Young Robin - taken 2009 in back garden - Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow, Ireland

WEEKLY TWEET

When was the last time you actually watched wildlife in your back garden?

Today? Last week? Can't remember? In today's modern world, we are finding it increasingly difficult to relax and take time out from work or family. This blog is to remind you all of the free entertainment that we can enjoy each and every day - WILDLIFE!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Observations

Snow hasn't reached our neck of the woods yet but it has been bitterly cold today. The sunflower seeds have been going down at an alarming rate with birds taking a seed out literally every other second.

This made us wonder.......just how many seeds are eaten every day?

And how much is it costing us to replenish the stock?

So, we decided to carry out a little experiment, the following is an approximation and figures are generally rounded up where applicable:-

Coal Tits observed in two 1-hour periods during the day, both AM and PM visiting the sunflower seed feeder giving the average as follows:-

Approx 225 seeds (weighing 15g - yep we weighed them!) were taken per hour x 8 hours = 1800 seeds per day.

Average 8 hour day x 15g = 120g of seed taken per day

120g per day x 365 days = 44kg of seed taken per year (approx)

A 3kg bag of seed costs €10 x 15 bags per year = €150 yearly cost
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225 seeds = 15g

1kg contains approx 67 x 15g servings

225 seeds x 67 = 15,075 seeds per 1kg

15,075 x 44kg yearly consumption = 663,300 seeds per year

Only 10 birds (4 Coal Tits, 4 Blue Tits & 2 Great Tits) are currently visiting out sunflower seed feeder which equates to 66,330 seeds per bird per year!

Like I mentioned before these are approximations and obviously during winter the birds visit the feeder a lot more than summer months but then they would also have chicks to feed in the summer so I think it would probably average itself out.

Approx €150 spent per year just on sunflower seeds, not taking into account the peanuts, fat balls, fat squares, normal bird seed, meal worms, apples, raisins...........etc etc.

No wonder I'm always skint!

5 comments:

Warren Baker said...

heh,heh,heh, you and me Sharon, I spend £100 a month on average! Worth every penny though!

Keep that seed coming!

Bob Bushell said...

Cor, did you have to mention that, now I'm upset..............
Happy Christmas

FAB said...

Whow...thanks for doing the calculations, but remember during the breeding season they will be looking for their 'natural' foods. Even so that's a lot of grub. I'm not going to admit how much I spend....it could lead to divorce! LOL.

Jenny said...

Great post Sharon, that's a lot of dosh, but they are SO worth it arn't they! (-:

Chris said...

Hi,
I'm leaving in holidays now and wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy new year...
See you in 2010..
Cheers, Chris.