[cabbage]

Did anyone else on here take part this year? why not post your results and let us see how you did?

It was a horrible rainy day in Cabbage Towers so we weren't holding out many hopes for a good count - and for the first half hour we saw literally nothing!

A quick break in the weather lead to a major influx though and the last half hour was very busy. We had 4 hanging feeders and one ground feeder out providing fatballs, peanuts, nyger seed and a seed/mealworm mix.

Final totals were
30+ house sparrows (impossible to get an accurate count as they flitted between all the different feeding stations but at least 30)
1 Tree sparrow - could have been more as it was mixed in with the house sparrows - plus I can only tell the males apart so there were probably some female tree sparrows too!
1 Hedge Sparrow (dunnock)
4 Starlings - Way, Way down on previous years counts, however there were a flock of 50+ which circled over the garden but never landed
1 Robin
3 Blackbirds
1 Collared Dove - Very unusual as these ALWAYS come to the garden in pairs, not today though!
1 Goldfinch - being badly bullied by the sparrows who have discovered they can eat nyger seed.
1 Wren - turned up with only five minutes to go and gave the biggest smile of the day.

And the special guest 'star'

1 Rat. Not happy. I stopped feeding my birds last year after getting rats causing huge damage in my garden shed (my garden is tiny, too small to properly move feeders around). Put the feeders back up last week and the rats are back. This would seem to confirm my theory that its the house behind me's practice of putting out kitchen scraps that is attracting them rather than my bird feeders. Hmm.

Disappointed not to get any of the chaffinches that were in my garden last week and surprised that there were no tits. Interested to see the starlings are still around but no longer keen to visit my garden - last summer the house next door to me cut down all their mature hedges where the Starlings had been roosting.

I'm afraid due to the rats still being about I'm going to cut my feeding back over the next week (don't want to just suddenly stop). I'll probably leave up one peanut feeder as it sits high up in some very thin twigs and doesn't cause much mess on the ground.

[Jim Walker]

Cabbage don't stop feeding mate, just change the food you are using.

It's a bit expensive, but go for a no-mess food such as sunflower hearts. Take away the easy food, take the opportunist feeders.

You had a Tree Sparrow, an actual TREE Sparrow! Brilliant! I'd be happy with the House Sparrow's to be honest.

I had quite a quiet time, 4 Blackbirds, 8 Woodpigeon, a couple of Blue Tits. I did have two firsts as well though. One male Blackcap and a female Great Spotted Woodpecker.
It was so good to see the Blackcap, the first I've seen for a good few years. It stayed on the feeder long enough for me to get in my scope.

[Lefty]

I must confess, I forgot to do it this year . But not much in my garden lately - just the occasional blackbird and wren (although admittedly my garden is tiny). The wren (s?) seems to be finding food in my flower tubs. I used to get loads of goldfinches but haven't seen any for many months. They are around though - I've seen/heard them flying overhead and in the woods round the corner. Perhaps there's a good supply of 'natural' food this year?

[cabbage]

Cabbage don't stop feeding mate, just change the food you are using.

It's a bit expensive, but go for a no-mess food such as sunflower hearts. Take away the easy food, take the opportunist feeders.

You had a Tree Sparrow, an actual TREE Sparrow! Brilliant! I'd be happy with the House Sparrow's to be honest.

I had quite a quiet time, 4 Blackbirds, 8 Woodpigeon, a couple of Blue Tits. I did have two firsts as well though. One male Blackcap and a female Great Spotted Woodpecker.
It was so good to see the Blackcap, the first I've seen for a good few years. It stayed on the feeder long enough for me to get in my scope.

I was really pleased about the sparrows actually, its a relatively new thing, their numbers have been increasing in the garden over the last couple of years, but as their numbers go up the starling numbers are definitely on the way down.

I'm jealous of the blackcap that's something I've never seen around here and its always great to see a woodpecker!

Unfortunately expense is an issue for the birdfood - we're pretty much at the stage now where its a choice of buying food for me or food for the birds. I could stand to lose some weight mind you so maybe its not a bad thing

I haven't stopped completely, I couldn't bring myself to do that, the birds in the garden kept looking at me! I've lifted the ground feeder and put up two peanut feeders as these seem to cause the least mess on the ground, I'll keep that up til I run through my stock of peanuts and then see what else I can find. I might stick some sunflower hearts up but ration them.

I must confess, I forgot to do it this year . But not much in my garden lately - just the occasional blackbird and wren (although admittedly my garden is tiny). The wren (s?) seems to be finding food in my flower tubs. I used to get loads of goldfinches but haven't seen any for many months. They are around though - I've seen/heard them flying overhead and in the woods round the corner. Perhaps there's a good supply of 'natural' food this year?

Hi lefty

I love seeing wren about the garden, I'm always amazed when we have a cold snap that the wrens make it through, they're so small! Their secret seems to be constant movement on the hunt for food - I was also being told on twitter (via the BTO) that they roost communally at nights to keep warm which is something I find quite amazing.

Agree with you on the goldfinches, definitely fewer round my garden this year but I actually drove through a flock of 100 or so near some local farmland recently - I had to slam the brakes on as they flew all around me, I didn't seem to hit any fortunately!