Bird feeders/Tables

[Richard Green]

Instead of using the sightings page i thought it might be a good idea to start a thread on bird feeders as they are a life-line to some birds during the winter months.

What area of Cleveland,which species, what type of seed/food/dispenser attracts these etc.

For instance:

The Coal Tits feeding on Black sunflower seeds in my small Redcar garden are now sharing with Blue/ Great Tits and now Greenfinches.

There is only a slight attraction to mixed Seed mixture, peanuts and an upturned coconut shell purchased from a garden centre.

[Lockhart]

For one more week, i'll be in Hartburn, just SW of Ropner Park.

I have feeders set up with a husk-free sunflower mix, peanuts, fat balls and an RSPB product called "buggy nibbles" (small suet pellets with bits of mealworm).  The feeders attract year-round visits from blue, great and coal tits, chaffinces and goldfinches, a couple of robins and a pair of great-spotted woodpeckers, plus secondary feeding from thrushes and dunnocks.  In spring (April or May), starlings and house sparrows turn up but they have gone by now; autumn and winter bring greenfinches and long-tailed tits.  Occasionally, other species show up too (a nuthatch in September, for example).

The tits generally go for the buggy nibbles, but take a few seeds now and then, the woodpeckers take the BNs and peanuts, and the finches tend to go for the seeds; the robins mostly take seeds, which is a little surprising.  A couple of the local blackbirds have learned to use the suet ball feeders.  Dunnocks regularly pick up bits and pieces under the feeders.  I used to put out dried mealworms for the thrushes (usually blackbirds and a pair of song thrushes that come over from the park), but the local magpies would grab them before the thrushes get any, so i've stopped doing this.

The feeders are sometimes raided by magpies, and a local carrion crow has learned to lift the feeders off the hooks, so I have to use duct tape to secure them in place.

[tonyg]

Had to stop using them they were encouraging the feral pigeons in the area and nothing else.