Feeding the birds

Following on from the birthday wormery, I ended up buying a worm-based birthday gift for myself. I'd gone to the garden centre to buy myself some kind of tool, but was deeply unimpressed by their offering (there's a whole other post about why garden centres sell more, I don't know, egg timers, than they do gardening equipment these days). So I bought a pot of dried mealworms and a window bird feeder instead. It's something I've wanted for ages, but have always been a bit wary of due to my terrible track record on attracting birds to the garden.

So far, so disappointing. I soaked the mealworms as instructed, and added some peanuts and pumpkin seeds* to the feeder. I sprinkled some on the ground to get things rolling, but so far, nothing ... help please!

*I'll only put these out until the end of the month and then withdraw as they're not suitable for feeding to the fledglings who will soon be around.

Comments

[easygardener]

Just a thought - could the feeder be too near the house. Is it the only one?
Perhaps a second feeder hanging out in the open will make the birds feel less wary and encourage them into the garden. Then eventually they may feel brave enough to come closer for those mealworms.
Good luck.

[louise]

could it be the trains hurtling past all the time?

[Simon Kirby]

I can't believe the robins haven't scoffed those meal worms, perhaps it'll just take them a little time to find the feeder.

[Elaine]

I notice that the birds in my garden are very fond of having somewhere to perch before they go onto the feeder. Lots more began to visit when I moved the feeder nearer to a tree. They also quite like perching on the old obelisks that I grow plants up.

[Jane Perrone]

thanks for the tips folks - a pair of blackbirds (or perhaps more than one pair) are hoovering up most of the food at the moment but no action on the window-mounted feeder, despite a change of location to a more secluded spot. However I did see a pair of coal tits and a greenfinch on the edges of the garden the other day so things are looking up ...