During the spring and summer, garden bird feeders are a treat for harassed parents coping with demanding nestlings. When the youngsters leave home, they find the feeders a great help while they are learning to fend for themselves, in the same way that students are grateful for fast-food outlets. And of course, come winter, seed and nut feeders should be regularly stocked up and fresh water made available. If you don’t already put out food for the birds, start now and enjoy the life and colour they bring to the winter garden.
To attract the widest variety, buy both seed and peanut feeders. If you want to attract goldfinches, whose bright flashes of gold and red make them look almost too exotic to be a native species, get a special niger seed feeder. The best feeders carry the RSPB logo (you can buy them from www.rspbshop.co.uk). S-shaped hooks are ideal for hanging from a branch, as it’s so easy to lift the feeders off them for refilling and cleaning. Make sure you place them high enough to be out of reach of cats, foxes and children. Or buy a purpose-made stand. If you have grey squirrels around, look for the feeders with protective wire cages to keep the squirrels from raiding and emptying them. Red squirrels also help themselves to peanuts but they’re not as greedy as their American cousins, and who could begrudge them anyway? Fat is a good way for birds to get a fast energy fix in the winter, but if you buy fat balls be sure to remove the mesh, as birds’ feet can get caught in the fine nylon threads. Place them in a metal holder instead.
Blackbirds and thrushes love fruit, so instead of binning or composting your apple cores and peelings, throw them out for the birds to enjoy, together with any bruised or slightly overripe fruit from the bottom of the bowl. Leftover cooked potatoes, rice dishes, and stale bread (preferably wholegrain) are always welcome – why bin it when birds will eat it?
Fresh clean water will attract all kinds of birds, both for drinking and for bathing. The usual design of birdbath is too shallow for larger birds; a shallow beach area on the edge of the garden pond can be a place where they can bathe – though the smaller ones will use it too, even on the coldest days.
Keep birdbaths and bird feeders clean to stop diseases spreading. A quick sluice in hot water with washing up liquid and a rinse is all it takes.
When you’re buying plants for your garden, think about the birds so they can help themselves even when you’ve forgotten to top up the feeders. Blossoms in spring provide food for finches, as do catkins, which are strings of tiny nutritious seeds. Berrying and fruiting trees and shrubs such as holly, cotoneaster, privet, spindle, blackthorn and hawthorn will all add variety to garden birds’ diet and attract migrants – as I write the rowan tree outside is thronged with migrating redwings en route from Scandinavia. Feed the birds this winter and next year they’ll repay you by eating juicy pests like caterpillars and aphids.
To inspire:
Winter Gardens, Duthie Park, Polmuir Road, Aberdeen, Open 9.30am – 3.30pm
Covering around 44 acres, Duthie Park has been open to the public for over 125 years. Its attractions include a bandstand, fountains, ponds and statues – and the spectacular Winter Gardens, which house many exotic plants, including collections of cacti and bromeliads which are second in Britain only to the Eden Project in Cornwall, as well as tree ferns, Spanish moss, anthuria and banana trees. There’s a cafe in the park with toilet facilities, and plenty of car parking, or you can walk from the city centre in about 15 minutes.
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