Birds should be feed during snow days only. We have managed not to make ourselves lazy to care for food, now we change even birds to be lazy. What comes next? The heated trees?
I don't have bee hotels, bird feeders etc. I think that as long as there's a wide variety of plants in the garden, including some undergrowth, hedge bottoms etc that aren't forever being cleaned out and made tidy, creatures will find the places that suit them. Last year I think there were bumblebees nesting in the depths of my shed (they were going in and out) but I haven't made my way right to the back since then so I don't know exactly where the nest is.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
I supplement the birds food this time of year but I don't buy anything or use feeders. The blackbirds get some apples to go with all the rowan, pyracantha and hawthorn berries that the garden naturally produces. If like this year, when most of the berries are already gone, I may defrost some red currants from the freezer or supplement with other things I have. Locally we have plenty of people feeding the birds and most of the food is either spat out, or left to go mouldy, because there is such an abundance. The only thing the birds seemed to eat when we had feeders up was suet pellets and alot of that ended on the floor.
I think people just feel good when they are making an effort to "help" nature and I've had some difficult conversations with people when I've pointed out some of the potential downfalls.
I think we need to be honest with ourselves … do we feed the birds for their benefit or our entertainment?
100% unashamedly entertainment for us here and we now have such a large house sparrow population that I think they rely quite heavily on our feeder offerings.
Looking at my clock, 3:27 AM, Winter solstice, days are getting longer again. Spring is coming. Let's do it make better next year.
This, for me, is the thing to celebrate. Midwinter......we still have the coldest weather to come but we can look forward to the return of the light and the coming of all the wonderful spring flowers.
As to bee hotels, I am so glad that someone has finally spoken out about them. I have often wondered about the problems of insanitary conditions in things that cannot be cleaned. Dried plant stems left in the garden are a one use facility and eventually rot down to become soil which is how nature intended these things to work.
Many thanks @Ceres for your reminder not to touch the plants and cut them down. After reading your comment, I went down into my garden and said to myself, this has to stay until March despite that I would like to do something. @ViewAhead Just this morning, I read a German blog where a regret was expressed that a bird of prey caught a sparrow near the bird feeder. On the other side, she mentioned that a friend of hers living in the countryside told her that hardly any birds can be found in the country side. If I were a bird of prey, I would also look for food where it can be found. I'm always surprised how many people lack the ability of putting ends together.
There’s such a difference between the thinking of town folk and country folk. Town folk think they need to feed every single animal from parrots to foxes, usually with totally unsuitable food. Hedgehog feeding has become big business, whereas they would be better if people would just dig up worms for them, that’s their staple diet, not cat/dog biscuits. Meal worms are a killer for hedgehogs but still they’ll be bought.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
I regularly see decapitated or plucked pigeons on my dog walks because we seem to have a few local sparrowhawks. I very rarely see them in a garden, perhaps twice a year, but know they are probably about before me. The thing is evidence shows they don't really affect the local bird population at all and they have a large territory. I would much rather see a bird of prey killing something than someone's well fed cat (which you are far more likely to see patrolling the local bird feeders). Magpies are a far bigger killer to our song birds here.
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I ♥ my garden.
I ♥ my garden.
Locally we have plenty of people feeding the birds and most of the food is either spat out, or left to go mouldy, because there is such an abundance. The only thing the birds seemed to eat when we had feeders up was suet pellets and alot of that ended on the floor.
I think people just feel good when they are making an effort to "help" nature and I've had some difficult conversations with people when I've pointed out some of the potential downfalls.
@ViewAhead Just this morning, I read a German blog where a regret was expressed that a bird of prey caught a sparrow near the bird feeder. On the other side, she mentioned that a friend of hers living in the countryside told her that hardly any birds can be found in the country side.
If I were a bird of prey, I would also look for food where it can be found.
I'm always surprised how many people lack the ability of putting ends together.
I ♥ my garden.
Town folk think they need to feed every single animal from parrots to foxes, usually with totally unsuitable food. Hedgehog feeding has become big business, whereas they would be better if people would just dig up worms for them, that’s their staple diet, not cat/dog biscuits. Meal worms are a killer for hedgehogs but still they’ll be bought.