Michael Chare :
The birds are eating the bird seed and peanuts in our garden in Kent
very quickly,

The rate of consumption is much quicker than I have seen before.

Has anyone else noticed a similar high rate, or able to explain why
this is happening?

We've had a feeder in the same place for over ten years now and it's
easy for me to keep track of the rate of consumption. The rate varies
according mainly to the season, then the daily weather, plus some factor
that I haven't been able to discern. This time of year always has the
highest rate. Currently they're eating about 1.4 kg per day, compared
with an all-year-round average of 0.4 kg.

Consumers are mainly tits, finches, sparrows, robins, nuthatches, and
woodpeckers. For a couple of years we had a one-legged blackbird who
mastered the art of feeding while hovering, humming-bird style.

Additionally we get the odd crow (inc magpies and jays), pigeon, or
squirrel. A hungry squirrel causes the consumption to go up a bit.

--
Mike Barnes