Just a recycling suggestion.I used ours to plug gaps around a temporary window over winter. Apparently the chicks can cope with animal fur fibres not the cutting fibres of cotton wool.
I suppose if you live in the sticks, you need to get fresh food delivered. We are within less than a mile of a variety of supermarkets. I don't think I'm enough of a gourmet to get artisan type stuff delivered. The birds will have to find their own material 😊
I sometimes get organic meat, fruit and veg directly from Dorset farms and the meat comes in boxes packed with wool. It's very useful stuff for all sorts of things, including insulating compost bins and leaving out for the birds. It's good for making bumble bee nests too - I set up some pallets and packed some of the spaces with wool for the queens. I saw a queen investigating today.
I keep my garden untidy to provide for the wildlife😇 that's what I tell myself. Foraging is good for them. We don't want them to lose skills and become dependent Seriously, though. I've read that's a thing. We are changing the behaviour of wildlife with our kindnesses and litter. They are evolving to take advantage of this. A good example is the diversity ( particularly in the jaw shape) that has very recently in evolution terms happened between urban and rural foxes and also the migration/ feeding habits of birds . Garden birds are teaching their offspring to be dependant on bird feeders.
I'm perturbed by the unintended consequences of feeding the small birds in my garden. I know it's not logical, but I feel really guilty when I see the pair of magpies (which have taken up residence in a beech tree at the end of the garden) making a meal of an unsuspecting goldfinch. I feel as if I'm providing the magpies with dinner on a plate...
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
I'm perturbed by the unintended consequences of feeding the small birds in my garden. I know it's not logical, but I feel really guilty when I see the pair of magpies (which have taken up residence in a beech tree at the end of the garden) making a meal of an unsuspecting goldfinch. I feel as if I'm providing the magpies with dinner on a plate...
I get a sparrow hawk every now and then picking on a poor house sparrow. I figure it would happen whether I were here or not so don’t feel any guilt! 😂
@Liriodendron It's a matter of balance though, isn't it?
My windows look out on a wide view of green fields, but with very few trees or hedges, just wire fences or stone walls. There are a few relic hawthorns, but that's it, though the largely coniferous local forest is only a couple of fields away.
Our few acres are an oasis of trees, shrubs, ponds and provide a variety of habitats for all kinds of wildlife. Feeding the birds all year round has led to a big increase in the number and variety of birds that visit here and that has inevitably included predatory ones. The sparrow hawk makes regular forays and there are other hawks we struggle to identify as they are usually just fast silhouettes. We lost one of the pretty stock doves last weekend, taken from near the feeders and partially eaten nearby. I left the remains where they were and they were gone the next morning, only feathers remaining.
Sad to see tooth and claw in action, but the upside is knowing how many more birds are surviving than might otherwise have done. We have lots of chaffinches whose low numbers were a cause of concern and some other visitors are listed too. We keep seeing new birds and many birds choose to nest here. We added short-eared owl to our list last month. It is nice
to hope that we are doing something to help bird numbers
We have lots of magpies and goldfinches in the garden but they seem to co-exist ok. Never seen the one kill the other. We do get the occaisonal sparrowhawk.
Thank you, @TheGreenMan and @Buttercupdays. I'm hoping I'm doing more good than harm, and the vast numbers of finches, sparrows and tits in the native hedge which borders the garden would suggest that's the case.
@Lizzie27 - the RSPB tells me that magpies take eggs and nestlings to feed their young (between 3% and 38% of the nestling's diet, it says). I don't know how common it is for them to eat small birds at other times of year, though again, the RSPB says their diet may include mammals as big as a young rabbit...
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
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Seriously, though. I've read that's a thing. We are changing the behaviour of wildlife with our kindnesses and litter. They are evolving to take advantage of this. A good example is the diversity ( particularly in the jaw shape) that has very recently in evolution terms happened between urban and rural foxes and also the migration/ feeding habits of birds . Garden birds are teaching their offspring to be dependant on bird feeders.
@Lizzie27 - the RSPB tells me that magpies take eggs and nestlings to feed their young (between 3% and 38% of the nestling's diet, it says). I don't know how common it is for them to eat small birds at other times of year, though again, the RSPB says their diet may include mammals as big as a young rabbit...