Anyone who knows me, knows that I often kitchen utensils in the garden… not using in the way that they were intended but rather adapting them for the birds! I have used whisks as nesting dispensers, pizza trays and baking trays under feeders, a ladle for a feeder and when I saw this wooden cutlery drainer in Ikea, I thought it had bird feeder potential! Today I decided to set it up in the garden. I simply cable-tied it to my trellis and fixed a perch in front. I like the fact that food could be taken out of the slats as well as from the top and the plastic base, with drainage holes, means it will not fill up with water. I might make a little lid or roof for it in the future.
As the weather has been so cold and the bird are so hungry, I made up a special winter mix to go in it. I crumbled some granary bread and mixed it with some oats, raisins, half a tin of old sweet corn (left over in the fridge!), some suet sprinkles and a bit of seed. I then pressed this into the compartments. The slats are close enough together to hold a mixture like this in, but still allow access by the birds. As I stepped back to set up the Bushnell, a robin appeared on the trellis and went straight up to it!
I set the Bushnell, with my close-up kit on, just in front of this new feeder and left it for a few hours. On retrieving the card, I had over 250 clips! The main visitors were the blue tits and the robin, with great tits taking third place and a black bird also making an appearance. I may need to adapt it a little as the birds can access the food from the back as well. I might place a sheet of plastic down the back so they are encouraged to come to the front where I can see them.
I am pretty pleased with this as a feeder… it looks pleasant and dispenses the food quite well… and it was just a few pounds!
Here are a few clips I captured today showing it in use….