Where have all the wee birds gone?

Haven't seen peanuts on sale here for years and the last lot were very expensive!

Before I left on my road trip the various birds using the feeders up near the house were getting thru 10 fat balls a day so I rationed them to 5 and they also got thru 3 mugs of loose seed on the slab and bird table for the ground feeders. I put 10 fat balls out again last Thursday and there are still 6 left and we've reduced the daily loose seed rations a sthey're leaving too much for night time rodents.

The sparrow colony down in the hen house are all very busy tho.

 

We get some of the smaller birds - blackbirds, robins, great tits, dunnocks, blue tits and wrens. The latter three only occasionally.
However, we do have magpies and wood pigeons residing, plus the occasional visiting seagull (not welcome here). We also have parakeets, but I've not seen one in the garden.
Edited to add:
And also the very occasional sparrow, which I miss.

 

@JWK I have had cats for 50 years and have always fed the birds. It just requires a little thought to place them out of cat hiding and pouncing range. Even our huntress pussycat hardly catches any but she's a demon at small rodents, especially the ones stealing the hen food.

We get many and varied birds, some all year and some migrants. They're just very scarce up at the top end at the mo and also very quiet.

@shiney Think at least double here and that was several years ago. Fortunately they like the fat balls, insect and fat blocks and our usual mix of wild bird seeds with added sunflower seed.

 

Same with me tommyrot. No swallows either. No hover flies, bees or wasps and only a few butterflies this year. I used to see some sparrow hawks playing with the thermals last year. Again none this year. Yes I have lots of plants to attract them even a small wild garden in the corner.

 

@fairygirl I recall seeing Swallows many years back in October at the horse stables the girls visited, but that was a lots further North. No idea why, but here they seem to leave earlier? The nuthatch is a lovely little bird, but very aggressive towards each other and other littler birds. We had at least 4 chicks around the feeders this year who went missing for a while, but 2-3 are back in the last week or so.

 

Nuthatches aren't very common up here @DiggersJo, so I'm always happy to see any visiting. They seem fine with the other birds though. I'm a few hundred yards from a small NT garden, and they'll mostly nest in there. It's the same with quite a few species - we have good habitat nearby, so they don't always need to visit gardens for extra, or readily available, food.
Funny how different the amount of birds can be around the country. Dunnocks are really common here, and also house sparrows. Blue tits are one of the most common visitors, along with great and coal tits. Habitat I presume?
Sparrows are certainly in decline in lots of areas whch is a shame. They often monopolise my feeders and get quite shirty with other birds trying to get at the food

 

I lie, or do I. Spotted a number of house martins this morning and at least 2 swifts. I often wonder if they are "passing" on their way south and stop off for lunch! Certainly the many house martins that nest in the street nearby (I assume they like the houses or aspect) have/did group the other week and have moved on. I've often thought it was down to poor weather they went missing, but the weather is still not that great today. You are right about the birds being very different in different areas @fairygirl , here we rarely have sparrows in the garden, but just a street away there is a gang of 20+ . I suspect they don't like the woods at the back of us or the neighbours that live in the woods e.g. nuthatches and the like.

 

I’ve never noticed our Nuthatches being aggressive to other birds. We very occasionally get a pair of bullfinches visiting and they are real bullies.
Lots of Robins, Blackbird’s, Tits and Goldfinches here and a handful of Dunnocks. I think we’ve only seen a sparrow, two maybe three times in all the time we’ve been here (8years)

 

I think it’s a case where size does matter and the nuthatch does have at least a large beak. The bullfinch here are quite rare visitors, but we have had a male visiting this week and sure enough he did square up to the local nuthatch. I was quite surprised seeing them next to each other how much bigger the bullfinch was. The only other visitor to the “small bird” feeder that scares them all is the woodpecker, both he and she visit often and empty the feeders very quickly.

 

Our Goldfinches just sit on the branches and wait, impatiently, until the Woodpecker is finished. I don’t think they are scared of anyone. All the tits scarper.

 

Bullfinches are fairly common here, but again, they have plenty of food in the surrounding area, so they don't often need to visit. The male one snaffled all the berries off the Amelanchier a while ago, even though they were a long way from ripeness! I often see them in the hawthorns along the roadside.
It's the same with gold and greenfinches. Plenty of other food. Just knowing we have them is fine by me though. I'm just helping make it easier for them if they need it.
The small birds visit all year round, and in great numbers, and if it helps the blue tits, in particular, I'm happy, because it can be difficult for them in spring when they're breeding, due to some unfavourable weather at that point.