Simon, John and Margaret’s theme for today’s podcast is “Wildlife – Interactions and Relationships.” The FFON (www.ffon.co.uk) team discuss John and Margaret’s recent blog post about their delightful village lane and how things took a turn for the worst (as far as nature was concerned) when they were confronted with a “Grass Cutting” sign. Also, John encourages Armchair Naturalists to ‘linger and look’ in more detail at nature whilst Margaret, as always, shares messages from around the world.
The team discuss ‘AntBoy’s’ good work and play a short snippet of his YouTube video (thanks, Xander Johnston – AKA “AntBoy”) plus play Joan Baez’s – “Where Have All The Flowers Gone“.
“John and Margaret Cooper. Two Armchair Naturalists who sometimes take their “armchair” out into the field” 
“John and Margaret Cooper. Two Armchair Naturalists who sometimes take their “armchair” out into the field” 
Simon H King
Recorded Wednesday 3rd June at 19.00.
Podcast edited by Edward King.
FFON. Written by nature detectives. 
Lovely podcast. Question how do you deal with neighbours who grumble about our bird feeding activity. We attract great a many birds often all at once when they swoop down causing a great deal of commotion. Not to mention the inevitable mess they leave on neighbours windows afterwards.
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I’ll ask the Coopers but I can think of far worse neighbours to have than those who feed the birds. However, if this grumbling is enough for you to consider stopping feeding the bird perhaps there’s a compromise: try a cage feeder as that will stop the bigger birds from feeding and prevent seed from landing on the ground. That will keep starlings and crows away. It’s a shame to have to restrict the bird you feed, but better to reduce the amount of birds you attract than to turn them all away.
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Good idea.
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Reply from the Coopers: ‘Other neighbours may enjoy seeing the birds in such numbers, especially if they are on their own or have children.
What exactly is the concern – the “commotion”, hygiene? Other?
We recommend a) talking to the neighbours and explaining the benefits of feeding birds to both the birds and to humans, especially during this difficult period of lockdown b) changing the feeding pattern by offering less food
but more often, or using a different type of mix to attract birds that are less raucous (eg insect food to encourage blackbirds) c) offering to pay to have the windows cleaned’
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Many great ideas here, thank you. Yes the issue is hygiene, made worse by the abscence of the window cleaner due to lockdown. I did think of volunteering but avoided responsibility. Lol
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Well done, most interesting.
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