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Pigeons are the bullies of many a back garden. They are significantly bigger than most garden birds, and they often use their size advantage to monopolise our seed feeders and hog all the food for themselves.

If you're tired of chasing pigeons away from your bird table, there are a number of steps you can take to deter them. Follow these helpful tips from the Really Wild Bird Food team...

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With the weather forecast looking wet, wet, WET for the foreseeable future, it's worth taking a look at our bird feeding practices to ensure we give our feathered friends a fighting chance as the season changes, the temperature drops and natural food sources diminish.

Birds naturally waterproof themselves by preening their feathers, coating them with oil from glands at the base of their tail to help water run off. They also trap pockets of air in the downy under layers of feathers to keep them warm - like a duvet!

So in light showers, you may see them fluff up their feathers, but in heavy rain, they will flatten them down to help water run off. More...

The breeding season (April to July) is a great time to feed mealworms, wax worms and other live foods to your garden birds if you don't already do so!

Of the many varieties of garden bird whose numbers are in decline in the UK, it is the insectivores who have been the worst hit. The lack of mature, native trees in our gardens and ever-decreasing areas of natural woodland means that wild birds cannot find the insects they need to feed their young, resulting in fewer eggs and fewer fledgelings. This makes live foods a more conscientious choice, particularly during periods of colder weather (when insects will hide away in warm places) and especially when you consider that the birds' activity rate during the breeding season can be 100 times greater than during the winter months.

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Raisins attract a variety of birds to your garden. These are nutritious for them and are loved by many birds as well as hedgehogs and squirrels. Bird feed often includes raisins in the blend. But did you know that these are very harmful for the pets? Raisins pose a potential threat to the health of the cats and dogs and if consumed by the pets may lead to grave problems such as kidney failure. This is because of the presence of possibly some particular toxin that leads to such renal failures amongst the pets. Those who have cats and dogs as pets should be very careful when it comes to handling bird feed that contains raisins.

At Really Wild Bird Food we have added a new blend of bird feed to our range that is raisin free and thus absolutely safe to use with pets around. This bird feed blend includes flaked maize and home grown and rolled naked oats, pinhead oatmeal, peanut granules, white millet and the plumpest sunflower hearts which makes this bird feed blend a high energy feed and very healthy and nutritious for the birds. This blend is best suited for a number of ground feeding birds such as robins, thrushes, blackbirds, dunnocks and finches and can be used all year round.

Those who do not have pets can go for the Ground Blend which is a fruit and nut muesli for ground feeding birds and is packed full of succulent raisins. Raisins are loved by birds such as blackbirds and thrushes and this blend is great for all such raisin lovers.

Bird feeders are your best option if you want to attract a variety of birds to your garden. There are many different kinds of bird feeders available, such as feeder trays, hanging feeders, window feeders and many more. But during wet weather spells, using these feeders is not very feasible since the water creates a lot of problems for feeding the birds. If the wrong type of feeder is used, the seeds will get wet and spoil. In the event of water collecting in the feeder, your bird feed can quickly rot.

However, there are a few things that you can keep in mind which will help you to continue feeding your garden birds during wet, rainy periods and to protect your feed from getting spoilt.

Guarding against rain

To guard against rain, it makes sense to use bird feeders that are in the form of tubes rather than the trays. There are special feeders available with rain guards. These rain guards are domes that can be fitted to the feeders to protect the feed and also provide shelter for small birds. These guards help to keep the feeder seed dry and free-flowing.

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Birds are at their most vulnerable during the winter months, when the weather is harsh and food is hard to come by.

You can help your garden birds to survive the winter by making sure they have access to plenty of food and drinking water. However, this can prove difficult: wet weather may spoil the food in your bird feeders, and if snow or ice accumulates on your feeders over winter, this may render the food inaccessible.

In order to prepare your bird feeders for winter and see your feathered friends through this difficult time of year, here's what you'll need to do...

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Grey squirrels are a bit like marmite - you either love them or you hate them! Some people really enjoy watching the antics of squirrels as they raid the bird feeders and try to outsmart our inventive ideas for outsmarting them! However, more often than not, people ask us for advice about how to stop squirrels (and also larger birds to a lesser extent) getting onto feeders and scaring off your favourite garden birds. They are very determined animals and can cause major damage to property and land. They can also be extremely noisy, particularly during the breeding season.

Squirrels are rodents, and are born to gnaw. Their incisors never stop growing, so they must chew constantly to keep them worn down. They can have a seemingly insatiable appetite and can easily consume up to 1kg of food per week! They are also extremely cunning and physically equipped to successfully overcome obstacles that we put in their way, as you can see in these photos below.

Anyone who has ever tried to outwit a squirrel with a mechanical device knows how difficult this can be. Squirrels can climb polished steel poles. They can leap more than 8 feet. Their tails give them phenomenal balance, allowing them to effortlessly cross long lengths of thin wire. They can dig and, yes, they can even swim. However building a moat to protect your bird feeders from squirrels is probably not the answer!

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Not so long ago, feeding the birds was simply a matter of hanging up a plastic string of nuts and scattering stale bread. Now, bird tables are groaning under a smorgasbord of Robin Crumble, Finch Mix, insect-flavoured suet blocks and bowls of live mealworms. Even the humble peanut has been overtaken by the sunflower seed in a lofty £180 million bird food industry. Richard and Lesley Smith, owners of the Really Wild Bird Food Company, are one of a handful of producers who sow and grow their own bird seed. Here, on their 400-acre farm, near Bishop's Waltham, in Hampshire, fields of sunflowers light up the downs alongside millet, linseed, oats, rape and wheat. The seed is harvested, cleaned, mixed and packed before being sold online or at the local farmers' market in Winchester.

As a farm diversification scheme, growing and selling bird food seems to have taken off. From its early beginnings with just a few home-grown ingredients and a shovel, The Really Wild Bird Food Company is now in its fourth year of trading, with sales increasing even in the recession. ''Garden birds soon become part of the family,'' says Smith. ''Once our customers start feeding their birds they tend to carry on. They also like the fact that the food is fresh, home grown and fully traceable. All our mixes have been formulated to attract as wide a variety of birds as possible. Our most popular 'original' mix has 13 ingredients.''

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