Tits.

Cleat Eastwood

Are you feeding them and teh finches and teh magpies - they need to eat their own body weight just to survive, and magpies have a massively low survival rate = so feed them especially asthe cold snap is set to get worse.

Also those annoying birds..

No, not the velocirapture type - I mean the ones that used to flock a plenty - the starlings, thrushes and sparrows.

Are they still plentiful where you live - apparently the sparrow population has fallen to 10 million, I used to see loads in the park.

I put it down to new estates being built round here and the subsequent destruction of hedgerows but, so I've read, the decline is nationwide. Oh well , off to eat me chicken pie.

Scrumple

I saw this one coming last week...
Can't you do better than a lame pun?

tim_wand

Are they all in decline Cleat?

I ve seen plenty of Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Crested Tits, Marsh Tits, Willow Tits and Long Tailed Tits.

In general I think its just Great Tits that are in decline and this is certainly down to malnutrition.

There has however also been a decline in Bearded Tits ; which as you say is probably down to the ripping out of hedges and bushes.

CrunchyToes

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

dmclite-3.0

I prefer to say Teats, as it is more provocative in a victorian dad stylee.

tim_wand

Why is this serious Ornothological debate being dragged down to the level of the gutter.

Just because Cleat has a Syd James avatar it doesnt mean he's obssessed with breasts.

I Know hes a personal friend of Bill Oddie and takes his twitching very seriously, hes often seen on the Cheshire Meres with a pair of high powered binoculars. (or around travel lodges in Stoke)

WindyRob

did anyone else see the live beaver action last night on winterwatch?

CrunchyToes

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Cleat Eastwood

tim wand wrote:

Are they all in decline Cleat?

I ve seen plenty of Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Crested Tits, Marsh Tits, Willow Tits and Long Tailed Tits.

In general I think its just Great Tits that are in decline and this is certainly down to malnutrition.

There has however also been a decline in Bearded Tits ; which as you say is probably down to the ripping out of hedges and bushes.

Its a staggering fact but we lose 50 sparrows an hour (I blame heston blumenthal), you're right the tits are doign fine - they just need feeding A LOT in the cold.

The magpies are amazing, I actually read a copy of magpie news, I get it for the big bills on page 3 and their life story is a really intricate example of how we disentangle nature at our peril. Their mortality rate is something like 60% and breeding pairs used to feed their young on baby birds and birds eggs and the like - but with the decline in hedgerows, and the nesting hedge birds, their food supply has been reduced - their life expectancy is now just over a year. Hard to grasp when they are one of the most noticeable features in an autumn sky - i tells ya we'll miss them when they've gone.

I've yet to see a willow tit, we do get blue and coal tits, but our winter foods have managed to attract, rare for round here, 2 long tailed tits and host of greenfinches and chaffinches. Also I get to mrs ramsbottom in silk negligee through the bathroom window - shame i've got to make a 30 mile trip and stand in a bog to see her.

capt_slog

Feeding tips...

Sparrows like breadcrumbs
Tits like coconuts.

capt_slog

On a more serious ornithological note, Mrs Slog and I are also keen wildlife watchers, and the good lady puts out lots of food for the birdies (and also likes to feed a small brown mouse that comes to a bird table too close to the house to attract any birds).

We get a good variety, the usual chaffinches, greenfinches, bluetits, great-tits and the like. We also have reed buntings and gold finches occasionally. I don't see any long-tailed tits in the garden, but a lot locally, and these are one of my favourite to see; very drab and ordinary until you look really closely.

For the last couple of years I've seen wax-wings in the grounds at where I work, it's getting about the time of year for these.

It's odd that we will watch 'Africa' and the rest of Mr Attenborough's (excellent) output but often don't fully appreciate the fantastic wildlife on our own island.

freddiegrubb

Twenty years ago we had dozens of sparrows in our area then they practically vanished & stayed that way for many years, now lo & behold they're back. Nice sight feeding & fighting like hell, on the fence the other day was a bird of prey complete with vicious beak, by the time I got out the ident. book it was on it's way.

lemon63

Capt Slog wrote:

On a more serious ornithological note, Mrs Slog and I are also keen wildlife watchers, and the good lady puts out lots of food for the birdies (and also likes to feed a small brown mouse that comes to a bird table too close to the house to attract any birds).

We get a good variety, the usual chaffinches, greenfinches, bluetits, great-tits and the like. We also have reed buntings and gold finches occasionally. I don't see any long-tailed tits in the garden, but a lot locally, and these are one of my favourite to see; very drab and ordinary until you look really closely.

For the last couple of years I've seen wax-wings in the grounds at where I work, it's getting about the time of year for these.

It's odd that we will watch 'Africa' and the rest of Mr Attenborough's (excellent) output but often don't fully appreciate the fantastic wildlife on our own island.

Slog - how do I stop pigeons (feral town ones) nicking all the birdseed? Don't really want to go down the air rifle route.

