different varieties of birds visit our garden (over the last 23 years)including probably 3 species of birds of prey.
We haven't seen siskins,greenfinch or many goldfinch this winter-but have had many delightful house and tree sparrows/dunnocks/robins/blue,great,coal and longtailed tits/thrushes/blackbirds/wren plus a pair of blackcaps and a really cute goldcrest visit recently.
For the first year (I think) I've noticed the blackbirds are now joining the robins climbing into the lilac bush ,a metre from our lounge door, to feed off the fat balls!!!
Posted by: Jean | January 14, 2006 at 05:31 PM
Have you tried moving the feeder to a new position? Our feeders are literally 3 feet from the sitting room window and that doesn't seem to bother the birds. We also don't have much in our own front garden by way of mature trees or shrubs as it's mostly herbaceous, but the birds are happy to use bushes in the neighbouring gardens for shelter.
We see more sparrows than anything else, but also plenty of blue tits, great tits, starlings on the peanut feeder, long-tailed tits (so cute), collared doves, robins, blackbirds and in the past week, a great spotted woodpecker - very excited about that! Goldfinches visited in the summer, but we've not seen them since, even though we've invested in nyjer seed and special nyjer feeder.
Have you thought about relocating your feeder to your allotment? Maybe you'd have more luck there.
Posted by: Annette | January 14, 2006 at 06:09 PM
Thanks for all the great advice! I think I'll give it another few days then move the feeder to another location where there is loads of cover from a neighbouring garden. And I think I should also get some mealworms to put out to attract different birds, seeing as the peanuts just don't seem to be floating their boat ... I'll bring you a progress report in a couple of weeks!
Posted by: Jane Perrone | January 15, 2006 at 05:52 PM
Jane, hi
Peanuts didn't do much for me when I tried them, either. The only living thing that fancied them were the wretched squirrels... which wasn't what I had in mind!
I now feed 'Hi Energy, No Mess' from CJ Wild Bird foods. You can get it mail order, and it's brilliant: I have huge clouds of goldfinches, tits, greenfinches and sparrows in my small suburban garden. I've even had nuthatches and siskins – although you have to get up very early to see them.
Posted by: Jess | January 16, 2006 at 04:19 PM