Attracting birds and squirrels to the garden

All the food I use to attract birds in the garden is packed by ChapelWood. This is a well known company with high production standards, recommended by the RSPB. Orders can be placed on line, or through local garden centres.

I use 4 products:

Peanuts:
I use these in my feeders, hanging feeder and also on the ground. In this way I attract a wide variety of birds, including tits, finches, robins, sparrows, pigeons, magpies, crows, nuthatches and woodpeckers - plus regular grey squirrels.

Suet balls
These are used in specialist feeders, the log feeder and also added to the hanging feeder. These balls can be made at home - a mixture of nuts, seeds and suet, but I prefer to use manufactured suet balls.

Premium Bird seed
This includes sunflower and niger seeds, corn, barley and wheat. I place them on the hanging feeder, the ground and in special seed feeders. A variety of birds are attracted, with niger seeds being especially popular with finches. Chaffinches and bullfinches seem to prefer feeding on the ground. Pheasants and partridges seem partial to this mixture when it is on the ground.

Robin Seed

Some seed mixtures are designed to attract certain species of birds. I use this seed especially on the hanging feeder and on the ground. This mixture contains dried mealworm, pinhead oatmeal and kibbled peanuts.