just want to correct my spelling of pasta and to remind people if they do put bread out for the birds that brown would be best and always wet it first so that it swells before it gets into their tummies and kills them.
I don't know enough about bird nutrition to have a real answer. I do know the many varieties of wild birds we're lucky enough to see in our Sussex garden devour anything we leave out at the moment. In fact if there's nothing out one of the cheekier little birds like the robin comes and sits on a patio chair in view of the kitchen window as a hint!
My question is how to balance helping wildlife with the needs of my plants? I 've read that it's good not to be too tidy - to leave seedheads, berries and so on as food and shelter for wild birds and other wildlife. Yet the 'what to do now' pages encourage tidying and chopping back now. Surely this is the hardest part of the winter for birds. And by lots of tidying aren't we taking away the more natural sources of food which would probably be better? But what happens to my plants if I don't cut back now? Any suggestions??
IFeed The Birds With Fat Balls And Bird Seed.And Nuts,And Last Year I Put Out Some Nigor Seed And I So Goldfinches For The First Time What A Beautiful Bird It Is So Colourful I Feed Other Birds i See Blue Tits Coal Tits Sparraws And I See Black Birds So I Put Apples Out Under The Trees I Enjoy Watching The Birds And I Think I Am Helping Them Get Through The Winter
i to put out fat balls nuts etc.this week i have put out left over veg ie carrot sprouts coli peas,it has been eaten a bit .i have put bread on top of the headge as the birds sit in the tree next door which is next to said hedge and all has dissapeared by the morning.we have two cats that are to lazy to go out and the birds stay at the top of the garden and can see the cats leave the house giving them time to get away so they do sit on the raised beds to eat scraps .sparrows do enjoy the seeds around the pond and sit on the grasses.which seems unbelievable that the grass should hold their. weight
Has anyone noticed more long tailed tits this year than most, here there seem to be even more than usual and they have been here for longer than usual too ? PG
Pippa - for the first time ever I saw long-tailed tits about a week ago, about 8 of them flitted around a bird feeder for about a minute, then off they went, and I haven't seen them since. N Ireland.
'Old apple' good to hear that the log tailed tits have visited you too, we still have a few but more intermittent now, and still in clutches of six or more, they're seriously gregarious!
I too tried nijer seed, none of the local birds were interested...but they know what they like arou8nd here - turn their beaks up at bread, cake or any other more 'human style' food...and I don't like cheese for them as I am concerned about the very high salt cntenet which I was told we should avoid ?!
i also have long tailed tits visiting for the first time, a great sight watching there antics usually about 6/8 birds.i also have four gold finches who visit regularly.on occasions we see a green woodpecker pecking at the lawn which is a real treat.our cat has taken to sitting on the bird table!i think he thinks there just going to fly straight in his mouth.
I started feeding the birds for the first time last winter and have been doing so ever since. I've used two sweet-pea wigwams and have a mixture of fat balls, suet cake thingies, peanuts and sunflower hearts - oh, and niger, although I've never once seen greenfinches. My worry is that today at around 4pm, I saw a rat cleverly move from a 6 foot hedge onto the wigwam and straight onto the bird cake. It's a 200 foot steep garden and the feeders are half way up. Should I be concerned about this and should I stop feeding the birds? My neighbours have a jungle of a garden and I know other people feed the birds also - in other words, the rats aren't gonna go away. Please tell me they won't move into the house tho!! What advice.
I have just put up a new bird station in my garden with all the right food on for them ,, i read up on what to put up out for them , as i,m new to this . but not one bird has been on it yet. does it take w hile for them to find it? any info would be very helpful.
Posts
My question is how to balance helping wildlife with the needs of my plants?
I 've read that it's good not to be too tidy - to leave seedheads, berries and so on as food and shelter for wild birds and other wildlife. Yet the 'what to do now' pages encourage tidying and chopping back now. Surely this is the hardest part of the winter for birds. And by lots of tidying aren't we taking away the more natural sources of food which would probably be better?
But what happens to my plants if I don't cut back now? Any suggestions??
PG
I too tried nijer seed, none of the local birds were interested...but they know what they like arou8nd here - turn their beaks up at bread, cake or any other more 'human style' food...and I don't like cheese for them as I am concerned about the very high salt cntenet which I was told we should avoid ?!