It is a real joy to see (and hear) so many birds in and around the garden – especially at this time of year when they are so much more visible, with no leaves on the trees. They do appreciate some supplementary feeding to see them through the winter, and we have got several feeding stations around the garden, which provide a great opportunity for the visitors to watch the birds at close quarters.
I have just spent a very pleasant hour sat in the Fruit & Veg Garden (where we have one of the feeding stations), taking part in the ‘Big Garden Birdwatch’ – a survey of garden birds, organised by the RSPB and now in its 30th year. All you have to do is record the highest number of each species you see at any one time during one hour of the weekend of 24/25 January.
Our results were:
Chaffinch 12
Long Tailed Tit 6
House Sparrow 4
Blue Tit 4
Robin 3
Nuthatch 2
Blackbird 2
Great Tit 2
Coal Tit 2
Marsh Tit 1
Greater Spotted Woodpecker 1
Pheasant 1
Which is quite a wide selection!
As well as enjoining seeing the birds in the garden and listening to their song, we hope they will repay us for feeding them through the winter, by helping us in controlling the pests which attack our fruit and veg through the summer. A pair of Blue Tits for example, will take thousands of caterpillars to rear just one brood of chicks – invaluable if you are troubled by the cabbage white butterfly caterpillars on your brassicas!
So, as well as feeding the birds we have put up over 100 nest boxes throughout the garden to encourage and help them breed. I check these once a year and have just finished the annual inspection and clean-out. It is always an interesting job – you are never quite sure what you might find when you open the lid!
This year, two of the boxes had bats roosting in them, in another one a dormouse had taken up residence – fast asleep in his ball of dried leaves and grass, and one more was full to overflowing with a colony of wasps. Most of the rest were used by various birds ranging from the really neat Blue Tit nest crafted from moss and lichen and wool, to the really messy sparrow’s nest which is a total tangle of straw, grass, string and plastic!
