Birds and bird feeders.

Now the cold weather has set in, I have put up some fat balls for the birds. Our garden is not on a direct bird flight path, so small birds are hard to attract. Many small birds, blue tit, great tit, sparrows and finches fly past end of garden to our back neighbours tree - overhangs our garden. I placed one feeder adjacent to a large apple tree in garden behind ours which is used by birds. I have put up a garden cane, and tied a couple of small branches to it to make it more natural. I tied the fat ball to the top of the cane so it hangs down between the branches (below).

Yesterday I noticed a great tit feeding on a rotting apple (still attached to the tree) and a blue tit foraging in the branches of the apple tree.

I had some success last year with just a cane. The second fat ball was attached to the washing line near climbing plants which small birds occasionally forage in.

I hung the third fat ball on the corner of the house. Small birds fly from the neighbours tree across the track, pass the corner of our house, so birds will hopefully see the feeder.

I have chosen these places by studying how the birds move in the area around pour garden. This will be our best shot.

Our old house was on the direct flight path for many birds, tits, finches, robin, blackbird, thrush etc. Although our garden was visited by lots of neighbourhood cats, I managed to feed the birds successfully. This was partly due to a large rambling rose and an old rose bush in the back right corner. I placed the bird table next to this, so cats could not jump from wall. I placed several bird feeders in the rose bushes. The birds would feed knowing that the cats could not get them. They became so used to this that they continued to feed while a cat sat directly below, looking up.

The rambling rose was also a good defense against the sparrow hawk.