I am always on the look out for new, innovative ways of attracting and feeding wildlife. I spied some great products in the CJWildlife catalogue and contacted the company. This morning, I received the two new feeders in the post to trial in my patch!
The first that caught my attention was the ‘peanut butter’ for birds. This is a jar of specially formulated mix, high in calories.
Along with this, there is a pot feeder holder, designed to securely hold the jar. I like the fact it says that it is not for human consumption… best move the jar on the kitchen table then or I may come home to find my kids spreading on their toast!!
This holder was easy to screw into my fence panel and then the jar fitted snugly inside….
… with a small screw to hold it in place….
I like to provide perching opportunities so, using a screw cable clip, I attached a twig perch so it provided a landing place for those less agile birds who might like to feed here, such as the robin. I considered putting a protective cage over it, but have decided to give it a go first. I have a feeling once the magpie discovers it, I might have to!
Of course, the next thing was to get a camera wired up there too. I mounted one on a bracket pretty close to the feeder….
Within an hour, a robin took a snack, closely followed by a great tit, blue tit and then… yes… a squirrel!
I am looking forward to seeing more species try this out and I think it is a great idea. I am wondering how willing the birds will be to put their heads right inside the jar when it is nearly empty… we’ll have to wait and see. Great potential for filling up with my own fat mixture as well, once this jar is finished… and there is a mealworm version as well. Keep watching my live streams as this feeder will feature for the next few weeks. I hope to capture some video clips too.
The second feeder is designed to dispense suet pellets. These are a very popular food in my garden, but I tend to put them in a seed mix in feeders or on the bird table. This feeder has a peanut-type mesh at the base and then a plastic tube designed to prevent the suet pellets from getting wet….
There is a small tray on the bottom, but I like to have a larger tray as it encourages birds to sit and congregate there, so I set this feeder up inside a hanging basket frame to protect it from the magpies. I rested it on the pizza tray which is the same diameter as the basket frame. I focused the camera on this feeder as well and it will be on my live streams for the next few weeks.
Thanks to the guys at CJ for sending me these… we’ll see what the wildlife’s verdict is over the coming weeks…. it looks promising though.
You can check out these products and more by clicking on the link below.
