We're having to buy fat balls in a container of fifty and the sparrows are getting through them at three or four a day. Worse, the other birds aren't getting a look in. The greenfinches don't visit any more, we haven't seen the siskin since its one visit, the goldfinches stay in the neighbouring field, the coal tits are a distant memory, and the robins and dunnocks are overwhelmed. So the game with feeders now is to invent models which keep the sparrows out. The one above was a first try, designed so the tits could get in from underneath and have....
It took the first sparrow less than 24 hours to solve the problem. The diameter of the outer net cage isn't large enough so he managed to get at the fat from the outside. Back to the drawing board with that one.
Meanwhile, another model has come off the assembly line. It's a peanut feeder designed, again, for the exclusive use of the tits. Made of four inches of plastic basin drain pipe and a small square of 4mm wire mesh, only the tits.... should.... be able to feed from it. It has started well: the first blue tit - one of the young - was on it in no time. We'll see how it goes.
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