Friday, July 03, 2009

The Right Thing ?

Hi all
I have some worries about the feeding station here in N Wales and wonder if I am doing the right thing in keeping it going 365 days a year. I have never set up an all year long feeding station before, only supplying food in winter at home back in Yorkshire. My worries are that as I provide a large supply of easy feeding the young birds in particular are becoming too dependant on the one food source and are not learning to forage properly. Daft as it sounds I now put out more food in high summer than I did in the depths of winter due to the huge numbers of fledglings arriving. When I got up this morning and checked through the window the feeders were OK I counted the 73 young Chaffinch feeding on seed under the feeders, 6 young Blackbirds, the feeders themselves had young Blue & Great Tits on them with adult Chaffinches and Greenfinches. Although I put good quality food out, scattered dried cat food (Blackbirds, Robins and Hedgehogs love it), Sultanas (Robins and Blackbirds) and good quality finch mixture under the feeders, Sunflower hearts and peanuts in the feeders I am worried that its making the birds, especially this years young too dependant on one food source. I will obviously keep up the regime in the garden so the food will never run out but should I reduce the amount down to reduce dependency on the one food source ? On another topic we did have a pair of Siskin that came to the feeders now and then and I hoped these might breed locally but in recent weeks only the male pays the ocasional visit, would they possible have a second brood by now ?

PS We now have at least three and possibly four Hedgehogs that feed nightly under the feeders on the dried cat and dog food which they love. The most notable thing about their arrival is that they head straight for the two water bowls I leave out and have a drink before feeding and then have a another long drink before leaving for their nightly foraging elsewhere

2 comments:

Nick Carter said...

The RSPB's advice on summer feeding can be found at http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/helpingbirds/feeding/whentofeed.asp

Goldon Gordon said...

Hi Nick
Thanks for the link. I was rather hoping someone would suggest cutting down on the food as its costing me a bloody fortune with year round feeding !