Forum Discussion

Brenda5's avatar
Brenda5
Member
8 years ago

For the birds

For those of us who are sitting around all day doing next to nothing but recover, watching the birds in the garden is as good as it gets. We usually have a couple of pots of water just off the veranda here and birds come and drink and bath in it which is entertaining. We also have a container of parrot mix from the supermarket which birds like miners and rainbow lorikeets use. Yesterday I was in the soup section of the supermarket and bought some pearl barley. Just for a treat I thew a hand full out on to the driveway. This morning, wow! I have seen a white ibis, a plover (yes they like grain), rainbow lorikeets and a couple of pink galahs. Last week the plover brought its chicks out and I took heaps of photos of them and a very bold rosella had a feed too although he didnt stay for photos. I love my veranda and the birds seem to really like the pearl barley. Get some yourself and see who you can attract to your garden. 
  • socoda's avatar
    socoda
    Member
    8 years ago
    Hey @Brenda5, apparently (I've been told) that the birds also love grapes - and whenever I buy grapes there are always the squishy ones down the bottom of the bag so am going to give them to the birds next time ;) I'll let you know how they go. Xx 
  • Zoffiel's avatar
    Zoffiel
    Member
    8 years ago
    Plovers would have to be the stupidest birds I've ever observed. How they are not extinct  when they persist in trying to nest in the most ridiculous places is a mystery to me. One pair tries, repeatedly, to nest in the middle of my friends training arena. Hey, it's half an acre of sand, what could possibly go wrong? Never mind the tons of gypsy cob horses that churn around in there dragging carts...

    It's interesting though that my local pair managed to hatch four chicks and still have two of them. I can't ever remember seeing so many of the babies. Maybe it's just the extraordinary dry year so there is less stuff to hide in.
  • June1952's avatar
    June1952
    Member
    8 years ago
    Great, @Brenda5
    I love the birds as well and that is one thing I miss (we moved from a rural area to a regional area where there are no native trees) and I am wondering if my little Babblers are nesting in the tree again this year.
    Oh, we have two cats but as we love the birds so much our cats are inside cats - only out in their large cage or on their leads.
    Summer  :-)
  • nonkyboy's avatar
    nonkyboy
    Member
    8 years ago
    @Brenda5 that's a nice idea. I love watching the birds have a bath in my water bowls. I haven't fed them as I own 4 cats but they come down daily to eat the cat biscuits so maybe I should get some food for them. The cats have never been bothered by them anyway so I think they are all either too old, fat or lazy