My Newest Visitor

[Beebee]

This is my latest visitor to my garden. I used to have a Robin visit the garden but had not seen it for over a year, and yesterday this little fella appeared.

[70007]

That is excellent, and I'm relieved to see that the mess underneath your feeders looks similar to mine. :)

It tends to become hidden when the grass starts growing.

John

[crissie]

Its far better being hygenic and cleaning the mess up under the feeder!

[Pine Marten]

I see what you mean beebee about the fat from your fatcakes. That is a huge amount of gunge there. That will choke the soil and could make it go sour. No good cleaning it with hot water and detergent, that will kill the grass.

I would tend to pave an area around the feeder, and brush it up now and again.

Pine Marten.

[Beebee]

Hi Pine Marten,

Yes, you can see the problem I have which I mentioned in another thread, although it does look far worse in the photo than it actually is. The ground is visible through the gunge, however, it is still a problem I would like to solve as I would not like to attract vermin or, god forbid, kill off the birds I have managed to attract to my garden.
Pathing the area had crossed my mind, not only will it be easier to clean, but also there won't be a bald patch in the grass where I stand when changing the food. Fortunately the birds have finished the fat cake and I have put out suet balls instead. I am gradually learning what foods to avoid for less mess i.e not buy the "cheap" assorted bird seed but opt for sunflower hearts and now mess mix instead.
Thank you for your thoughts though.

Beebee.

[70007]

Yes, it is not that easy cleaning up that kind of mess under pole feeders. In my case it is a combination of bird droppings, rainwater, bits of fat and porridge that have been thrown off the trays.

However, I agree that it looks worse on photos than it actually is and I also find that blackbirds and dunnocks seem to spend ages picking at bits from that area, so they do some of their own cleaning.

I can use a spring rake or a stiff brush across the area and clear what is left, plus making vertical holes with a garden fork in the grass will help with the drainage.

I used to have wire mesh trays under there to catch the bits, but badgers kept digging holes underneath them to reach earthworms that seemed to congregate there, but if Beebee does not have badgers she could try that.

John

[thud]

I'm rapidly coming to the opinion that 'tidy' and 'attractive to birds' are mutually exclusive. Whenever I tidy up the birds hate it.

I can't manage splippy surfaces (an old spinal problem) so during the long period of snow and ice I had to leave tidying. In particular a paved area under three six port black sunflower feeders developed a layer of debris. Blackbirds, a Wren, a couple of Robins and goodness knows how many finches loved it. When the weather gave a little I swept it up - there were 'tuts' all round the garden from the Blackbirds. The white stuff came back and the debris built up again. At the moment it is attracting Bramblings (three the other day but usually one) in addition to the others.

I daren't post any pics of the Bramblings 'cos of the carpet of debris evident. But I'm not clearing it up till they move on :-)

If you are feeding sunflower hearts Beebee, I would suggest you use feeder trays. The gunge that builds up under hearts over time smells absolutely dreadful. The trays also attract other birds - we have a Blackcap visit our trays every day. I'm sure he could manage the feeder rings but he doesn't. Plus the trays cut down waste - expensive food sunflower hearts.

[crissie]

The birds may like a nice build up but consider the problems it brings.....
Stale food provides a breeding ground for salmonella bacteria, which can cause food poisoning. At least one type of salmonella causes death among such species as greenfinches and house sparrows.

[Beebee]

I can use a spring rake or a stiff brush across the area and clear what is left, plus making vertical holes with a garden fork in the grass will help with the drainage.

I used to have wire mesh trays under there to catch the bits, but badgers kept digging holes underneath them to reach earthworms that seemed to congregate there, but if Beebee does not have badgers she could try that.

John

Thank you John for that advice I hadn't thought of that. I will try that when we get a break from this rain.
I do not have Badgers nor do I have squirrels. It's funny isn't it, I would love to have these animals visit my garden, and those people that do have them wish they didn't. Although, those of you that do have them visit, are probably shouting at me "You wouldn't be saying that if you had them".

If you are feeding sunflower hearts Beebee, I would suggest you use feeder trays. The gunge that builds up under hearts over time smells absolutely dreadful. The trays also attract other birds - we have a Blackcap visit our trays every day. I'm sure he could manage the feeder rings but he doesn't. Plus the trays cut down waste - expensive food sunflower hearts.

I put the sunflower hearts in the tray for the bigger birds (Starlings, other birds don't get a look in) and into feeders for the smaller ones. I am curious though as to what mess you mean regarding the Sunflower hearts as I thought they ate the whole thing.

Beebee.

P.S.
Whose the hedgehog Thud?

