Birds in the garden

[Sajehar]

They are very like the photo Crocus posted, only skinnier. And my ones DO have a complete black band around their necks, not a partial one.
I think breeders may have breed them since 1965 this way; that's why I've got them on my/parent's roof.
Only a theory,mind.

On to more practical stuff...what half-way decent camera can I get for 70 quid? Or, is that not possible?

[david c]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fuji-S2980-Di ... 2a34abbae8
hi sajehar ,i think you might try something like this ,it's like a slr ,only you can't change the lens.
pied wagtails are common in carparks for some reason.

[JHR57]

Reason for car parks is the amount of food some folk just throw on the floor - most birds will go anywhere for food if they are in that particular geographical area - last year we had a pair of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers (smaller and much prettier than then Greater Spotted) very very elusive bird but we have about a dozen feeders all filled with different niceties so they came in to eat whilst they were in the breeding season - The birdies and wildlife in our garden go a long way in the help to keep me sane - must admit I have put a feeding pole in Mums garden and although she doesn't get the quantity and variety that we get here she just loves standing by the kitchen sink to watch them flitting in and out - at the moment I'm flicking between you lot and a Great Tit who has been roosting in a nest box fitted with a camera that we hung on our outside wall last year, this morning he is bringing in feathers, a tad too early for building but the warm temperatures are confusing them xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[crocus]

Gosh JRH that is a lot! Ive got 5 feeders - fat balls, peanuts, sunflower hearts, niger seeds and mixed seeds. I also put little bits of fat and cheese on a flat open feeder for the thrushes. I thought that was a lot. What do you put out?

[Sajehar]

Hi JHR57

Where can you get these spy camera things for bird boxes? Can you view the birds via a monitor thing, like a laptop? If so, that would be great for mum. Imagine being able to show her a bird feeding its young... stuff that's happening in her own back garden.
She too loves watching their antics from the comfort of the kitchen window, and will enjoy it in summer from the comfort of a cast iron park bench I'm restoring. SIL is making a water proof padded seat for it.
We have 2 cage things for the fat balls, a shallow container for water, and that's it. Plus I scatter seeds for them and we chuck out most of our leftovers for them. I can categorically state that birds don't like cranberries. I bought some for mum as she loves cranberry juice, but the berries themselves are horrible. They've been on the lawn for a week now, and not a one has been taken.

[madeliaette]

English wagtails wag their tails the opposite way to Aussie ones, btw. One lot go up and down, the other side to side. I have one of those Oxford books too - and an Observers and Hamlyn...no doves with bars all the way round in any of those though.
I currently have a wood pigeon staring in at me....

[david c]

hi ,can't seem to attract any birds to my garden ,apart from doves .wood pigeons ,jackdaws and house sparrows.

[Scally]

My approach is a single pole with three feeders, one for fatballs in a cage, one for peanuts, one for mixed seeds. It gets emptied very quickly, and it's expensive to keep refilling. I can see it from my desk, and my regular visitors include a mixture of t!ts: coal, blue, great and long-tailed, chaffinches, dunnocks, wood-pidgeons, blackbirds, and robins. Plenty of magpies, crows etc around, but they cant manage the bird-feeders, so they tend to lurk around the bottom looking for scraps. Haven't seen any greenfinches or gold finches for a while, expect they will be back when it gets warmer.

I put engine oil or fat on the metal pole to stop the squirrel climbing it. It works for a week or two, then needs topping up.

Lidl are selling the poles for around £8 at the moment, which is half the price you pay online: be quick!

[david c]

i have a bird table with 2 feeders of peanuts and sunflower seeds ,i got some fat balls in a wire feeder from aldi ,plus i put some loose seed and peanuts on the bird table .
but the birds that visit seem to be nervous and don't stay long .
i think the fence panels are putting them off ,the back garden seems to be inclosed too much

[Scally]

Might be a cat around? They dont like those. But birds are flighty critters at the best of times, they never hang around for long, :