(no subject)

[pensnest]

A couple of weeks ago I bought some fat balls for birds.

The first one, I hung from the washing line, in the hope that it would not be reachable by squirrels. However, the birds did not seem to notice it was there, so I swapped it to a bush in the vicinity of our dining room, handy to watch through the window. A pair of excited bluetits have found it, and are even prepared to hang on the fat ball while nomming - I have relocated slightly, and fat ball number three (because they are going through it at a great rate) - has a handy side twig available for standing on. There is also an incredibly camouflaged bird which we think must be a sparrow, though it is a bit darker looking than most. And a soldierly robin, who intimidates the blue tits with his extra 2-3g of weight.

I'm hoping a few more birds will figure it out. There are two fat balls left (one of them ended up in pieces on the grass before ever it could be hung up), and I'm contemplating getting a proper feeder now.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

WAtch out for rats. We saw one climbing the hedge and using our fat ball feeder. One had to be impressed, but we'll move it a little bit away from the hedge in future (small birds do love the cover, especially if there are cats around)

[pensnest]

Ew, horrid thought! The hedge is both thick and thin at that point - quite deep, but mostly snowberry bushes with lots of spindly branches, and the ball is suspended from another little tree, so I think it would be a *very* intrepid rat that got up to it. But I do remember that Princess Fluffykins once laid a smallish rat corpse on the bathroom floor for us, how nice, so I will keep a look out.