Bird Feeders

Now, I just don't get it. I put up one bird feeder, filled it with seeds and the bluetits and robins just couldn't get enough. In fact, one afternoon I saw a parakeet curled round it and hanging on for dear life as it picked tiny seeds out of the dispenser.

It was so successful that I went online and bought a bird feeding station, like a metal coatstand with hooks to hang feeders on. As the original bag of seed had disappeared so fast, I bought a new one together with some peanuts and filled three feeders.

And since then? The feeders are hanging there virtually untouched by anything except an enterprising wood pigeon who examined the feeder from the safety of a twig, then flew to the top of it, peered down at peanuts and seeds and worked out that if it stood on the handy feeding tray, it could just crane its neck high enough to poke its beak into the opening of the seed dispenser. More power to its feathers, I say.

As for the rest of the former customers, I say, 'What is it with you lot?' Do birds have a sense of taste? Could it be that they don't like the new seeds? (Though it says on the packet that they are for all wild birds: are you listening, parakeet? This doesn't include you.) Where am I going wrong? Or is it simply because the weather has warmed up and the birds aren't so desperate as they were last week when there was ice and sleet?