Friday 22 July 2016

The Birds have a new Table.

Our bird table was put up when we moved into the house twenty years ago from next door (my aged parents in law lived here until they died) so it has done very well.   But yesterday, after tilting to one side for about the last year, the roof began to come adrift and it looked in a sorry state.

Our Builders' Merchants only come here on Fridays (Market Day) so I sent them an e mail asking them to bring us a couple of new bird   tables, so that the farmer could choose one.

This afternoon he has been putting it up. The first job was to put an extra piece round each side because we get a lot of corvids - rooks, crows, jackdaws and magpies - and they are all partial to the odd mealworm.   And of course their huge beaks shovel them up leaving none for the blackbirds, tits and robins who also adore them.

I took the opportunity to thoroughly wash the various feeders - this in itself was hard because they are made of plastic and over the years the plastic tends to get brittle, but at least I finished up with them cleaner than when I began the job.

We feed 'our' birds all the year round - for purely selfish reasons really;  we love wild birds, the  table is just outside the kitchen window where we sit for our meals and we can watch them the whole time.   We get a good variety - blackbirds, robins, wrens, great tits, blue tits, coal tits, chaffinches, greenfinches, goldfinches, yellowhammers, lesser spotted woodpeckers, collared doves, wild pheasant, house sparrows, hedge sparrows and tree sparrows - and the odd other visitor like a siskin or a brambling.   Good value for money as far as we are concerned - and always a joy to watch.

Here are a few photographs of the farmer in demolition and building mode.   Note the blue baler band used to string up the fat balls - I did mention that something else might be an improvement but the suggestion was met with a stare - baler band is used for everything on the farm from improvising a dog leash to keeping up a pair or trousers and I suppose that at least blue is a slight improvement on the usual orange.

We feed fat balls, meal worms, nyger (for the goldfinches),mixed seed and peanuts.   In addition, in the Winter the birds get coconuts (in their shells and cut in half) and shredded suet.   And always there are some scraps from the table - crumbs - a piece of old cheese and things like that.  Incidentally, the chicken wire is round the fat balls again to stop the corvids.
The sparrows quickly worked out how to get inside, as did the tits.

Here are the photographs:


18 comments:

Yorkshire Pudding said...

Seeing birds in one's garden is always joyful and like you I feed them throughout the year. Do you ever get grey squirrels in your area? To me they are like rats with bushy tails.

Terry and Linda said...

I enjoyed this post and meeting the farmer!!

Linda

Sue said...

That's a very smart bird table. We have a couple of feeders hanging at the front of the barn, I love watching our feathered visitors.

Derek Faulkner said...

My partner gets Grey Squirrels in her garden and they wreck the feeders so quickly, they are a real pest and to be honest I'd happily shoot them. Nice to see the Farmer at last.

Heather said...

That is a very smart bird table - ours looks a bit like your old one. We love to watch the birds too and feed them all year round. We don't get such a wide variety in our garden but our house is only in a semi-rural location. My husband made a cage to cover a ground feeder so that the small birds can get through the mesh but the pigeons can't eat everything on offer. He enlarged two sections of mesh to allow blackbirds and thrushes inside, and they soon learned to find them.

Joanne Noragon said...

I love how the birds expect a meal, of course, and move on to the next house if it's not forthcoming one morning. The chickadees and chipmunks except it too, but the humming birds are the most bold. They fly in your face in the nectar needs a change.

angryparsnip said...

Wonderful post today. I love reading about all your birds.

cheers, parsnip

Frugal in Derbyshire said...

I prefer the blue twine to the orange too. What would we do without it ( and pallets of course)
Gillx
One of the young quilters has just finished a small colourful quilt for a baby and used a little of the stash you sent her.I will post a picture of it soon.

Midmarsh John said...

A great looking bird table. I have 2 inch mesh round mine to keep out the largest birds otherwise a fat wood pigeon just sits there monopolising the food.

jinxxxygirl said...

So nice to see what you do for the birds Pat. Our bird table looks much the same without the top... Better to take pictures lol! Plus i enjoy seeing the crows and bluejays AND so far they have not made too much a nuisance of themselves.... everybody seems to get something... I have four crows that visit frequently but not too frequently.. i call them the Brother's Grim..... We solved the problem with the squirrels with one of those domes but the raccoon still gives me trouble although i haven't seen him in a week...cross your fingers he has moved on...Maybe found some food a little easier to get?? So nice to see a pic of the Farmer! :) Hugs to you both and enjoy your new feeder...

PS.. We feed a wild bird seed mix, corn, sunflower seeds...peanuts and the occassional block of suet... Do you feed your birds live meal worms or the dried???? deb

Derek Faulkner said...

One of the things that struck me with the farmer was the hat wearing. I bet he never walks out of the door without his hat on no matter how hot it is and probably has one hat that he has worn for years for his farm work. I've rarely worn a hat in my life and yet some people feel naked without their trust hat on.

Librarian said...

In my family, my Dad is the expert ornithologist (well, hobby-wise). Nearly everything I know about birds - including being able to identify their voices - I know from him.
At the allotment, my Dad feeds the birds all year round, too. At home, my parents put a bird house on the balcony in winter only, but my Mum shakes out the table cloths with crumbs from breakfast etc. on the balcony all year round, so there are always some birds there.
At my place, I feed them properly in winter on one of the kitchen windowsills. During the year, when I have some crumbs or other bits of food which I think they might like, I but that out for them, too, and it is nearly always gone within a few hours.
Your bird tables look really sophisticated and well thought-out! Thank you for showing us the pictures.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Dried meal worms Debs - couldn't bear the live ones. Envy you that raccoon - I would put up with him just to see him.
Glad to hear about the quilt Frugal - look forward to seeing a pic.
YP We have a few grey squirrels in Forty Acre wood which is about a mile down the road, but as the pheasants (for the later shoots on the big estate) are fed there then we rarely get the squirrls up here luckily.

Derek Faulkner said...

I've never been able to understand what goodness there is in those dried meal worms, all they are is a brown, dry case.
Thanks for your comment on my blog, thought that might be the case.

Tom Stephenson said...

Palacial - and The Farmer really looks like a farmer too.

The Weaver of Grass said...

What do you mean Tom'looks like a farmer'? He is one and has been since the day he
arrived in this world.
Derek - are they just the case of the worm? I must say I have just watched a blackbird shovelling them up.

coffeeontheporchwithme said...

That was nice, being able to meet The Farmer. Prior to this, I just made up an image in my head of what he looked like! That's a fantastic bird feeder. I must admit I rarely feed birds during the nice months, just in the winter time. Now I am thinking I might have to put some feed out today! -Jenn

Gwil W said...

He has a belt for holding up his trousers. I thought he'd have bailing twine. I knew one who had. And he had chickens living in the kitchen. And saucepans burnt black. A real character. He'd water down his milk.