Pigeon Dilema

[plocket]

I know a lot of you like pigeons so I wonder if you can help me with a small dilema I have. I have a pole feeder in the garden and put out food for a variety of birds - some in feeders and some on a little tray. I also put food on the ground for the blackbirds (when they get a look in) and pigeons. I've basically come to accept that the pigeons will do anything to get to the food on the tray so I might as well put it somewhere safer so the small birds still get a look in. Unfortunately the pigeons don't seem to see it this way, and when they've finished the mountain of food I've put on the ground, they then decide to eat anything else they can reach - basically from the tray. How can I stop the pigeons from eating all the food for the smaller birds? I've tried putting canes up around the tray so that the small birds can get in but the pigeons can't - the pigeons just force them out of the way. I've changed the levels of the other feeders in the hope that they will create a bit of a barrier, but to no avail. The smaller birds aren't bothering to visit now because as far as they are concerned there isn't any food!!

HELP!!!! (Please?)

[madonplants]

Thought I had replied to this one, sorry.

Plocket maybe the little birds are finding their natural food at this time of the year! I have the same problem with starlings, but I just think, well they need to be fed as well, don't they, especially after reading the RSPB stuff that came in the post today regarding the Birdwatch, that said starlings are in decline, now! Not around here they're not! Could you be putting too much out? If you read what it says on the RSPCA site, it says...hang on I will find it.
Here you are. Look under feeding birds, then meal times, it says don't feed after end of April. Whether we feed all year round, is open to debate and there are plenty of arguments for and against, but I don't feed much during late spring and summer, if any! I know the RSPB will say feed all year, but if they have a good supply of their natural food, WE don't need to feed them at all.

Maybe you also need to try different food, that only small birds like, hard I know! I don't put out food for the blackbirds on the ground now, but I have a pair permanently in the garden!

Keith

P.s. Might add to this later, but tummy is rumbling!!

[plocket]

They are all good thoughts Madon but I already am using food for small birds - the pigeons love it! I've tried putting no food out for the ground feeding birds, and the pigeons do a lovely job of clearing up underneath the pole feeders, but they want more. I still see the bluetits and robin on the feeder tray but there's not usually anything left for them

We have a few starlings here but they don't often visit the garden - they are too busy picking around on the huge area of grass over the road in front of our house!!! That's a good point about feeding times too, and I'll have to remember about food for the blackbirds if it's a dry summer.

[madonplants]

Birds are used to a varied diet. Take the Great Tit, it's beak changes shape slightly, throughout the year, when it's diet changes from seeds and nuts to insects! As long as there is plenty of insects, slugs, snails and worms about, birds will survive a summer. This is why I HATE weed suppressing membrane in borders, with a vengence. How do the birds get to the worms? This and more 'low maintenance' gardens with concrete all over the place, I believe, is one of the reasons the RSPB is asking us to feed all year round, they never used to say that. I still have the wildlife special with Geoff Hamilton on GW and the RSPB guy said only feed in the winter and spring. When I grew up in the country, we never fed all year round. But the birds came back in the autumn. We had a birdtable for the bigger birds and on a wire strung across the garden a couple of nut and seed feeders for the rest. We also put up some feeders in the apple tree and they all got fed. Though we did have a long holly hedge for nesting and berries. More housing estates don't help, as they are taking the habitat away from the birds. If everyone had a big enough garden to put an oak tree in, no one would need to feed birds in the summer!! How many pidgeons are you getting? Do your neighbours feed the birds now. If they have stopped feeding, maybe the pigeons have come to you for an easy meal! Hope some of this helps.
Anyway, need to get ready to pick the kids up, catch you later.

Keith

[4pygmies]

Have you tried putting the food in a hanging basket Plocket? I have seen it done thus - with the basket suspended the right way up, a saucer in the bottom and wire over the top to keep big birds from upsetting it all. It sounds feasible...for the ground feeder smaller birds maybe an upended basket but with smaller mesh so the birds can get in but the pigeons can't.

[Sleepy]

4pygmies said:

Have you tried putting the food in a hanging basket Plocket? I have seen it done thus - with the basket suspended the right way up, a saucer in the bottom and wire over the top to keep big birds from upsetting it all. It sounds feasible...for the ground feeder smaller birds maybe an upended basket but with smaller mesh so the birds can get in but the pigeons can't.

An upturned hanging basked tacked down on the bird table will give the little fellas some for themselves.

[plocket]

Unfortunately we haven't got a bird table Sleepy because the cat would regard it as her own personal dining table : I have put a tray of robin food on the ground though, under an upturned large wire hanging basket. I will wait to see whether the robins still feed from it!

I'll also try your hanging basket suggestion 4P (nice earring btw!) because I think I've got a spare one somewhere.

Thanks everyone!

[cheerypeabrain]

I've stopped feeding the birds for the spring largely because our cat had a killing frenzy last year. The woodpigeons still come and have a poke about at the bird table, as do the collared doves....programming! (have fed all winter) they don't seem to be going hungry though...as they're big and fat.

We have a family of thrushes nesting in the trees behind the house as well as tits, robins, dunnocks, blackbirds, starlings, sparrows, greenfinches, gold finches, wrens, chaffinches.....etc etc...last year they all came into the garden for food and some of the young were caught and killed....
This year they are still coming into the garden, but are less distracted and seem to be evading Priya (thank goodness)

Incidentally...youngest son saw a magpie take and kill a blackbird fledgling from it's nest last week...he said that it was awful....nature ay?

[The witch]

I use these P www.drollyankees.com/products.cfm?ID=72 which stops the pigeons ;D

[debidoos]

If you put out smaller seeds such as finch or budgie seed, the pigeons find it harder to pick it up.

or you could get pigeon corn and they're more likely to go for that as it is much bigger than the usual wild bird seed. Pinhead oatmeal is another good thing to put out this time of year as it helps the baby birds when the parents take it back to the nest.

[plocket]

Nice suggestions - thank you! I'll report back if I have any progress

[madonplants]

plocket said:

Unfortunately we haven't got a bird table Sleepy because the cat would regard it as her own personal dining table : I have put a tray of robin food on the ground though, under an upturned large wire hanging basket. I will wait to see whether the robins still feed from it!

I'll also try your hanging basket suggestion 4P (nice earring btw!) because I think I've got a spare one somewhere.

Thanks everyone!

Pulling this back up, after just getting the RSPB catalogue in the post. Spotted this, just wondered whether your upturned hanging basket worked, Plocket?

Keith