Napoleonic & ECW wargaming, with a load of old Hooptedoodle on this & that


Thursday 12 January 2023

Hooptedoodle #437 - The Tricky Business of Suet Pellets


 Our garden birds are getting very well fed at the moment. One of the most popular lines is Suet Pellets, which are placed in a hanging feeder, ideal for the birds which can cope with eating from a perched position. Some of them can't manage this, but in general that works out OK, since the perchers are very messy eaters, and there is a lot of stuff dropped on the flower bed, where the ground-feeders can tidy up.

This is a bit of a problem for the smaller ground feeders - notably robins, wrens, blackbirds and thrushes, who tend to get trampled under foot and bullied by the bigger birds. Accordingly, my wife has improvised a caged feeder, in which she places a daily supply of the pellets. The little birds can hop into the cage, delicately pick up a pellet, and fly away with it to a safe eating place. The blackbirds have discovered that they can reach in through the holes and pick up odd pellets, which is fine, and it puts a stop to the wood pigeons just sitting down in the middle of the food and hoovering the lot.

The pigeons are really not pleased about this, and I am interested to see that they have attempted to solve the problem by a sort of outflanking manoeuvre. If they walk far enough, the reasoning goes, they must get past this stupid cage thing.

Here you see them at work. Interesting. They will probably out-breed all competitors in the near future, but I reckon they should not be placed in charge of strategic planning. Apart from the two individuals being distracted by the need to stop the other one getting any, there is a final irony as a bluetit pops in to take the only pellet they might have reached.

9 comments:

  1. If you have too many pigeons and lots of suet I would suggest using the latter to encase the former in a rich gravy under a nice suet crust pastry lid - absolutely scrumptious!

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    1. Hi Rob - I'm not very keen on the idea of eating my friends, and these particular suet treats contain ground-up insects, but otherwise it's a fine idea. You reminded me that back in another century one of my favourite lunches was the pigeon with warm salad at the Café St Honoré in Thistle Street Lane, Edinburgh - I wonder if they are still open? I must point out that on those occasions I hadn't met the pigeons!

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  2. Great wee video, love the wee one coming in at the end and beating the pigeons to the food!!

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    1. My wife is one of Nature's film directors - even the extras get it spot on, every time.

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  3. I feel a bit sorry for the pigeons! We have some rather fat crows that try to wedge themselves under the bird-table roof but the smaller birds just ignore them.

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    1. Hi Ian - their general lack of intellect is a shame, but they do well enough - they shift loads of peanuts, and they are the one species which actually eats the wild berries from the Whitebeam and other trees in the woods, so they get plenty of grub!

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  4. We just throw stuff out on the grass for any random bird that happens to be around, of course, they don't have the same issues with finding food in winter here, as there is no snow etc and average temp is probably 10c. I have watched to see if the larger birds like Mynahs push the smaller ones out of the way but they seem pretty egalitarian about the food distribution ....the main threat comes from our dog and cat who often claim first dibs and eat half the bread/cake/scone that's been thrown out before any bird gets a look in! Haven't ever really seen larger birds like pigeons or seagulls......or kiwis lol😝 Oh and I agree, pigeons are good eating, as are rabbits.... have not had either for years though!

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    1. Rabbits! - last time I had rabbit was in a restaurant in Knutsford in 1998. I had memories of the rabbit stew my mother used to make when I was a little kid - she used to stew them, French style, for about 2 days - I think rabbit was not rationed after the War (or some such explanation). Anyway, my memories of rabbit stew were very positive. The restaurant in 1998 turned out a tough monstrosity you could have battered the door down with - very disappointing indeed. Maybe it's time for a revisit?

      I have to say we eat very little butcher meat now. I used to be very fond of lamb steaks, too - maybe another revisit required.

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