For the Birds

What do Tesco's breakfast muesli, Party Snack shelled peanuts and Happy Little Pig hamster food have in common?

From 2010 09

I can't find wild bird food in Poland. I' ve tried Garden Centres/Shops, Pet Shops, Hypermarket/Supermarket garden and pet sections and DIY Supercentres. Nothing. I was given the bird table for Christmas last year, but what was I to put on it.



Back in England, I looked at bird food there. The Hamster food in Poland looked quite similar, so I have used that with some added seeds - sunflower, etc. Various birds - greenfinches, sparrows and great tits have helped raise their families from the table. The hanging sticks were labelled for canaries, but the tits ate them anyway.

From 2010 08

The English bird food also seemed to have oats and cornflakes, hence the muesli. However, I have only just added some to the mix today so I don't know how well it will work.

Why no wild bird food in Poland? It can't be that no one wants birds in the garden, as bird tables are available in the shops in plenty, at least at the right selling times. Perhaps everyone else knows what other food to give them. Not that I could get any advice - maybe I don't know the right people. I wonder, however, whether the bird table is some sort of fashion or designer item. I've never seen food being put on the one next door and no birds there, for that matter.



However, I did once find a peanut feeder and peanuts in one of the Lidls in Pruszków. The feeder had a flock of tits surrounding it in winter.



I haven't seen unsalted shelled peanuts since. Hence the shelled ones. The feeder is now ready for the winter. I was told this morning that the forecast is for snow in a couple of weeks time and that it will be a hard winter. Given the accuracy of recent short-term weather forecasting, I'm looking forward to something different, but the birds can get their food, whatever happens.