Bird Feeders

One of my #gardeninggoals2019 was to hang bird feeders around the garden to provide an additional food source for the many birds which visit the garden. There is nothing I love more than heading out in the morning to potter in the garden with the chorus of accompanying birdsong on full volume! In order to keep hearing that beautiful soundtrack, I feel I need to do my bit to add to the range of natural nutrition available for my tuneful friends.

Birds are a welcome sight in the garden as they feast on many of those garden insects we think of as pests: slugs, aphids, caterpillars. Attract more into your garden now and you’ll set a path for them to fly back along come Spring and Summer when you most need them to help in the circle of life.

I’ve started with a simple bird feeder which you can buy for a couple of pounds and a seed mix. I intend to add to this so I have four of these but this first one is hung so I can see it from my kitchen window and I can monitor how long the seed fill lasts and which types of birds are popping by.

It is estimated that around 48% of households in the UK regularly leave out food for our feathered friends, with gardeners in the UK spending an estimated £200 million a year on bird food.

All advice on feeding birds is to keep the supply of food regular. Whether you are using seed mixes, fat balls, dried mealworms, peanuts, soaked raisins, grated cheese or cut up fruit, if you start to provide food, do keep it up as certain birds will make you garden a regular stop on their flight path looking for that nourishment.

My bird feeder is not fancy, it doesn’t take much planning to keep it topped up but it is my start to doing a bit more to help those in the garden who will both help, and keep me company.