Sunday 17 March 2013

The Case of the Disappearing Suet

The half coconuts I have which are filled with suet had been lasting for weeks as the birds gradually helped themselves. Occasionally the filling would fall out of one after it had shrunk during a particularly cold night. A couple of mornings ago I found two were empty where they had been half full the previous day. No sign of any fallen fillings on the ground. When I replaced them with a full coconut half I soon found out what was happening.

It doesn't take long for a large Rook beak to gobble it all up in a very short time:

Hungry Rook.jpg

An old coconut I have reused is one with only a quarter opening which was originally filled with suet. Now it is empty it is useful as a container for seed and suet treats:

Starling 3.jpg

Sometimes birds will spend a while trying to work out how to get at the food:

Puzzled Blackbird.jpg

All in all Birdy Bistro Mk2 is very popular, especially with the cold temperatures hereabouts.

6 comments:

  1. I am suffering a similar problem. The rooks have learnt to lift the fat ball feeder from the hook. Four fat ball gone in minutes.
    The new feeders look very good.

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    Replies
    1. Adrian: The corvids are too clever for their own good sometimes.

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  2. they're all very appreciative of your offerings!

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  3. Lovely photos John. So the culprit was captured, well sort of ;-) That's a great idea, using the old shell for titbits, does the rain get into it much?

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Jan.
      Some rain gets in the coconut. It depends on which way the wind is blowing. I will have to drill a couple of small holes in the bottom to give a bit of drainage.

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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