[breezyacre]

You guys are the only people who will understand how I feel. In October last I bought a big of tulips. I planted them in pots so that I could sink the pots in the garden in the Spring and magically have a show of tulips. Then I planned to remove the pots to harvest the bulbs for reuse next year. well I have just had a look and the pigeons have eaten every one of them. I guess this winter has been so cold that they ate things that they would never dream of eating other years. As I said forlornly to my wife it seems I have to learn everything the hard way when it comes to gardening.

[Protein]

ouch, very disappointing.. can I ask.. do u know for sure they were pigeons?
Have u considered rodents?

[breezyacre]

I guess it's possible Protein. The pigeons have been so destructive I'm willing to blame them for everything. They also destroyed my savoy cabbage from which I had removed the nets and which they were ignoring until the big freeze. Net result anyway is that my tulip project is destroyed.

[Dr. Sunny Thomson]

I found that when feeding birds for the winter that hanging bird feeders only satisfy some of your birds, mainly the small ones. The larger ones like pigeons being ground feeders like to feed on the ground or on a bird table. I dunno if you had one of these breezyacre, but it may be an idea for you to consider for next year to keep the ground feeders occupied.

[breezyacre]

Thanks for your interest Dr. Sunny. I don't feed the birds much anymore because of the attraction the food has for rodents. This year I left the seed heads from my perenniels standing so that the small birds would at least have seeds to eat. I do not encourage pigeons I assure you but as I live in the countryside there is plenty of cover for them in tall trees nearby.