Home tweet home
Best boxes and boltholes f or birdies
VALENTINE’S Day is for true love birds, marking the new breeding season for our feathered friends.
It is also kicks off Nest Box Week, where we can give wild birds a home and a better chance of survival.
Natural nest sites such as holes in trees and buildings are disappearing fast, as people carry out home improvements and woods are tidied.
Messy borders act as bird magnets so leave dead flower heads, which attract chaffinches and greenfinches.
Do not clear up leaves either, and you will find carnivorous birds such as robins and blackbirds, scratching around in the leaf litter for mini beasts.
Consider hanging up net bags filled with hair from the hairdresser’s – birds love it for lining their nests.
Try to put up two or three boxes for different species for maximum results. Target once-common birds such as house sparrows and starlings that are in decline and need extra help.
It is becoming harder for house sparrows to find nesting sites, so plant evergreen shrubs and climbers, stop using chemicals and put boxes a few feet apart. Go for special sparrow flats boxes that let them breed in colonies. fr from dense shrubs, fences and a anything else that makes life easy for predators. Protect boxes from strong sun, winds and rain and you will soon h have a family making it their home.
Keeping birds well fed during the winter is important and can mean the difference between life and death.
Make nourishing cakes by mixing melted beef dripping with unsalted, unroasted peanuts, sunflower and niger seeds along with grated cheese and dried fruit, soaked overnight.
Mould the mix into balls and hang them in the branches.
Avoid putting feeding stations close to nest boxes. The regular presence of other birds of the same species in their territory will make the parent birds focus on driving out competitors rather than feeding their young.
As part of Nest Box Week, organisers the British Trust for Ornithology is asking people to take part in its Nest Box Challenge.
To get involved, put your box up then monitor the comings and goings and the number of eggs and chicks.
QNoisy
Noisy and gregarious, these little birds feed on insects and will gobble up bread, grated cheese and specially formulated seed mixes, so lure them in with a well-stocked bird table.
Birds need nest sites where they feel safe and sheltered, so place yours away