[Pine Marten]

Hi Beebee. I think what thud means is that although the shell is removed from the sunflowers to give what they call "hearts". There is a semi transparent membrane that covers the seed. This is what the bird discards. Looks like snow on the ground. A bloke across the way has this problem.

Pine Marten.

[Beebee]

Thanks Pine Marten, as I said I thought they ate the whole thing, I shall look out for any snow. Please tell me this is easier to clean up than the white gunge.

[Pine Marten]

Hi Beebee, i dont get enough finches for the membrane to be a problem. But when i was talking to the person across the way he said it can get quite messy. Would not have thought it would be as bad as fat seeping into the soil though.

Pine Marten.

[thud]

Not just the membrane - there is quite an amount of kernel debris, whole or broken bits - that is what our Blackcap has been eating for the last month. If you get a Collared Dove or a Blackbird developing a taste for sunflower hearts you'll find they throw them about wholesale.

It's a matter of volume. We have three six port feeders that I fill, on average, every other day - we get through 5 kilos every week in the winter months.

During the summer months ground feeding birds and the weekly lawn mow takes care of the 'snow' without further action. As mowing finishes and the ground gets wet the ground feeders trample a lot of the debris into the surface where it starts to decay. The first thing you notice is that the ground feeders avoid the area - they have a lot more sense than some of us give them credit for. The next is the smell!

But what I really meant to say was - nice Robin...

[thud]

Oh yes...

The hedgehog adopted us for several weeks last year - I posted the odd shot of 'it' (Fun with an ice cream tub 7/10/09 and Another unexpected visitor 25/8/09) - I thought there were more..

We feed a lot of sultanas to the Blackbirds too - I found that where a handful of such food is placed in more or less the same place they leave a greasy patch over time. I use cheap car mats from Wilkinson (less than a pound each) scrub to clean and throw for new ones as required. I had tried the wire mesh trays but found a number of the Blackbirds got their claws stuck in the mesh. You need to leave the mats out for some days to reduce the rubber smell.

[Beebee]

Just had a look at your photo's Thud, I love the one of the hedgehog on his hinds legs.

I don't have anywhere near the volume of birds visiting as you Thud, although I do have more than enough Starlings, I try to keep them feeding at the feeding station or on the ground so the smaller birds can feed in peace. I have 3 peanut feeders 1 fat ball feeder and 5 2 port seed feeders. I buy the cheap plastic ones as I find these adequate, although I did splash out on a 4 port guardian seed feeder, but the Starlings still found a way of using except they couldn't feed from the bottom two ports, so rather than have the food go to waste I took off the guardian but they still didn't use the bottom ports, so I moved it over to the bush were the Tits feed, and blow me, the Starlings started trying to use it, I was worried they were going to scare my Tits away, but I think it is too much like hard work for them and have given up, there's more easier pickings for them.

On looking at the packet of sunflower hearts I bought, they are the premium ones and it says the whole thing is eaten, so do they not have the thin membrane on them?

Beebee

[thud]

Hi Beebee,

I still think Tiggy was trying to climb into that ice cream tub - perhaps he fancied a swim.

We have a good head of Chaffinches, Greenfinches and Goldfinches - although the Goldies are considerably down from previous years. It starts slow and builds up. You would never believe the amount we spend on sultanas for the Blackbirds every week! My wife and I derive enormous pleasure from watching them. Every morning we are in (and that's a lot 'cos we're retired) between 11am and midday we get instant entertainment just outside the window..

I have to admit that I have never purchased 'premium' sunflower hearts. I have on occasion bought cheap ones and they were a disaster, the birds threw more out than they ate.

Attached is a snap of our resident Robin - 'Flash' taken at 11:30 this morning. He's on a four port 'peg' feeder, the six port 'ring' feeder it is standing in for is being debugged. It was so dark outside I could hardly see him to aim the camera. The point is the spill tray he's standing on. That tray was emptied, scrubbed, washed and dried at 1:00 pm yesterday as were the trays on the other two sunflower heart feeders which are just as full of debris.

My experience certainly indicates that as the quality of the hearts decreases the amount of debris increases. It is probable that with 'premium' hearts you will not see the level of debris we see. I think you might still notice the translucent 'wrapper'.

Are sunflower hearts 'no mess'? Yes, they are almost as 'no mess' as fat balls and the like :-)

[Jandy]

In addition to what Pine Marten says re mess under sunflower hearts, which I also get as I have no feeder trays, the goldfinches, which seem to like these more than any other bird, are messy eaters, and for each seed they eat they seem to drop, or throw around with gusto, about another four or five I would think! All my feeders are hanging rather than perched on poles, and I have never been quite sure how the trays manage to have drainage holes and yet keep the seed from falling through, and whether the seed wouldn't get soaked through in wet weather (it can be bad enough for the seed inside the feeder in prolonged rain)!