Look After Our Wild Birds

British wildlife is being threatened even more by the unseasonal weather patterns that we are experiencing. Whether this is due to long term climate change, or the natural pattern that our planet has always experienced. After all they were skating and holding trade fayres on the Thames in the sixteen and seventeen hundreds. It is however a fact that our wildlife is affected. The RSPB’s BIG GARDEN BIRD WATCH has recently focused our attention on the need for us all to help with the conservation of our furry and feathered friends. We can start by taking steps to invite wildlife into our own gardens.

The easiest wildlife to encourage to visit us are birds. February is often our coldest month when Blackbirds Thrushes and Robins who all need natural food struggle to find enough insects and worms. Dried mealworms are a convenient way to supplement the seed, fat and kitchen scraps we put on the bird table. Starlings also love mealworms and can be very entertaining in the antics they get up to when trying to eat more than their fair share. Remember to position your bird table or feeders away from a fence that the neighbour’s cat can use as a spring board onto the bird table but near a shrub or tree that can be used as shelter if a predatory bird like a Red Kite patrols. Blue, Great, Coal and Long Tailed Tits and of course Starlings all benefit from the suet and co-co-fat treats that can be bought or homemade both are high energy food sources.

If you feed Fat Balls in feeders always buy those without the nylon mesh wrapping that can entangle in bird’s feet and cause death. Other good choices are red millet, linseed, sunflower hearts and peanuts. Peanuts should always be put in feeders to prevent young birds taking a whole nut which could choke them. Woodpeckers, Siskins, Nuthatches and The Tits all will flock to Peanut Feeders. Goldfinches, always a welcome sight, will come to Niger Seed Feeders. Birds also need water especially when it’s freezing so add a little sugar to the bird bath which lowers the freezing temperature. The best way to help birds through the winter however is to furnish your garden with plants that provide nature’s own food supply here are a few to consider. Holly, Hawthorn, Cotoneaster, Pyracantha, Sorbus, Rosa Rugosa and Viburum Opulus all hold their berries well into winter and attract Fieldfares, Redwings, The Finches, Starlings and Blackbirds. Ivy flowers very late in the Autumn and attracts many insects which in turn feed Wrens and Robins while Teasels and Sunflowers if left to ripen the seed are great for Sparrows, Nuthatches, Long Tailed Tits,  Goldfinches and Buntings.

                         A garden pond with or without fish is always an interesting feature and will certainly encourage frogs and newts to live there and be a watering hole for many other animals to drink. Try to create a sloping side so that hedgehogs aren’t in danger of falling in. Provide plenty of plant cover in the water like Elodea, Irises, Lilies, Caltha and Rushes for pond life to hibernate in cold weather. Frogs and juvenile Grass Snakes also need a patch of rough grass to graze and hibernate in. The compost heap is another safe winter hibernating habitat for many creatures. I found seventeen of my least favourite garden visitors Grass Snakes in one compost bin when emptying it to spread on the borders at least it told me The Garden has a good ecological balance. Toads however bury themselves just below the surface in soil or dark moist places so be careful when hoeing the borders. Toads are important to encourage as they have Henry the Eighth Appetites for many undesirable invertebrates

                      It is also important to provide the right conditions for invertebrates to live in our gardens to provide the food chain for other animals, pollinate other plants and to control some insects that gardeners regard as pests. Although we can’t all be Bee Keepers it is easy to encourage wild bees to live nearby by providing Insect Flats and Hotels in which to overwinter. By planting open flower and pollen rich plants like Bellis, Anemone Japonica, Mahonia, Thymes, Salvia and Rosemary we encourage these insects to stay close. Lacewings and Ladybirds also benefit from putting up Bug Houses and pay their rent by controlling the aphis that attack the Roses and Broad Beans in the summer.

                    Moths and Butterflies mostly overwinter as larvae or pupae in hedges, tree bark or outbuildings but Red Admirals and Tortoiseshells a very common site on Hebes and Buddleias can often be seen flying on milder winter days but otherwise collect on my bedroom ceiling. 

           Watching wildlife is very interesting for us all so let’s at least look after what we have although I am happier to throw peanuts and hay over my fences for the Badgers and Muntjacs who behaved very badly when I let them into the garden by digging up or devouring precious plants.