My garden is divided into several areas and the one in back where I feed the birds is small without trees. We have only moved into the house 9 months ago and I put up 3 poles with feeders hanging on them straight away. They are a huge sucess and we get many, many birds of many species. My problem is that the birds throw so much seed down on the grass that it is turning into quite a nasty mess under the feeders. I would really appreciate any ideas you may have or any experiences you can share.

This post was last modified: 22-07-2007 02:34 PM by Xeract.

Hi Goosey, welcome to the forums!

Have you tried hanging seed trays beneath the feeders to catch most of the seeds that the birds throw off? It might not get all of it but it will certainly help. Its great to have such a succesful feeder, but I know what its like if the birds start making a mess, you end up constantly cleaning up after them.

Yes having food on the floor can also attract unwanted animals like rats. I think Bills suggestiong is a good one, a seed tray hung just beneath the feeders would catch most of the falling seed making the clean up job a lot easier. You might get more problems with squirrels with a tray though.

I have a similar problem, as the birds throw out the seeds they don't want to get at the ones they do. So far I would rate nuthatches as the worst culprits, as they shovel the seed out at an unbelievable rate. I have a tray attached to the bottom of the feeder which seems to partially solve the problem - it also provides a convenient feeding station to other birds that wouldn't normally perch on a seed feeder (e.g. robins). I also have a baffle attached to the pole under the feeders to deter squirrels, and that seems to collect most of the rest. What does land on the ground is usually quickly hoovered up by a combination of squirrels, wood pigeons and blackbirds.

Agree with Timberwolf - you need some pigeons lol! I currently have a flock of up to 20 or so, that sit on my roof and although I don't throw food out onto the lawn they wait until the others have chucked it out of the feeders and then come down to hoover it up

I don't know if they belong to anyone or not, perhaps they're homing pigeons (all different colours) but I've only seen one so far with rings on it's legs.

Squirrels or pidgeons do the hoovering up job well, and as Timberwolf says if you add a baffle to the pole of a table underneath the feeders the squirrels won't be able to get onto it so they'll be left the the scraps at the bottom.

I have just seen two mice running from a small crevice beneath out bird feeder so I think we might have a problem with our feeder being messy too. I will keep you all posted!

I wonder if the pepper extract idea would work for mice as well as squirrels?

Kingfisher

If mammals can all taste the extract I don't see why it wouldn't work on mice and rats, which could be useful.