Purrs In Our Hearts - Cat Forum UK

Cat General => General Cat Chat => Topic started by: Kay and Penny on February 04, 2009, 13:31:27 PM

Title: remember the birds
Post by: Kay and Penny on February 04, 2009, 13:31:27 PM
uneaten dried and wet cat food is gobbled up by the ground-feeding birds, especially blackbirds and thrushes

the dried needs to be soaked until soggy
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Janeyk on February 04, 2009, 13:34:48 PM
I have been constantly feeding the birds round here I put fat balls in the trees at the weekend and been feeding lots of treats and scraps and making sure they have water, also important
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: bonnielass on February 04, 2009, 14:01:20 PM
I always feed any left over cat food to the birds, i have a pair of magpies and 2 pairs of blackbirds , a couple of robins and wood pigeons waiting every morning for me to throw it out for them ;)
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Gill (sneakiefeline) on February 04, 2009, 14:08:01 PM
It also is eaten by slugs and snails.......ok not in this weather  :rofl:

The birds are eating me out of house and home and the fat balls freeze like concrete but they like the fat that looks like mincemeat pieces and they love the berry one  ;D
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: sheryl on February 04, 2009, 14:13:10 PM
I am feeding them twice every day and the cats love watching them out of the windows - I have got lots of little wagtails as well as the blackbirds, thrushes, robins, sparrows and pigeons and doves.  As well as the "normal" bird food I have been buying apples and sultanas especially and they love them.
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Gill (sneakiefeline) on February 04, 2009, 14:16:27 PM
I put out an apple yesterday and they dont touch it......have tried before too and same thing  :Crazy:

Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Janeyk on February 04, 2009, 14:18:03 PM
Yes I put some apples out yesterday and some left over dried fruit and suet from Christmas goes down well too.  Different birds like different things and to eat from different heights though and the doves seem to love the mixed bird seed best of all.
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Gill (sneakiefeline) on February 04, 2009, 14:21:50 PM
I have blackbirds great and blue Prunes, bullfinches, a starling?....first time I have seen one here, jackdaws, robins and they all eat off same feeding staion and universally the fat bits are the most eaten by all.
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Mark on February 04, 2009, 14:58:13 PM
uneaten dried and wet cat food is gobbled up by the ground-feeding birds, especially blackbirds and thrushes

the dried needs to be soaked until soggy

Unfortunately ground feeding birds are gobbled up (or at least mutilated) by Kylie so I can't feed them any more. I was also told off by the owner of the gas showroom next door for throwing food out the kitchen window onto their flat roof  :-[  They were fed up with seagulls  :evillaugh:
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: sheryl on February 04, 2009, 15:02:03 PM
PAH have had the suet pellets on offer for a while now so I have stocked upon those - all the birds love these along with mealworms (very pricey though)
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: clarenmax on February 04, 2009, 15:34:29 PM
I've had loads of robins and blue t**s on the fat balls, Max loves to watch them out of the window  :Luv2:
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Wibblechick on February 04, 2009, 16:58:23 PM
I have an old tea tray tied to the balcony to make a landing platform and we have had pigeons, blue t i t s , coal t i t s , long tailed t i t s - a magpie attempted to land and we had a jay.

In the back garden we have had all of the above, plus robin, blackbirds, mistle thrush, fieldfares, redwings, grey wagtail, pied wagtail, a HUGE crow that chased everyone else off and a fox - in broad daylight, - who thoroughly enjoyed a porkpie he had disinterred from someones rubbish!!  :briggin:
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Kay and Penny on February 04, 2009, 17:56:39 PM
my biggest success is with goldfinches - I bought a special holder for niger seed, and the first goldfinch arrived less than 30 minutes after I put it out for the first time - how do they know?

now there are 20 or more out there all the time, and in summer I shall have a crop of thistle plants springing up underneath  :sick:

but the seed is so fine you get a lot for your money
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Sam (Fussy_Furball) on February 04, 2009, 18:15:30 PM
I get long tailed t*ts in my garden and they are stunning .... they always turn up in a little gang and give my tree a good going over ... there are obviuosly little bugs hiding in the tree.  We also get blackbirds, thrushes, great and blue t*ts.
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Gill (sneakiefeline) on February 15, 2009, 23:05:46 PM
Gold finches wow , they are so pretty.

I bought Niger seed but never fot looked at byba goldfinch although about a mile away when I frist moved here I saw some feeding in somones front garden where they have a feeder.

