Having trouble attracting the birds..

[cptncrackoff]

Thanks for all the advice.

I'll keep at it for now, just havnt really seen any birds for months, we used to have two resident robins that were there all year round, now nothing!! Even the pigeons that nest in next doors conifer ahve gone, there is a definate lack of any sort of bird activity lately.

[Fenlandgrower]

We have always had a few blackbirds and the occassional robin in our back garden, over the winter they slowly disappeared.
We dont have many cats round here, one or two seem to visit our garden but they are quite old.

Around six weeks ago i bought a bird table, its from B&Q but quite nice.

I have moved it twice in six weeks, filling it with seeds, nuts, mealworm and hanging fatballs on the pegs, so far its totally untouched by all birds.

Is there anything i can do to attract them a bit more??

Hi
Yes the best thing is try not to be too keen they will find it and will use it I had the same trouble in a semi rural setting. All things in nature are treated with great concern until the birds are used to them. Best way is show no interest until the seed starts to go.
I have Niger seed in a feeder peanuts in another and mixed seed in another and finally sunflower hearts in another, it took 4 month before the Goldfinches started to use the Niger but now its empty in 3 days I am filling them all at least 3 times a week. The list is Goldfinch Greenfinch Chaffinch Siskin Blue tit Great tits Robin Wren Starling Blackbird Spotted woodpecker Dunnock House and tree sparrow. As you can see they will find it and when time are hard as last December they were waiting in the trees for a refill. Be patient and leave it full and alone You could look at the BTO web site for the great British bird survey results for previous years to see what birds are prevalent in your area and choose seed accordingly but believe me they will come and when they do they will hit your wallet.Good Luck enjoy you Birds

[wellie]

Trousers and I have just got a replacement camera for the dead one off EBay, and the last two entries on my updated Blog show a few pictures of a few birds I've managed to capture on film, if you care to take a peek? (Don't forget to 'double-click' your computer mouse to enlarge the pictures?)

[cptncrackoff]

Wellie, there must be nearly as much time spent on your website as your growing!! Its great, well done.

There is definatly something happening, I bought some new seedmix from work, it's all singing all dancing apparently!

The neat pile in the middle has been scattered, a few days in a row i tidied the seeds and they were disturbed.
Only one type of seed appears to be getting nabbed, and there is no bird poo nor have we seen anything. my o/h is home three days a week and she has seen nothing, I may have to get a camera off ebay... Its driving me nuts!!

[wellie]

I'm sorry I missed your reply on 6.3.11. But to be honest, this time of year, I'm either knee-deep in cow or sheep manure, and today I've been collecting fresh Sheep Sh!t for my kitchen garden, as ya do!
I know..... I should 'get out more?!' but, having witnessed twin lambs at just 'minutes old' this morning, just why in all honesty, would I want to ?

Trust me.... I'm A Gardener....!

All of your garden birds will be beginning to adore you now if you can put out ANY extra foodie scraps for them, because it's getting dead close to nesting, and once they have babies in their nests, they'll bite your hand off if you can feed them on a regular basis. But do make sure that you put all peanuts into proper peanut feeders, as any whole peanuts would likely choke a baby bird.

I am hugely excited for you for your next few months ahead, because if you love your garden birds as I do, and you do everything that you can to treat them nice, you're in for one hell of a lovely spectacle my friend...X

[T8Ter]

Patience has finally rewarded me, whilst having quite a good selection of birds in the garden I could never get a regular visit from Goldfinches, well it's only taken them 18 months to find the feeder of niger seeds, but now there are 3 or 4 returning daily

[Scarlet]

Patience has finally rewarded me, whilst having quite a good selection of birds in the garden I could never get a regular visit from Goldfinches, well it's only taken them 18 months to find the feeder of niger seeds, but now there are 3 or 4 returning daily

I use sunflower hearts - it's getting expensive..

[elsie-scot]

Your birds mush be too posh for Aldi, Bigt ........

The birds in my garden picked out some seeds from a cheaper mixed seed selection and left the rest.

Have somewhere for the birds to drink/bathe, that often encourages them into the garden. A upturned dustbin lid works well for us.