Tuesday 4 November 2008

Feed the birds................



I love the birds that visit the garden year -round. Now the garden is well-established after over ten years or so's planting, there are plenty of thick shrubs, trees and bushes for them to hide in, congregate and generally make a noise in! teh feeders are out all year - I have several for nuts and seeds, one for apples to be impaled on, and two birdtables; water dishes are put out too. I made some birdfood the other day from some spare pork fat from a very fatty piece of pork I was cooking. Ijust melted it down, put in plenty of mixed seeds, let it cool, then set it in the fridge. It'll be cut up today and put out on the tables for them. I also put out bread, fruit, etc.
We get a good variety of birds visiting - blue tits, great tits, green finches, sparrows, pigeons and collared doves, jackdaws, crows, starlings, wrens, robins. Occasional visitors are sparrowhawks, bullfinches, a woodpecker and a dunnock. I'm sure there are others I've missed, though. My kitchen window looks out over the back garden , where I can watch the birds at quite close quarters. We have a few nestboxes up, but no-one has chosen to use them yet. Maybe one day we'll be so honoured. :)

5 comments:

Heart in the country said...

I so agree with you, it is lovely looking out of the window to see the birds feeding. We have a robin who sits on the fence outside the kitchen window if the bird feeder is empty as if to say "come on get your act together", the rest of the time he just flits from feeder to feeder.

Kx

nita x said...

i agree, i love to see the birds in the garden, we have a little robin who sits on the fence watching us in the kitchen, also a magpie with a bent foot, been here for 3 years now, always check hes still around hobbling along, must be getting enough food and shelter. and also a very fat wood pigeon who sits and waits for the soya milk bean remnants to arrive on the compost bin and then promptly starts eating them.

Sal said...

I love to read posts like this as we too love the birds in our garden.We've been feeding a pheasant, by hand, since last winter! Our garden is a hive of activity with such varied birdlife. We are very lucky and as I always say,it does not cost a penny to watch it all. ;-)

Leanne said...

I love birds, and would love to feed them, but I havent done so for a couple of years- having 5 cats makes that so dangerous- i cannot tempt them into danger with food.

I am hoping to be able to put a feeder up in the front garden of my new home, the cats will not be encouraged to go out the front, and theres no direct access from the back of the house/ garden to the front. i will try- but if it proves too risky for the birds, i will take it down again..

leanne x

Teena Vallerine said...

Always worth a chat with the RSPB about nest boxes. We moved our finch feeder two metres from where it was originally positioned and the result was almost immediate in the increase of visitors! I'm sure nest boxes are the same! We're hoping to get a barn owl in an owl box one day! t.x