Breakfast, lunch and dinner at the bird table

SIR – Ian Henderson (Letters, September 28) asks if birds have regular meal times. The answer is: yes.

The sparrows that nest in the soffits of two elevations on my house have, for many years, regularly come at 8am, noon and 5pm for breakfast, lunch and dinner outside our patio window.

Every year the flock increases; this morning there were 26 in total. Other birds also arrive in their pecking order.

George Sullivan

Cubbington, Warwickshire

SIR – I have several bird-feeders hanging from a small tree just beyond the French windows of my sittingroom. The birds have three frenzied feeding times a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. The actual times depend on the length of daylight.

At least 16 species of birds come, ranging from blue tits to a crow that gathers up fallen food from the feeders.

Most of the birds come in pairs but the long-tailed tits come in small flocks and completely obliterate the feeders they hang on. The robin sits on a bough and glares at me if I fail to fill the feeders.

I have noticed the regular timings ever since I started to feed the birds. Watching them beats most television programmes.

Dinah S Parry

Ottery St Mary, Devon

SIR – We have a visiting wood pigeon that has a damaged leg and difficulty walking. Having taken pity on her, we now regularly feed her.

She appears by magic every mealtime, just as we are sitting down to eat, and peers through the patio doors waiting patiently until she has been served.

Wendy Strathdee

Burnham, Buckinghamshire

SIR – For many years two dozen starlings, in various stages of development, have arrived at my bird table squabbling and arguing at 4pm each day without fail.

However, it was only last year that I solved the mystery of why they arrive at 3pm in October: they are incapable of recognising the end of British Summer Time so fail to put their clocks back.

George Sizeland

Carterton, Oxfordshire

SIR – Old buildings that allowed birds to nest are either pulled down or sanitised to exclude birds like house martins in case they make a mess. My garage has a small window high in the eaves to allow entry to birds or bats.

This year we had five swallows’ nests, with two broods in each.

I had to put a cover over the car, but the pleasure from watching and listening to their excited chatter has been well worth it.

The big cleanup starts any minute now but I am already missing them.

Philip Hogben

Wingham, Kent