me and the boys love throwing out our scraps, its great to watch the birds. We get loads of starlings, the odd thrush, loads of pigeons, robins, sparrows and last year had a single wren but not seen it this year... dont get any of the tit family or finches may be cos were in Manchester near a fairly busy road but when I lived near Buxton we got loads.

I've got allot of birds living in the ivy in the back garden so i put a seed feeder and fat blocks out there and they are not touching them?

I've got really into feeding the birds in the last 18 months or so. Fortunatley we don't get many cats around, Max & prikka strips usually does the trick!

Fat balls seem to be the favourite round here. I have a stand now to hang all of the feeders and trays on as I used to hang the fat balls on the small branches of the trees (too small for the cats to go on) but one day one must have fallen out of the tree and in the blink of an eye my naughty pooch had gulped it down . The vet thought it was so funny when I rang for advice. Max was pooping seeds and all sorts for a couple of days after that!

I'm a bird feeder too

Can I just add, though, please don't forget a dish of water - particularly important when the puddles start to freeze over

I've got the same problem with my seed feeders too, they don't seem to go to them? One has the black niger seed in and another one has the songbird mix which is supposed to attract them all like wildfire, but nothing! They like only the sunflower hearts around here, and they like them on a table, or in a dish on the new feeder I've got which has round open dishes in it, or the hanging square trays which I fill, but not the feeders, don't know why. Make sure you take the netting off the fat balls too, coz they get their little feet stuck in them!!!

You can put water in any old thing on the ground, but of course, Hyacinth here has a new big stone birdbath!!!!!! Don't forget to break the ice or refill it every morning too coz they like a drink in the mornings!

Lol at your Max and the fat balls majuka!!!!!! I wonder if the birds still ate them when they'd been recycled via your Max!!!!!!

I've got a couple of feeders up but tend to put scraps etc up on the flat roof because Meeka takes too much interest in them for my liking

However, my in-laws who live 8 doors up have 14 feeders that they refill every day, it must cost them a fortune cos they do it all year round.

They have a blackbird that comes into the house and sits on the kitchen table and nicks the grapes out of the fruit bowl

I came back from PAH the other day, armed with loads of wild birds treats.

I bought a bag of seed, fat balls, dried insects, and some feeders.

It's great watching them from the window

You're so right there Chellie, it can get out of hand!!! It did with me last winter I was filling up the sunflower hearts twice a day and when I told Dave I was spending about £12 a week on bird seed he gave me a very strange look!!!!

This morning the new turf had it's first cut, and you wouldn't believe the amount of birds whizzing past, I wonder why???? Especially blackbirds???!! They were whizzing around the garden when he finished mowing, and for the very first time out the front I had a lot of blue tits actually on my new bird table, so they're coming back to me slowly! The feeders at the side of the house around the big hedge are always busy, but for some reason they didn't like the new open front garden, whereas it used to be my wildlife sanctuary coz it sure was wild out there with all the overgrowth!!!

You saying about that blackbird in the house, we used to have that in the summer, they'd come in the french doors and sit on top of Cassie's marrowbone, happilly eating away at it!!! We now get a little robin who comes right in the shed when you're in it too!

Yikes... how did you know that was me

I've still got my sunflower plants in pots with the seedheads still intact. They're slowly being eaten but you're right, the poor birds do have to work hard for them.

I've filled up my bird feeders this morning though

Well done then Pod, and smashed the ice off the birdbath too I hope???!!!

Although they like the sunflower seeds, they burn off too much energy getting at the seed inside, so it's much better to buy just the hearts.

The squirrels love those too, and I have him down every morning sitting in the bowl having his breakfast, so I have to fill it up again after he's gone!! If you want to attract the squirrels to your garden (which you might NOT of course!) always use the peanuts IN the shells, not the ready shelled ones, coz they seem to like those better, they run off with them to bury them, and also sit there for ages peeling off the shell to get to the peanut, which is a pleasure to watch for me anyways!