Does anyone else love watching all the dickiebirds feeding in your garden , there so entertaining but young starlings must be the dumbest birds theres some here clinging to feeders and as soon as they clasp a nut or some seed they drop it the sparrows are underneath it just looking up at them thinking ooh arent these generous. Maybe not as dumb as the wild pigeons oh they annoy me there like wild hoovers im sure some of these would eat untill they explode

I have a blackbird who I feed regularly and if he sees me open the door, he immediately flies down from wherever he has been perched to sit on the fence near the door. Sometimes I open the door and am not even looking out for him and I hear a 'thud' as he lands on the fence! In those circumstances, I have to go indoors and find him a bit of apple or something, as I would otherwise feel guilty for getting him there under false pretences!

I think i have a olga korbut starling here its got one leg on a fatball the other one is on a seed stick thing its doing the splits while eating the fatball wish i had tken a pic of it

I love watching them too, I've got a feeder with nuts, seeds and fat balls hanging from it, plus a bird bath they splash about in.
I also put buttered bread or biscuits out on the grass for them.

(I actually don't eat bread but bought a breadmaker to make bread for them and buy biscuits especially for them!)

Yes I love watching them! The trouble is, now all the local birds know ours is the best food spot in town and I'm always having to refill them! Seem to get about a zillion sparrows hanging from the feeders, and a blackbird couple and a friendly robin.

And the pigeons and doves scounging on the grass of course.

I love to watch all the birds in our garden, its just a shame that we have a neighbour who has 3 cats so we have to be very wary when putting feed out and where.

I had a great spotted woodpecker at my feeder yesterday, first time.Big thrill.
I have five cats who are confined to quarters, they have to watch the birds from inside. That way they don't soil other peoples' gardens and don't harm the birds.

Rather assumptive to assume that all cats do that. Mine has only killed one bird in two years and goes to the lavatory in the space I provide for her.

I like it when the sparrows all line up on my fence. I think they all go there for a gossip!

I feed the birds on my garage roof so that the cats can't get them. I get starlings as well & the babies are the noisiest things, constantly running after the parents for food. I also get sparrows, jackdaws, magpies, crows. pigeons & seagulls. Where have all the thrushes gone? I never see them anymore.

I give my dogs their bones on the lawn. Last night one of the dogs left have a rack of lamb ribs on the lawn & within seconds a seagull came down to peck at the bones. After a while it picked the whole rack of ribs up & flew up to the garage roof where it was joined by the magpies & crows, all having a peck. The dog's face was a picture when she came out a few minutes later to finish off her bones & they were nowhere in sight.

I been gettin a robin visiting last few days which is nice also had some sort of yellow bird as well , the yellow one was quite feisty chasing starlings away from the feeders which surprised me not quite sure what sort it was though but it was just a bit smaller than a starling.

We've been really entertained this year by the birds at our bird-table. Because we fed them all winter and through the spring, we have been rewarded with a whole collection of birds bringing their young to the table. We have sparrows (my favourite - they live in our eaves), blackbirds, starlings, a robin, greenfinches, bullfinches and chaffinches, blue tits, great tits, a couple of ringed doves, some jackdaws and on the odd occasion a group of long-tailed tits come for a while. Three times this year we have been visited by a sparrow-hawk - presumably he's after the smaller birds.

It costs a fortune in seed - the chaffinches just sit around stuffing their faces all day. Worth every penny though.

how do you know that your cat has only killed one bird.
do you follow it wherever it goes

We've had these tiny birds with a really high pitched song for the last couple of years now. I've no idea what they are but they're very sweet.

We have a lot of birds in the trees behind the houses, some probably come from the fields around us as well. There's a large colony of magpies (noisy little buggers in the early hours), there are black birds, thrushes, sparrows, pigeons, crows, others I'm embarrassed to admit I can't name. The dawn chorus certainly wakes us up around here! You can hear cuckoos, but I've never actually seen one. And of course being on the coast there are seaguls.

I have several feeders and keep them topped up all year round, as I have such a huge variety & love to sit in the conservatory and watch them all
We have sparrows, blackbirds, starlings, a robin, greenfinches, bullfinches and chaffinches, blue tits, great tits, tree creepers, collared doves, wood pigeons, & long-tailed tits as regulars. Also the occasional visit by a lesser spotted woodpecker, and today for the first time a pair of coal tits.
Last spring (2008) we actually had some hawfinches!! So rare.

I spend way too much time watching and enjoying them tho'

We had loads of birds we couldn't identify.. We are boring now and sit by the window with our bird books... I find the RSPB site is brilliant to help identify new birds to the garden.. they have the calls to download so that you can listen.. Have a look at their site..
http://www.rspb.org.uk/

Last winter, I didn't cut back the plants in the border and we had loads of goldfinches visit.. that was so beautiful!!

Thanks, I'll take a look at that later
Magpies are the most common visitor to my garden, though others do drop by as well. The magpies are pain when I'm looking after my mum's tortoise - they sit and peck at his shell, my mum reckons they think he's a giant snail!

She brings everything into the house. One blue tit,three mice,a few moths,a lily pod,numerous chicken bones,a pork chop,a snake and a slow worm.

This is another great site for identification purposes~~

http://www.garden-birds.co.uk

A yellowhammer?

I miss having birdies outside. I live on the top floor of a tall building and don't see many. There is a magpie that roosts up here. It looks through the window and squawks at me sometimes, so I always say hello back. If I have crumbs, I'll leave them out.

At my old place in Liverpool there were always lots of birds in the tree by my window: goldfinches, thrushes, bluetits, wagtails, chaffinches. My favourites are goldfinches, green woodpeckers and jays.

Just put some robinfood out so its called but the starlings are eating it theres little maggot type things in it which the starlings dont seem to like i just checked. I forgot to get some fatballs and dont i know it there looking at me like come on we need to nibble on your fatballs were are they.

Has anyone noticed a seemingly abnormal amount of crows around lately ?

I haven't noticed any more than usual in my area but their young have recently fledged & they're very protective & vocal at the moment.

Where I walk my dogs very early in the morning, I feed the crows with dog treats so I get followed round the park by the parents & the baby, squawking loudly for some food.

I'm down to one cat now, and he's getting on a bit, so I can encourage the birds again. This has coincided with the return of the Sparrows to the area for the first time in 7 years, so there's lots of chirping going on. Still no Starlings (though seen them elsewhere in town), but almost all other typical garden birds bar the Thrush are here.

Overall the numbers of birds is lower than it was though, so I gave up buying peanuts as they quickly rot. What I've taken to giving the birds as a mainstay, besides home made cake, bread and a water bowl, is cream crackers.

In particular the Blackbirds love crackers, and the Sparrows take all the smaller bits. It's easy to break them up, and a cheap option if you buy a supermarket brand. I pay 45p a packet and it will easily last a week.

I put out some mashed potato a few weeks ago but nobody was interested. That's where the Starlings would have come in handy, at least in the winters. Years ago they would go mad over mash, and each bird would 'helicopter' out from the table, slowly rotating in flight to avoid new arrivals, and flying off with a JCB beak load.

Yes we love feeding the wild birds, we spend a fortune but its worth it. The amount of fat balls they go through is nobody's business. Our garden is full of birds even with 3 cats, but we keep the feeders way up high so the cats cant get to them, so far the only bird we lost was killed by the DOG. I was so upset.

Anyway we love feeding them, money is no object they bring such joy to gardens dont they.