Today I completed the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2015. I‘d
intended completing it on Saturday, but had run out of mixed seed and had
priorities other than shopping!
I filled up two feeders with mixed seed, one has black sunflower
seed, another two have fruit flavoured suet pellets and a final feeder has
niger seed. There is also a small table with a mixture of all the feeder
options.
I counted from 09:40 to 10:40. As has happened in previous
years, the chosen hour proved to be rather quiet.
The two feeders filled with mixed seed were not touched; perhaps
I should have allowed more time for the birds to get used to the new food. I've
found before that the introduction of food that’s different from the previous
offering, it takes time for the birds to get used to it and sample what’s on
offer.
The stars were four Goldfinches. Not quite up to the ten that visited a week ago. We went out after the count and it was obvious on our return
that the Starlings had visited in number; two feeders with suet pellets
emptied.
It will be interesting to see what trends are detected from this
year’s survey.
You need to have your feeders up for at least a week to give the birds a chance to find them and return. Three weeks is ideal but expensive.
ReplyDeleteHi Derek, Thanks for the comment. The feeders have been up for along time. It seems that changes in the type feed cause a temporary pause for thought. An hour after the count finished, several species were filling themselves. Lesson for next year - make sure I have plenty of (familiar) seed.
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