Bird Feeding in the rain
Sep 5th, 2008 by Birdy Trish
Wil it ever stop raining?
With weather like this the owls won’t be having a very good time. Owls can’t hunt very well if their feathers get wet - so they go hungry.
This cold, wet weather’s bad for a variety of garden birds as well.
Keeping feeders clean and dry in wet weather is a challenge.
I’ve just had a count up and I have 10 different bird feeders in my garden! (11 if you count the window feeder which I had to take down so I could put it on another window)
I started off years ago with one bird table.
But I really believe that variety helps birds.
I have three bird tables. They are all very old bird tables. Two don’t have a top and I put a mixed bird food and kitchen scraps on them. The third birdtable is old and is propped up against a fence until I find a new one I like. It has a roof.
I have two feeders I’ve just strung on a washing under the shelter of two trees.
I have two other feeders strung on an old washing line in the front garden. These are open to the full blast of the elements.
I have a meshed ground bird feeder that I put near the garden bush
I have a droll Yankee Feeder that I put only millett in and that always has a group of sparrows round it.
I have one feeder ‘drying out’ as the rain was lashing down last night and it got inside the port holes clogging up the food and stopping the food coming out. I will put it out soon. Is that Ten?
I got a bit wet this morning. I cleaned two bird tables by pouring very hot water over them to get rid of all the wet bits of bird food.
Just walking round the garden and checking the bird feeders and filling them up takes a bit of time.
Will this wet weather make it more difficult for them to get natural food I wonder.
From September I like putting whole peanuts onto the bird table and watching blue tits especially fly down. But as I now know I have a big, fat, thug of a grey squirrel residing near the garden I will have to stop doing that.
I put a variety of bird food out as well. Some of the food I put out is peanut granules, a bird food mix, black sunflower hearts, millet, grated cheese and cut up apple
If you would like any more information about the types of bird feeders I use then please leave a comment in the comment box or Click Here to get details about my PRODUCT REVIEW ITEMS
If you’d like some more information about bird food please leave a comment in the comment box or type ‘bird food’ OR ‘ bird feed’ into the search tab on the right hand side of the page. Or go to Garden Bird Supplies and have a look at what they are selling.
Or if you would just like to say ‘Hi’ and leave a note about your bird feeding then leave a comment in the comment box.
Tags: Bird Feeders, bird-food
Some time ago I told you that I had planted some sunflower seeds. For the first time today I saw a greenfinch (a bird I hardly ever see in my garden) helping itself from a ripe sunflower head. Lots of virtually free seed as I just planted a few seeds from my wild bird mix. One of my sunflower heads was nearly 9 inches across and was full of seeds for a short while. There should be some fat seed lovers about here somewhere who are hardly able to fly!!
A few days ago I was delighted to watch Great, Blue and Long Tailed Tits all together at the peanut and fat ball feeders.
Blue and Coal Tits regularly come to take sunflower seeds from my caged bird table. They take a seed and sit in the branch of a nearby tree to eat and then fly down for another seed.
Hi John, Could you send a photo of the sunflowers? I know it’s good to see birds eating from plants. I see them in my bush and on the hawthorn bushes down the lane. The elderberries are coming into fruit as well and loads of birds love them. Good on you!
I’ll try planting some next year. When did you plant yours. Trouble is the nettles near the fence grow so quickly they smother anything. I’ll have to weed them out next year.
ads…
Rare Editions Toddler Slippers Dress 2…