Products supplied by: Available from Ark Wildlife: http://www.arkwildlife.co.uk/
See suet pellets at: http://www.arkwildlife.co.uk/Category/0/Fat_-AMP-_Suet_Foods~Suet_Pellet_Titbits.html
See big bird resistant feeder: http://www.arkwildlife.co.uk/Category/0/Feeders~Starling_Big_Bird_Resistant_Feeders.html
Maggie call starlings bullies… because they are. Personally I’m happy to see them squabbling and overwhelming as all our other avian visitors all seem to find a place somewhere or somewhen. Nevertheless, we hung the starling proof feeder in a reserve position… a spot where we usually put Niger feed as it can be easily swept up rather than taking root.
The handy tray is just right for suet pellets so we filled it up and waited for the Robins and Dunnocks to tuck in.
At the same time we filled a feeder tray with another flavour of pellets in prime position.
Within a matter of hours the pellets in the conventional feeder tray had been found by a dunnock and a robin…. Not log after greenfinches joined suit, but before the day was out the tray had been emptied by the massed ranks of juvenile starlings… no less then seventeen birds occupied every spot and waiting place!
However, birds had not started on the starling proof offering.
In the following days the feed tray was emptied of suet pellets whenever we filled it, of any of four flavours, the birds loved them all. However, apart from a very occasional visit by a blue tit or two the other feeder remained largely ignored.
Rain soaked the pellets and we replaced them several times but some weeks later the feeder is hardly visited. It maybe that the open position is acting against popularity as the garden does get the odd visit from a sparrowhawk and there are always neighbourhood cats on the prowl… I have hopes and will move the feeder soon to see if that is the only problem.