I have occasional longtailed t i t and at the road side they have coal Prunes and also the ones with longtails that wiggle their tails but dont get them at the back.
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Kay and Penny on February 15, 2009, 23:14:00 PM
coal Prunes, Gill?

don't think I've heard of them  ;)
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Mark on February 15, 2009, 23:15:08 PM
I see tiny black and white birds here that I never saw in London - I don't know what they are called. They are lovely  :Luv2:
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Gill (sneakiefeline) on February 15, 2009, 23:17:16 PM
LOL think they are what Mark is talking about..............I forgot to spell letter by letter and see from my post my typing is deterioating by the minute and its time for me to shuffle upstairs to bed after puttig the dustbin bags out!
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Sam (Fussy_Furball) on February 15, 2009, 23:17:30 PM
I see tiny black and white birds here that I never saw in London - I don't know what they are called. They are lovely  :Luv2:

Would they be pied wagtails Mark? http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/p/piedwagtail/
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Mark on February 15, 2009, 23:21:21 PM
I'm pretty sure they are the ones  :) = about the size of a sparrow, if not smaller. The white is really white.
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Sam (Fussy_Furball) on February 15, 2009, 23:24:10 PM
Yep that sunds about right.  They tend to run around alot and when they stop they "wag" their tails up and down (Hence the name  :evillaugh: )
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Kay and Penny on February 15, 2009, 23:25:39 PM
They are lovely  - hope this is you, and not your cats talking, Mark :shocked:


do you see these birds near running water? they sound like dippers, who have a very white front and dark brown back
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Indys Mamma on February 16, 2009, 02:11:18 AM
I used to feed birds

sometimes I still do if I don't want to feed Mabel :naughty:

joke! I just hope someone else feeds the birds for me... she actually undermined the bird table so it fell over after we put the anti cat cone on it
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Janeyk on February 16, 2009, 13:40:49 PM
we get those Mark and they are lovely, the first time I saw one I asked my dad - who told me and like Sam says if you notice they do wag their tails  ;D
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Dawn F on February 16, 2009, 13:42:07 PM
I got three bags of the suet from pah and the birds are ignoring it completely my front lawn (not feeding out back for obvious reasons) looks like it is covered in red maggots
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Gill (sneakiefeline) on February 16, 2009, 15:46:28 PM
Is that the suet bits , the berry flavour?

My birds love that and I am needing some more.

I have made a bird feeding station on my shed wall and today, the first time since Franta was ill cos I forgot , I put out some new food and Misa rushed out the cat flap to sit in his 'watching' position........cheeky boy.
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Dawn F on February 16, 2009, 15:47:44 PM
thats the one, thought it sounded quite nice!  its been there over a week now
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Kay and Penny on February 16, 2009, 15:58:37 PM
at least the worms will be fattening up nicely
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Dawn F on February 16, 2009, 16:00:14 PM
I hope someone eats them - I live in an area of scary not a blade of grass out of line neighbours - they will get a petition up to have them removed!!
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Kay and Penny on February 16, 2009, 16:02:30 PM
tell the neighbours it's a new variety of lawn feed - they'll be dead impressed :rofl:
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: The Duchess on February 16, 2009, 22:19:16 PM
a flock of goldfinches is called a "charm", which sounds just right I always think  :Luv:
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Gill (sneakiefeline) on February 16, 2009, 22:56:09 PM
Thats sweet  ;D
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Kay and Penny on February 16, 2009, 23:30:54 PM
not so sweet when you have 20 of them eating their pretty heads off, fattening themselves up to have lots of babies to bring along next autumn to join the charm :censored:
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Gill (sneakiefeline) on February 16, 2009, 23:33:42 PM
Oh yes thats sounds great, I would love to have them round here  ;D
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Wibblechick on February 17, 2009, 11:09:33 AM
We had two nuthatches earlier his morning , running along the tree branches just outside the window!  Pretty little things :)  I must buy some more birdfood .......
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Gill (sneakiefeline) on February 17, 2009, 11:11:24 AM
I had one nut hatch the first year I was here and never seen any again which maybe due to the cats,,,,,,,,the cats were still new then and not going outside.
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Wibblechick on February 17, 2009, 11:23:01 AM
If you have a suitable place to do so, try jamming peanuts into an old branch - they seem to love pulling them out.  Keeps the othe birds busy, too  :)  We have also had bluetits ,practically hanging by one foot, extracting nuts from a dead branch I picked up on a walk.  ;D
Title: Re: remember the birds
Post by: Gill (sneakiefeline) on February 17, 2009, 11:26:14 AM
Loads of bluetits and greattits and they are really cheeky cos have two feeders and also put loose peanuts on the feeding station and while there loose ones they will not eat from the feeder!

While Franta was very ill I hadnt got round to putting any more food out and the feeders have been half emptied.