Nature Notebook

Great Tit © Yana Northen

Feed the Birds

Brrrr, it’s cold out there…are you giving our feathered friends a helping hand?

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Worcestershire Wildlife Trust @WorcsWT t worcestershirewildlifetrust G worcswildlifetrust.co.uk w If you feed the birds you’ve got something in common with more than half the UK’s households. Gardens can offer important refuges for birds and other wildlife. In the last 50 to 60 years, we’ve lost an estimated 44 million breeding birds in the UK so the fat ball or seed that you put out each day may be a lifeline for some of your avian visitors.

What should you put out, though? High-energy sunflower seeds are a favourite; goldfinches were once tempted into gardens for nyger seeds but, in my garden at least, these don’t get a second look-in if sunflower seeds are available. If you’ve got a peanut feeder, expect to see blue and great tits regularly. If you’re lucky you’ll get a party of long-tailed tits clustering around it or perhaps even a great spotted woodpecker flying in. Keep these high energy treats in a wire mesh feeder (don’t use nylon mesh) so that birds aren’t able to take them whole, especially during the breeding season when nestlings can easily choke on them.

Suet provides a great energy boost and, as well as buying fat balls and blocks, you can make your own by melting lard or suet (animal fats offer longer-lasting energy than vegetable-based versions) and rolling it in seeds before hanging it out. A good seed mix will include sunflowers and smaller seeds like millet, which will attract birds from house sparrows to chaffinches. Avoid mixes that contain lots of wheat, barley or split peas as these are usually only polished off by bigger birds like wood pigeons. If you’ve got the space, offer some natural food – from apple trees to berry-laden shrubs to not cutting back ivy until early spring. Not dead-heading plants like teasels, lavender, sunflowers and verbena will give goldfinches and other birds the chance to eat the seeds. Nooks, crannies, log piles and leaf litter all provide shelter for minibeasts that dunnocks and wrens can hunt for and feast on.

You can throw out table scraps but check that they don’t include sugar or salt. Cooking fat – in fact, anything that’s sticky or smeary – is bad news as it can affect insulation and waterproofing if a bird wipes their beak on its feathers. Bread should only be put out in small quantities because it has such limited nutritional value (soaked is better than dry and brown is better than white).

Hang feeders out of the way of ground predators like cats and, if possible, site them a metre or two from the cover of bushes or trees. Don’t forget to clean both feeders and birdbaths regularly to reduce the chance of disease transmission.

Watching the birds that come to your feeders can provide hours of entertainment. You’ll get to see the different characters of different species and learn how they interact. If you’ve got a camera handy, you might even be able to capture the action and enter our photo competition – the photo above is one of last year’s winners. Find out more at www. worcswildlifetrust.co.uk/photography-competition n

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