After last night's biblical rain a sunny day came as a pleasant surprise, the weather forecast hadn't suggested it. A mixed tit flock bounced into the garden, nine long-tailed tits, four blue tits, a robin and a blackcap. There was a lot of investigation of feeders I hadn't topped up yet and at one point the whole flock except the blackcap was sitting in the rose by the living room window staring inside. I took the hint and went shopping.
The sunflower seeds in the shop were rubbish, I wasn't for paying that for seed the birds would discard from the feeders. I'll have to try elsewhere. In the meantime I bought a big bag of suet pellets and a bag of suet nuggets with mealworms and oddments in them. I usually buy big suet balls for a couple of fat feeders I have in the garden, today I bought the bag of suet nuggets instead to see how they'd go.
They went. Within twenty minutes. Between them two magpies and a squirrel got the pine cones unjammed from the top of the feeders and scampered off with all the nuggets. They can't do that with the fat balls. They can get the pine cones out of the way but only the squirrel can remove the fat balls and only the top two, further down is too much of a stretch, they can reach but they don't have the leverage to be able to do the vertical pull. I've watched them trying, there's a lot of power to a grey squirrel's haunches, it's just that cramped leverage stops them making off with the lot. I'll go back to buying the fat balls. And I must find some decent sunflower seeds.
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