BelgianBeerGeek

Sparrows are abundant here, so much so that we have a Sparrowhawk hunting in the lane. You're right about wildlife progs, they are nothing like the real thing. I once saw the hawk ripping apart a Blue Tit on the lawn as I was doing the washing up - truly an amazing sight.
Saw a Thrush today trying to get the last yew berries in the snow. Blighter wouldn't stay still for long enough for a proper phot.
Thrush, birds and tits. This is BB and can't think of a decent smutty remark. Fail.

cornerblock

BelgianBeerGeek wrote:

Thrush, birds and tits. This is BB and can't think of a decent smutty remark. Fail.

Avoid, marry, snog maybe?

When I first moved to where I am now the garden would attract loads of starlings, sadly they don't seem to turn up anymore.

pinno

Lots of Sparrows here. Never seen a willow tit, but I don't know if they go far north.

Sad reduction in skylarks but you can get them twittering away if you cycle accross the moorland to Barrhill.

We have coal tits, long tail tits, greenfinches and a Great spotted wood pecker amongst many other birds. If you come here slowly and late at night, a barn owl parks him/her self on the rose trellis I built. Gorgeous bird, terrifying screech - spooks the hell out of the cats, which by the way are kept in at night. The garage is open and mice live amongst the wood pile. I'm sure he knows how to activate the security light. he does not fly off when it flicks on.

We feed the birds on fat balls, sunflower kernels, nuts and mixed poultry seed. Expensive, hungry bunch of twittering, scrapping and often frantic feathery things.

nevman

collared doves.had a pair drinking from the temporary stream outside the house (seven trent).

BelgianBeerGeek

pinarello001 wrote:

Lots of Sparrows here. Never seen a willow tit, but I don't know if they go far north.

Sad reduction in skylarks but you can get them twittering away if you cycle accross the moorland to Barrhill.

We have coal tits, long tail tits, greenfinches and a Great spotted wood pecker amongst many other birds. If you come here slowly and late at night, a barn owl parks him/her self on the rose trellis I built. Gorgeous bird, terrifying screech - spooks the hell out of the cats, which by the way are kept in at night. The garage is open and mice live amongst the wood pile. I'm sure he knows how to activate the security light. he does not fly off when it flicks on.

We feed the birds on fat balls, sunflower kernels, nuts and mixed poultry seed. Expensive, hungry bunch of twittering, scrapping and often frantic feathery things.

Ace. We have an owl that hunts nearby. I can hear the thing, never yet seen it. Going back to an earlier post, magpies and jays are very common here, along with woodpeckers (spotted and green).
My favourite is the nuthatch that lives in the tree out front. Smashing little bird.
Y'know, I was never into this when I was a lad, but I love a bit of ornithology now.
Anyway, in keeping with BB: I worked in my local pub for a bit and the landlord could be a bit rude. One local (elderly bachelor) was known as "thrush". Naively, I asked why. "Cos he's an irritating c@nt no woman wants"

tim_wand

I walk the dog (Monty Dog) early doors along the river (Trent) and theres a foot bridge over a section that feeds into a marina.

The last few mornings the mist has been that low that I can walk over the bridge and pass within touching distance of a Heron who is roosting on the bridge rail.

I m bloody glad I ve spotted him before he's seen me , because when he takes off and goes, hes like a Vulcan bomber. Magnificent.

DIESELDOG

Tits?

Yup, I'm still here.

Love n hugs

DD

Yossie

Sea gulls here. Bloody everywhere, doing nothing useful but ripping open bin bags, mugging people for ice creams and sandwiches, squawking and cr5pping on cars.

Pass me the shot gun, there's a good lad.

pinno

Seagulls are like rats really. They are only feeding off the fact that we are a filthy bunch of baskets. Its not the rats or the seagulls fault, its our fault. We are also imposing on their natural habitat and raping the seas.

Seagulls studied in cornwall on a cliff face showed some remarkable behaviour. They stored food in nooks and crannies and took the food out according to freshness - last in, first out. Other seagulls did not rob the stores of food not belonging to them.
Chicks left without a parent or even two parents were fed by other seagulls showing altruism. Seems as though their behaviour is altered in unnatural urban conditions.
Herendeth the lesson.
Hand me the shotgun and we'll start shooting... err... better tread carefully.

capt_slog

lemon63 wrote:

Capt Slog wrote:

On a more serious ornithological note, Mrs Slog and I are also keen wildlife watchers, and the good lady puts out lots of food for the birdies (and also likes to feed a small brown mouse that comes to a bird table too close to the house to attract any birds).

We get a good variety, the usual chaffinches, greenfinches, bluetits, great-tits and the like. We also have reed buntings and gold finches occasionally. I don't see any long-tailed tits in the garden, but a lot locally, and these are one of my favourite to see; very drab and ordinary until you look really closely.

