Last week I spent some time in the hide watching which birds go to which foods at the feeding station and I put some old apples from work down on the ground as well as pushing some onto nails about a metre off the ground. When I got there today I was surprised to see that all the ground apples had gone completely; no evidence left whatsoever, so I am assuming foxes took them - apples on my lawn stay for weeks! But the apples higher up have just been pecked or nibbled only around the nails.The pheasants have definitely gone mad for the peanuts I dropped all over the floor; one photo caught 9 in the same shot, male and female. The seed I left in a channel carved the length of a log had gone, as well as most of the peanuts in the standard bird feeder, but the "globe feeder" was still more than half full. The tall seed feeder was empty again - so they have at least worked out how to eat from that now too which is good. What's not good is quite how quickly they devoured the lot - can only have been 5 days.
I smeared more lard on the bark of an alder as that had also been gobbled up - in fact by the time I had walked only 10 metres away, two woodpeckers were fighting over it again! I've set two camera traps at the feeding station. One pointing at the lard and the other along the length of the feeding bar, both over a metre off the ground as I was getting a little tired of trawling through endless videos of pheasants. I also want to know just how many different woodpeckers are coming to the feeders.The Acorn camera seems to be misbehaving at the moment and cannot make up its mind if it's taking photos or ten-second video clips - not sure if it's the cold or if it's broken - but it keeps randomly switching between the two settings. The Bushnells (my new one) has had a few test runs at home in the garden, and is now spending its first night in the wood. I will go back Wednesday to see how it's performed (and to fill the feeders again no doubt - not sure how long that 25kg sack of feed is going to last!).
I made some lard, seed and nut cakes in old butter tubs too, but completely forgot to put them out, so they are keeping cold in the back of the Landrover right now. Will probably try wedging them in the forks of trees, as I'm still keen to get a nuthatch at some point. Nuthatches are one of my favourite birds, but one I've yet to see at Rais - they are apparently the only British bird to walk headfirst down tree trunks. Loads of Coal tits still and plenty of Jays, Woodpeckers and Robins but no Treecreepers or Woodcocks either. Plenty of time.
