A couple of weeks ago, we put up a bird-feeder, intended for the small birds (sparrows, robins, tits…) hereabouts. It is a cylinder with a narrow ledge around the bottom, and four holes through which the seed we fill it with falls onto the ledge, more coming out as the birds remove what’s there. It hung from a pole holding up one end of a drying line in our shared garden, well out of the reach of cats, which abound in the neighbourhood. However, we still saw cats lurking in the nearby bushes, and some of the seed always spilled on the ground. Larger birds came to collect this spilled seed, and at least one was either caught, or had a narrow escape, as I found feathers on the ground. So I moved the feeder to hang from a different pole, less easily observed from the flat, but well away from any bushes. Now, however, jackdaws and magpies have learned that although they are too big to perch on the ledge, if they make the feeder swing (they try to hover as close as possible and bash it with their wings or feet), seed falls out onto the ground, where they can pick it up. My wife wants to find some way of stabilising the feeder so this won’t work, but I must admit I admire their ingenuity!
Having an introspective microsecond.
A couple of weeks ago, we put up a bird-feeder, intended for the small birds (sparrows, robins, tits…) hereabouts. It is a cylinder with a narrow ledge around the bottom, and four holes through which the seed we fill it with falls onto the ledge, more coming out as the birds remove what’s there. It hung from a pole holding up one end of a drying line in our shared garden, well out of the reach of cats, which abound in the neighbourhood. However, we still saw cats lurking in the nearby bushes, and some of the seed always spilled on the ground. Larger birds came to collect this spilled seed, and at least one was either caught, or had a narrow escape, as I found feathers on the ground. So I moved the feeder to hang from a different pole, less easily observed from the flat, but well away from any bushes. Now, however, jackdaws and magpies have learned that although they are too big to perch on the ledge, if they make the feeder swing (they try to hover as close as possible and bash it with their wings or feet), seed falls out onto the ground, where they can pick it up. My wife wants to find some way of stabilising the feeder so this won’t work, but I must admit I admire their ingenuity!
The dinosaurs are endlessly creative when it comes to food!
A quite popular trick is to convince long pigs to actually give food to them, or even build special feeding facilities for them.
However, the mildly deranged penguin complains, the feeders are rarely stocked with cheese. And a decent vin is almost never to be had.