Bird feeding

Hi,

I have been feeding the birds in my garden for the last couple of years and have seen so many different birds its been an absolutely pleasure.  However I noticed the other day that the feeders are now attracting rats, they partiularly like to hang off the peanut feeders and climb the trees to do so.

I have of course removed all the feeders for the moment but as I live on the edge of farmland and neighbours have ducks and chickens I feel I may have a continuous problem.

I just wondered if anyone could suggest planting for the birds to feed on, I know the goldfinches like teasels and I have loads of different varieties of plants in the garden for the butterflies and bees, but I've had loads of different tits, blackbirds, song thrushes, varieties of finches and indeed the woodpecker, robins and so on.  

Any ideas please!

Thanks in anticipation

Tersandra

We have a similar problem so we now hav e a bird table with a post that the rats cannot climb and with a table that is large enough to take an old roasting tray.  We put all the stuff that we want to feed to the birds onto this tray and then take it in as soon as dusk starts to fall.  We also have other feeding sites in the garden - one is a dish sat into a disused bird bath, and we hang fat ball feeders on trees outside the house - again we take everything in at night.  Again, this makes it really difficult for the rats and where we used to see them in the garden during the day when they were hungry, now we rarely see them at all.  Many of ouor neighbours have got dogs that go for the rats but unfortunately our dachshund and leonberger just bark at them if they find them - not a lop of help at all!