Sunday 24 January 2010

feeding the birds


In the school gardening club one of our winter activities has been making bird feeders. We strung empty yogurt pots filled with lard and seeds up around the school grounds. It is not my favourite activity as lard and my vegi tendency are not a good mix. I get stuck in but the grease, the smell, its a general yuck for me!

Feeding birds is a big activity in garden at this time of the year and I tend to buy my bird feed. As I am not up to mixing yucky stuff at home. The poor birds are also aware of my slightly sporadic attempts to keep them fed. I'm best at keeping the window feeder topped up. My mum tells the tale that the birds in her garden actually line up waiting for her to fill the feeders at about 7am each day, needless to say she gets a lot of visitors.

For the last few weeks I have tried to be better at keeping them fed, especially as next weekend is the RSPB big garden birdwatch. We loved counting the birds last year and want to do it again this year. So I have set about ensuring that we do at least get a couple of visitors to count. My feeders are full for the moment.

7 comments:

Rachael said...

I have just emptied and cleaned out all my bird feeders as the contents were untouched for so long it had turned into mouldy mush. The birds are not interested in what I have to offer them - ungrateful blighters!

Sue Garrett said...

If you are involved in school gardening you may be interested in my The School Vegetable Patch website and blog.

Jo said...

I've often wondered if birds visit those window feeders. Obviously they do.

Deb said...

Jo, I was going to write the same thing!
Birds seem to be very fussy in our garden, I'm off to have a look for some pointers about siting the food etc.

Rhi, thanks for the birdwatch reminder!

Rhiannon said...

Deb & Jo I didn't get many visitors when the feeder was on the kitchen window. I moved it to the patio door near the fence, and the birds move from the fence onto it.

Rachael - those birds are often snooty about the food I put out for them!

I will check out the school veg patch. Thx for the pointer.

Meredith said...

My window feeder broke about a month ago, *sniff*, and I haven't been able to locate a replacement because all of the local stores aren't stocking their garden stuff in the middle of winter. So I've been feeding directly on the windowsill, if you can believe that. Come spring cleaning, the windows are going to be unbelievably grimy.

Great shot of the mourning doves (I think). Good luck with your upcoing count!

Jo said...

I have left you an award on my blog.