What to do …
The jobs you should be doing to attract wildlife to your outdoor space.
IN this series, I will be providing information on what you can do to encourage more birds to your garden – whatever its size. Outside spaces range from small balconies in urban flats to several acres in some rural areas, but the principle is the same and this advice can be adapted to what you have.
Winter brings more birds to gardens in search of food and shelter – two things that can be catered for no matter the size of your garden. Nestboxes aren’t just needed in spring for nesting birds; they can also play a vital role as roosting sites during the winter months. There are also plenty of feeding alternatives we can add to our everyday wildlife gardening routines.
Let’s start with three simple tasks you can do to attract wintering birds.
• Plant winter-fruiting trees: you don’t need an orchard to have fruiting trees in your garden. There are many ‘patio’ varieties which stay small, while regular pruning will also keep the trees compact.
Cherry and Crab Apple are two that are brilliant during the winter months, providing glossy red cherries or sour-tasting apples for winter thrushes to enjoy.
These trees can be kept in large containers or planted in a border with well-drained soil.
Other species that provide food for birds during winter are Lupin and Teasel. Some varieties of clematis such as Clematis vitalba
are also good; this climbing plant acts as a great space saver as you can grow it up a trellis – it’s also brilliant for birds both for its nectar-rich flowers and as cover.
• Add substance to your mixes:
many of us buy ready-made bags of seed, but during winter, birds require additional fat and protein to give them a boost of energy and warmth. Easy additions to your tube feeders are suet pellets. If you have a bird table, tray or ground feeders, then add some ground oats, dried mealworms or sultanas as these are cheap and easy to acquire.
• Invest in nesting pockets:
nestboxes provide a great home for roosting birds during winter and you may get more than one using it. Eurasian Wren, for example, is known to roost in numbers. If you don’t have a structure or tree on which to mount a nestbox, though, an alternative is a roosting pocket – these can be bought from most garden bird suppliers and provide a shelter that you put in a shrub or bush in your garden.
These are easy things you can do this winter to attract birds to your outdoor space. Each season we will have different tasks to benefit the wildlife in your garden.
Dan Rouse