As those intrepid stalwarts who follow this blog already know, the writer has, for many years, enjoyed feeding the small birds. For a start, it draws into the garden, up close, many species which we might otherwise not see. It also helps these beautiful creatures survive in what is an increasingly difficult world for wildlife.
A second side of my enjoyment comes from creating the contraptions I use to feed them. The fun of this is that they.... should.... enable me to control who eats what and how much of it. More, it's an ongoing challenge because, as soon as I invent a wonderful machine which excludes certain birds, the wretches find a way to thwart me.
A good example is the arrival in our house of a huge container full of sunflower kernels. If I were to make these freely available to all, the container would be empty in days and we'd have a garden full of very fat, flightless small birds, so I have tried to restrict access. This was the first effort, specifically designed for the tits to access but no-one else.
In no time the sparrows had arrived to find a way to defeat me which, of course, they....
....rapidly did, in a matter of hours rather than days. Round 1 to the sparrows.
Suspending a mesh barrier round it solved the problem, and the sparrows seem to have given up trying to get at the feeder. Round 2 to me.
However, I felt bad about my success. Why should the sparrows and other small birds, such as the chaffinches, robins and dunnocks, be excluded? So this is the latest invention, designed so that only the tits can get on to it but, each time they pull out a sunflower kernel, a few more are dislodged and fall to feed the waiting flock below.
The sparrows are investigating my new machine. I fear they will shortly be on to it.
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