Positioning of Bird Feeder

februarysgirl

I'm wanting to put some bird feeders in my garden but I'm really not sure where the best place to put them is, or even if it's a good idea. At present we get mainly pigeons, the occasional magpie and the odd blackbird and robin here and there, but I'd like to increase the diversity. The biggest problem is that our estate is cat central. Including our own, there are at least 6 cats that frequent our garden. I'm not sure there's anywhere in my garden that birds would feel safe enough to feed. The trees were only planted last year, the plums and greengage definitely don't have any branches that could take any weight but some of the lower ones of the hawthorn might be OK. I've posted a couple of photos and would appreciate any suggestions.

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BobTheGardener

I'd say either the corner near the shed or the other far corner.  Both of those positions have a hedge behind/nearby which the birds will hide in until it looks safe, before darting out to the feeder and back.

GemmaJF

As Bob says. My neighbour has cats, she positions the bird feeders so the birds can land up in our blackthorn hedge, then just flit across to the feeders and back to safety. Shame it means they poop on my car all the time, good job I like to see them 

herbaceous

Do you have one of these wrought iron thingys @februarysgirl ?

Mine is in the 'shrubbery' so the birds can queue up but my brother's is in the middle of nowhere!
Mine

and my brother's

He gets a wide variety of visitors and has 2 or 3 cats that visit so BobTheGardener's suggestions sounds a good one.

Butterfly66

As @BobTheGardener suggests making sure the birds have something to hide, queue in nearby I s ideal. They much prefer this to feeders in the open. If you have a stand for the feeder you could place it near one of your new trees?
We have about 5 or 6 cats which regularly walk through or stay for a snooze in the sun in our garden but I don’t think it has any effect on the number of birds visiting given the numbers.

februarysgirl

Thanks everyone for the suggestions I think the corner next to the ivy is a better idea than the one adjacent to the shed. Cats are fond of sitting on the remains of the ash tree. The irony is, I really want rid of that ivy because it's a nuisance and has been destroying my back fence. Plus, I don't want it taking water resources from my new hawthorn. Although one of those feeding stations would be ideal, I'd need to be careful in that corner as there's a hedgehog that uses a gap under the fence and I don't want to do anything to block it off!

nick615

Shelter, when available with your more mature trees/bushes, will help but you'll need to be aware that, as we've found out, small birds in their 20s and 30s will one day attract a sparrow hawk.

Fairygirl

It's an old thread @nick615 - yet another one dredged up by the previous poster. 
Becoming very suspicious now.  

nick615

Beg pardon, Ma'am.  Suitably confused but evidence attached.

Fairygirl

I wasn't meaning you @nick615. You've completely misunderstood my comment 

I see that more people have flagged the post I was responding to, and it's been removed as spam. 

Woodgreen

It can be very confusing when comments are made about spam, especially when they are, shall we say, told to go away. 
When the spam is removed these comments remain, and can look very unfriendly out of the context of the spam!