Bird Table News

Welcome to my product review.   I will give an unbiased, balanced and accurate opinion.

THE MESHED GROUND FEEDER

PREVIEW BEFORE THE PRODUCT REVIEW

Ground feeding birds are often forgotten.  How many times do you see thrushes, blackbirds on a hanging feeders. 

Meshed Ground Feeders  also give small birds like the chaffinch, robin, blue tit protection from predators including cats and sparrowhawks. 

The cage keeps the larger birds and squirrels off the bird food.  

MESHED GROUND BIRD FEEDER REVIEW

This meshed ground feeder is in two parts.

• The meshed cover comes as a flat pack.  It is easy to assemble. 
• The wooden tray with a wire mesh comes complete.

THE WOODEN FRAME WITH A WIRE TRAY  - Measurements:  41cm x 33cm.   12.5 cm high.  It has 8 cm ground clearance.

WIRE MESH CAGE

The secure cage has

• adjustable mesh sizes. 
  Allowing the ability to alter the mesh when bird feeding
• If you want to measure the actual size of the gap in the mesh here is a guide to the sizes of gap needed to keep out pests -
  48mm gap keeps out cats and pigeons
  40mm gap keeps out starlings
  34mm gap keeps out adult grey squirrels
  29mm gap keeps out young grey squirrels.
• a hinged door
  I have found this useful.  Thrushes and blackbirds couldn’t get through the mesh.  I tied the door open slightly with some string and these birds found their way in.

This feeder is BTO and BSA approved

 You will see from the photographs below that I have used this feeder in all weathers.  The birds are  attracted to it all year round, but in winter I made a special efford to keep an assortment of food on the tray.

WINTER
Last winter this feeder was invaluable.  These two photographs don’t show any birds at the feeder but it was always a hive of activity.

SPRING
I bought this feeder in May 2007 and a variety of birds have used it every day.

The first visitor to the meshed ground feeder in May 2007 (Sorry, I couldn’t resist).

I cannot leave the cage door open too much because larger birds were getting in.  As you can see!

I altered the mesh and also  the door. The cage now allows the smaller birds to feed in safety.

SUMMER AND AUTUMN
I use this bird feeder all year round.

PROS AND CONS - LOOKING AFTER THE BIRD FEEDER.
This feeder is out in all weathers.  In winter, if I can I bring the feeder tray into the back porch on an night.  It keeps the tray clean and dry. 

I have given the wood tray a coat of clear varnish to protect the wood from the rain, sleet and snow it has to put up with

It is easy to clean the wire mesh tray with water.  This is sometimes needed if rain has ‘gunged’ the bird food on the tray, or if it the wire mesh just needs a general cleaning.  The wire mesh allows the rain to fall through.

This is a good bird feeder and a little care means it will last me years.

WHICH BIRDS CAN GET INTO THE MESHED FEEDER
In my garden I have a problem with larger birds getting all the bird food. 

At the moment if I open the mesh too wide or leave the feeder door open a little then starlings, pigeons, moorhens and even hens try and get the food.  This would leave  the smaller garden birds such as the wren, blue tit, sparrow and robin without any food. You may not have this problem.

So at the moment I have to keep the wire mesh small and the door closed to keep out the larger birds.  Unfortunately this means the blackbirds and thrushes cannot get in. 

I like feeding thrushes and blackbird. It’s annoying that because of larger aggressive birds it’s difficult to feed them.  Blackbirds and thrushes come every day. 

I try and get round this problem (which has nothing to do with the bird feeder) by

• Leaving the meshed door open for part of the afternoon.  I find the larger birds come early morning
• Putting grated cheese and other food under a bush nearby
• Throwing waste water on a patch of ground ( to help them get worms if the ground is hard)

 NOTE: I think the arrival in my garden or rooks, crows, ravens, pigeons is something that is happening all over the country.

SQUIRRELS
This feeder certainly keeps squirrels off the food.  My daughter and her friend watched a grey squirrel trying to get into this feeder.  It found the weak link - the string keeping the door closed.  It could not manage to get in though.  They said it looked funny walking round.  (They never thought to take a photo).

SUMMARY

This ground feeder is very useful and versatile.  You can have the mesh and the door open differently to suit the type of bird that is visiting your garden

With a little care the feeder will last a number of years.

The ground feeder attracts a lot of birds and gives them a safe place to feed.

 If you are interested in the ground feeder tray click on this link Soar Mill Seeds.  After you have clicked the link type in Ground Feeder Tray into the Search tab.

If you are interested in the adjustable ground secure mesh tray click on this link to  Soar Mill Seeds .  After you have clicked on the link type in Adustable Ground Secure into the Search tab.

 There is a choice of meshed feeders.    GARDEN BIRD SUPPLIES OFFER A  CHOICE GROUND SANCTUARY

If you are interested in reading articles that other people have read about the ground feeder then use these two links - 

Meshed Ground Feeder Keeps Unwanted Birds Away

 Ground feeding birds 

Do you have any comments you want to add?  Please let me know.

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16 June 2007 -  By coincidence on the 16 June last year I put a poem on by Thomas Hardy about an aged thrush, frail, gaunt and small who was singing joyously on a winters day.

Tags: birds, ground-feeder, mesh, product review