UPDATED The Birds in your garden (General Garden)

Member Name: queenofsheba

Product:	General Garden
Date:	06/05/01 (99 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: very entertaining to watch, birds will come back year after year, birds eat slugs and grubs from the garden

Disadvantages: can be a little bit messy if you have a lot of bird visitors

I have always fed the birds in my garden, I think perhaps because I was encouraged fom an early age by my granny who was a member of the RSPB.

It's a lovely to be able to look out over the garden as I tap away on the computer and be able to see a little community of birds flocking around the table quite often in a feeding frenzy!As you get to know them you will see their characters and personalities develop and they do become like pets, and will let you get quite close to them. The birds in my garden are now so familiar they will even take a bath when I am sitting in the garden close by.


I would encourage everyone to try and do their bit to give wild birds a helping hand not just in the winter but all the year round, they need help when they are nesting too.Another good reason is that they will eat a lot of the horrible grubs and snails and slugs that cause destruction to your flowers and veggies.

It needn't be that expensive, you don't have to spend a lot on specialist feeds and equipment unless you wish to attract a particular species to your garden,you don't even have to have a garden.For instance a few years ago I lived in flat but I had a very small balcony so my partner attatched a hanging basket bracket to the wall from which I hung a nut feeder, I also put out an old stool with a stainless steel bowl on the top for water as birds will still need to bathe and drink in the wintertime too.We only got a few birds such as a robin,blue tits and a couple of sparrows but every little helps.


If you can get your hands on one an old dustbin lid will serve as a great birdbath or bird table if you add hanging basket chains to this and hang it up on a tree so that it's out of reach of cats.


On to feeding. You can put many kitchen scraps in addition to the the usual breadcrumbs out for the birds such as bacon rind apples and apple cores, leftover cake, especially fruitcake. If I grill burger
s I tip the fat out of the pan onto the bread that I'm putting out the next day,you can do the same if you grill steaks or bacon or lamb chops,the birds absolutely love it.Try a halved coconut,if you can find somewhere to hang it, blue tits in particular really love it and once they have eaten the flesh you can fill it with something else.Some of the birds are also quite partial to tomatoes.


Getting the children involved is a great idea if you can't have a pet in the home. They will love to help make a bird seed or leftovers and scraps cake.If you want to find a recipe for bird cakes have a look at the About.com site. They have a lot of recipes that are quick and easy to make using things from your storecupboard.They also have a "how to" on making your own birdbath out of a few claypots which I thought was excellent. That's something else you could get the kids to help you with.


Please if you are feeding the birds DO NOT give salted peanuts as these will kill them.


Take advice from your local pet shop if you are worried about anything you want to put out at feeding time, they will be happy to advise you.

The RSPB will send you out a booklet about feeding the birds together with a catalogue of feeds and feeders not just for the birds but squirrels and hedgehogs and even bats they may even send you a small pack of birdseed to get you started.


I'd just like to mention hygeine. It is very important to keep your feeding area scrupiously clean as our little friends are succeptable to diseases many of which can be passed on to humans.So brush off food table every day and wash it down at least once a week. The bird bath will need washing out too, maybe more often than once a week in the summertime. Again you can buy specialist safe cleaning fluids for this but I'm on quite a tight budget so if the pressure washer is out I use that and if not then I use a bowl of boiling hot
water and a scrubbing brush and I wear rubber gloves. I keep the gloves and brush for that purpose only.

Another thing I like to do is to put out the fluff from my tumble dryer in the spring.Try it and see them come along and lift it to line their nests.



It is important to try and feed the birds as many of them are now declining, such as the common sparrow,blue tits, bullfinches and even starlings are disappearing fast.This is due to ever changing climates and the disappearance of their natural habitats as the human population continues to expand and we are "forced" to build on it.


One last point if you do decide to start feeding wildbirds you will need to keep it up every day as they get used to being able to find food in your garden/backyard/balcony and will become quite dependant on you,even more so in the winter time when live food is scarce.


Bear in mind that during the winter the bird bath will freeze over and you will have to go out and break the ice for them. I read somewhere that you could try and place a small ball such as a ping pong ball on the water, any slight breeze will move the ball in the water and therefore stop the water freezing.This does work wonderfully unless temperatures are exceptionally low, but even if the water does freeze over,underneath the ball will still be a little unfrozen hole of water which wil give you a starting point to break the ice off easily.

So you see you can help them in lots of ways throughout the year with just a few minutes time and effort each day and very little money at all.


You will be rewarded in your efforts when the birds you have been caring for bring their young ones to feed in your garden who will in turn also come back year after year.


Please feed the birdies.

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