Backyard Chronicles III

Bird feeders. We have quite a few.

Fatball feeders in various shapes - these are mobbed by starlings, favoured by the woodpeckers, attended occasionally by a magpie (who struggles with the balance) and are a challenge too far for pigeons, wood pigeons and collared doves who all merely hoover up crumbs that fall (and plenty do).

Mesh tray feeders for fat pellets and calci worms, covered by upturned hanging basket frames to keep the voracious wood pigeons off.  It is a kind or arms race with one determined wood pigeon who is not satisfied with dining at ground level on fat pellets, dried worms and cat biscuits cast about the grass and under the rose bushes every morning for ground feeders like them, robins and blackbirds.  After the last modification (which involved some cable ties and a weaving of craft wire) I think the score is Hoomans 5: Wood pigeon 4.

Along with the general food distributed on the ground, the crows and magpies get a crushed fat ball or two, a dollop of tinned dog food, and any fatty/meaty/cheesy scraps that has collected up in the hooman kitchen that day.  The crows sit atop a neighbourhood house with a good view of our yard and wait for me to come out banging a spoon on the dogfood tin as a signal to come and grab their meal before the seagulls get it.

No one gets bread unless Mr B has burned his toast..... which is probably the only thing we don't actively chase the seagulls away from. There is a limit, and mine is gulls. Fine in their place... stealing fish dinners and ice creams at seaside resort towns is perfectly acceptable, we are in their space..... but too greedy for me to support in my backyard. The squillions of starlings are a development we never expected when we started feeding birds 15 years ago. In those days, and in fact until last year, we only had half a dozen tops. I hope they reward us with a murmuration or two (even a mini one) when the fledgings get trained up.

Nyger seed feeder in vain hope we might attract finches. None to report until last Saturday when I spotted two gold finches in the flowering apple tree where it hangs.  I live in hope of more visits from them.

Seeds in a tube, inside a cage to exclude the predation and wastefulness of wood pigeons.  This is attended upon by sparrows and tits.

Fatballs inside a similar cage reserving them exclusively for small birds: blue tits, great tits, and long tailed tits mainly.  Bit of excitement today when we saw a fledgling starling trying to get into the fatball cage. It was flapping wildly on the outside causing the whole carousel to rotate on its hanging arrangement. The sparrow on the inside looked totally unfazed about spinning round and round while he quarried away at the fatballs.

Fine mesh trays (also inside cages) for feeding fat pellets and calci worms to small birds. This arrangement is meant to exclude anything bigger than a robin, and generally speaking achieves that, but the starlings cluster on the outside and stick their heads in as far as they dare (which fortunately is not all the way to the middle - some food remains out of reach). Some fledgelings are not afraid to squeeeeeze themselves inside and enjoy an uninterrupted all you can eat buffet, but panic levels rise when the flock takes off and greedy youngster has to squeee-eeeee-eeze back out again. (Have any of you read the story about Winnie-the-pooh getting stuck in Rabbit's doorway?)

Before the fledglings arrived, I looked out one day to see two adult starlings sitting one either side of one of these caged trays; one was reaching into the cage lifting and shaking the edge of the tray to make the food on board fall towards the opposite conspirator. You don't expect such cooperation. 

The major drawback of all this starling activity is guano....or at least the raw material for creating guano.

I empty, clean, shift, and refill the water trough daily and here you can see the evidence for where it had been yesterday.... a regular program of lawn fertilization. Now all I need to do is design a grid system for moving the trough to ensure even distribution.

(NB - the plastic lightshade things are anti-squirrel/anti-rat devices and are by far the best we have tried. They are also, unfortunately, collectors of excrement and need regular cleaning. Recently fledged starlings need to learn healthier toilet habits. I am constantly cleaning their fouled food trays.)