Today I cooked some brown rice and put it in a dish on top of the avery. In no time the garden was filled with wax-eyes and the dish of rice was consumed.
Another good winter feed for birds is to mix melted beef suet with bird seed. Stir in peanut butter. Pour into a large pie plate and let it set . Then cut it into wedges and watch the birds drool.

Zita

Cathy, I have responded to your bird-watching, but for some reason the posts are not showing up.
Zita

Zita,

Sometimes when you are returned to the topic, your browser will load the page from memory instead of from the Interent, for faster loading. When that happens, you need to refresh the page. Then you'll get the updated page with your post on it.

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The Lord is the strength of my life and my portion forever.

Thank you Cathy, they have all showed up today without my doing anything. I did look several times too, but will know what to do next time.
Our winter has turned extremely cold, so it is a pleasure to feed the wildlife today.

Zita

Instead of usig melted fat, I have used brown rice and warmed the peanut butter so as to mix in easy.
It has brought a flock of wax-eyes into my garden, they usually arrive in town when there is bad weather in the mountains. They are just loving the food, and it's great I don't need to buy beef dripping!
When it has stopped raining I will add birdseed.

I was also told today that bread is the worst thing to give birds. It is not a natural food, and is too heavy and stops them from flying.

Zita

I've heard that too Zita. They'll eat it, but it's recommended that you not give it to them.

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The Lord is the strength of my life and my portion forever.

While I agree that processed food of any sort is not as good for birds as food in its natural state, there are some birds who are natural vacuum cleaners, and they appear to have cast-iron stomachs. Crows, and their various relatives seem able to thrive on such a variety of things that I feel bread might be of little risk to them. There could be some truth in the statement that it makes them unable to fly, but I think my crows (they actually may be ravens) are just too fat. They sound like elephants landing on the roof in the morning! I don't often give the local birds anything but grain or fresh meat - the magpies and pee-wees love it as much as the crows - but if I feel guilty about throwing away food, I feed it to the crows, who will eat most things - even Brazilian cherries, which most native animals avoid. This salves my conscience, and fills their bellies. They hide a lot of food in the ground, anyway, and the ants make sure it's returned to the soil. They have become very naughty lately, plucking the green banana passionfruit off the vine, and pecking holes in it to eat the juicy contents. Any avocadoes on my or my neighbours tree is fair game for food. When I had an abundance of egg tomatoes growing, the crows would notice them ripening befor I did, and would feast first. Still, animals in the city need food, and their need may be more urgent than mine. I have a paw-paw (papaya) tree growing on the footpath, and possums compete with passers-by to get the ripened fruit!

It's a bit like the bread and milk we have put out for the hedgehogs for years.
Hedgehogs actually love it, but it can kill them. Gives them the skitters and makes them ill.
So now I buy tins of cat food or feed them mince.

I love pawpaws and I wish I had a tree in my front yard. The possums wouldn't get a sniff!

Which reminds me of the possum I had when I was in primary school. Had to feed it with an eyedropper, which meant taking it to school and keeping it in my desk so I could feed it often.
Then after school I would take him to the dairy and buy him a penny ice-cream, and he would sit on the counter and eat it.
Wouldn't get away with that these days!
But that was the wonderful world of the 50's

Zita

Tried to post this on the web site thread but it was closed. Hope this is ok here.

http://animal.discovery.com/cams/bird.html?ct=3b5793aa

Amelia

Actually Amelia, members aren't allowed to post URL's, and there are rules for what URL's even moderators can post. That is why the thread is locked. But I'm checking all the URL's everyone has posted, and they are all fine. As soon as I have the time to put them all together, I'll post them in the websites thread and delete them from the members' posts.

So go ahead and keep sharing those nature sites here, and I'll see to it that they get put in the right place.

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The Lord is the strength of my life and my portion forever.