We have an acrobat in our garden

[madelaine]

This fat ball is supposed to be for Blue-tits!

[cornishmaid1961]

Lol, must be the same one we had in our garden yesterday.

O/H has put some wires around our bird table to keep our two resident pigeons off as they used to steal all the food from the little birds and up until yesterday the only bigger birds that had worked out how to get to the food were jays. Yesterday we saw a blackbird manage to navigate the wires for the first time.

[HerMajesty]

I gave up on trying to keep certain birds out of the feeder, as the squirrels would just chew through any feeder (metal or not) that I tried. Now I stick a couple fat balls on a miniature lilac on the patio, which the longtails love. And some in some old hanging planters on a tree. The seed goes on the ground, and everyone is happy. We have about a million blackbirds, all kinds of the tits, robins, mistlethrush, thrush, nuthatch, sparrows, chaffinch, woodpecker, pheasant, chickens and others.

[madelaine]

I only have a hanging feeder and the fat thing (it's not a fat ball, is it?) because anything else will be eaten by the pigeons. I had to move the hanging feeder when a pigeon worked out that he could reach it from another branch.

Mrs Blackbird hangs about under the fat thing and obviously gets the bits that drop.

[HerMajesty]

We only have the occasional, easily-spooked wood pigeon here....none of the others. Have had a jay or two, and a couple years ago there were a couple of magpies. We do have a couple crows, one kite, and three buzzards in the area, but they aren't so big on the seed.

[madelaine]

We have dozens of collared doves ("My toe hurts, Betty, etc)

Now Mrs Blackbird has learned the balancing act for herself.

We have attracted Coal Tits, Blue tits and great tits to the feeder as well as a very determined robin.