For the last couple of years I've seen wax-wings in the grounds at where I work, it's getting about the time of year for these.

It's odd that we will watch 'Africa' and the rest of Mr Attenborough's (excellent) output but often don't fully appreciate the fantastic wildlife on our own island.

Slog - how do I stop pigeons (feral town ones) nicking all the birdseed? Don't really want to go down the air rifle route.

Dunno mate, never had that problem as all the seed is generally in feeders which they don't tend to bother with.

I like all wildlife and enjoy seeing all varieties in my garden, but personally, I'd shoot the fukcers and make a pie.

antooony

Capt Slog wrote:

Tits like coconuts.

I went out with a bird once who had the same, all hard and hairy.

I'm sat here watching the birds feed on my feeder, all manner of tits plus robins, gold and green finches, wrens and a spotted wood pecker and the odd jay wandering into the garden. Don't get any sparrows or starlings.

chrisaonabike

Yep, feeders out back and front. I even make fat cakes for them myself in huge batches, rather than buying the garden centre ones.

Tits - Blue, Coal, Great, Long-tailed
Sparrows
Blackcaps
Goldfinches

ballysmate

ChrisAOnABike wrote:

Yep, feeders out back and front. I even make fat cakes for them myself in huge batches, rather than buying the garden centre ones.

Tits - Blue, Coal, Great, Long-tailed
Sparrows
Blackcaps
Goldfinches

Great that all this food is attracted to your garden. Sparrowhawks have to eat as well. This was taken last year in our garden. We don't as a rule put food out to attract small birds, but this hawk must have spied a tasty morsel. That's nature I suppose - sometimes cruel.

pinno

ChrisAOnABike wrote:

Yep, feeders out back and front. I even make fat cakes for them myself in huge batches, rather than buying the garden centre ones.

We buy fat balls from the market. 6 little one's for a quid. I once had an idea to make fat balls with the left over fat from our oil recycling except an orniwotsit said that that type of fat would compromise the waterproofing of the feathers.
So how do you make yer fat balls ? Yes, I know its BB - some bright spark will come up with ideas, but would like to know.
On the subject of feral pigeons, they introduced Red Kites in the High Wycombe area and they decimated the feral pigeon population. Its also doing very well in Hong Kong too, saw some fantastic footage of them nesting on skyscrapers, soaring between tall buildings, sheer magic.

chrisaonabike

pinarello001 wrote:

So how do you make yer fat balls ? Yes, I know its BB - some bright spark will come up with ideas, but would like to know.

At risk of utterly abusing BB with a straight answer...

I chop any large lumps of fat off meat (steaks, for instance, or bacon), and freeze them (yuck, I know :shock: ). During the winter, when it's too cold for it to go off quickly, if there's anything left from a joint of meat (ham seems to be the particular favourite) that is a bit past human consumption but not actually off, that gets frozen too.

Then I chuck the almost-thawed frozen fat and meat if there is any, into a blender, and shred it. It goes into a large pan, with 2 packs of lard and one pack of suet, on a low heat.

Next into the blender are peanuts. I have a big sackful of 'bird food' grade peanuts. About 5 mugs full of peanuts, reduced to a fine grit by the blender, go into the melting lard. As do a couple of mugs of sunflower hearts, also blended to a gritty consistency. A mug or so of ordinary bird seed, keep adding it and stirring until the disgusting, vile, stinking pan of fatty sludge gets too hard to stir.

It's really quite unpleasant - I find the best way of coping with it is to drink copious amounts of red wine during the operation.

The trick is to have it thick enough to just be able to stir it while it's hot - which means that when it cools in the fridge, it will go completely solid.

I can't quite bring myself to touch the nasty stuff with bare hands, so I put on a pair of nitrile gloves, and squidge the mixture out into balls, compressing them as hard as possible, laying them out on an oven tray.

From that lot of mixture I get 48 fat balls (6x4, two trays). Once they've cooled overnight I freeze them and they last for as long as the birds take to eat them. It all takes quite a while, but the birds love em.

pinarello001 wrote:

I once had an idea to make fat balls with the left over fat from our oil recycling except an orniwotsit said that that type of fat would compromise the waterproofing of the feathers.

Yes, never use unsaturated fat. The very stuff that is bad for us, is good for birds, and vice versa.

pinno

If I cooked up that lot in a pan around here, there would be a food queue for miles.

veronese68

Could be showing my ignorance here, but aren't magpies responsible for the decline in the sparrow population? See loads of parakeets round my way. Quite often see green woodpeckers in Bushy Park as I ride to work.
I got bored of my pair of tits on a nutsack so I got rid of them in favour of a lunatic riding a bike with no handlebars.

mudcow007

there is a bird of prey in our neck of the woods, dunno what it is but it screeches which can be heard for miles away, its bleeding big too...

only seen it a few times....god knows what it is

quite funny seeing all the pigeons, seagulls an magpies disappear when ever its about though