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Dec 2018
10:14am, 24 Dec 2018
1,715 posts
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J2R
As DT says, blackcap very possible, bonners. We get them reasonably often on the feeder throughout the winter. They're different from other warblers in that they're not exclusively insectivorous, so they can overwinter here at a tune when grubs, aphids etc are not available. They can eat berries but also, clearly, sunflower hearts. I'm now convinced that all bird species like sunflower hearts. I'm sure if I had a penguin, or a golden eagle, I could feed it on sunflower hearts. 
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Dec 2018
10:15am, 24 Dec 2018
1,716 posts
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J2R
Time, not tune
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Dec 2018
10:15am, 24 Dec 2018
1,717 posts
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J2R
Time, not tune
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Dec 2018
10:21am, 24 Dec 2018
1,162 posts
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flyingfinn
J2R going back to a post of your's a few days ago, I also appear to have a lone Siskin. A juvenile came in with Blue Tits this morning and set up residence on the sunflower seeds, even the Great Tits were unable to intimidate it. Not spotted one on my feeders before.
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Dec 2018
3:04pm, 24 Dec 2018
990 posts
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bonners
@J2R, totally agree re the sun flower hearts, we seem to have a mob of blue tits on them at the moment!
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Dec 2018
3:45pm, 24 Dec 2018
11,397 posts
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Rosehip
3 parakeets in a tree on Greenford High st.
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Dec 2018
3:55pm, 24 Dec 2018
28,091 posts
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Derby Tup
A lone cormorant high over the house this afternoon
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Dec 2018
4:31pm, 24 Dec 2018
975 posts
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Dochart
three great white egret: one in the river, two in a neighbouring field. there's a roost nearby that had 3 great whites & 32 little egret counted in last Saturday night.
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Dec 2018
5:28pm, 24 Dec 2018
1,718 posts
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J2R
Mind you, I also have a cat who loves sunflower hearts. Whenever I'm putting them out for the birds, he comes running out of the house and tries to stick his head in the container. He is a lunatic, though.
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Dec 2018
12:37pm, 25 Dec 2018
1,719 posts
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J2R
I think I can actually now say that I have won the battle with the squirrels. I've seen them come and assess the situation with the feeders a number of times and then back off, defeated. At last!
Now, I could patent my design and go on to become a bird feeder billionaire. But no, as a special Christmas present to my Fetch birding chums, I thought I'd share it here.
This is an adaptation of the standard seed feeders, such as this one - https://shopping.rspb.org.uk/seed-feeders/rspb-classic-easy-clean-seed-feeder-medium.html. There are two problems which you need to address. Firstly, you have to prevent the squirrels from being able to loop their tails round the branch the feeder is hanging from and reach down. I did this by the simple expedient of having a long hanger, actually made of heavy duty fence wire.
But this wasn't enough, because they learned to drop down and hold on with their back claws to the point where the loop at the top of the feeder hooked on to the fence wire. So what I did to prevent this was to cut the top 3-4 inches from a 1.5 litre plastic water bottle, punch a hole in the cap and screw the cap on, and thread it on to the fence wire. Now it can just be slid up out of the way when I need to fill the feeders, and then slid down over the top for use. This gives the squirrels nothing to grip on if they were to drop down from the branch, as it's all too slippery and convex. They're flummoxed!
Anyway, Happy Christmas all!
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