How to support nesting birds
• Keep your dog on a leash in wild places, so that they do not disturb ground nesting birds such as the almost-wiped out hen harriers, meadow pipits, skylarks and snipe. is includes being very careful with your dogs on beaches that support populations of ringed plover, little tern and oystercatcher. ey literally lay their eggs on the shingle or in the dunes and they are so vulnerable. Keep your cats inside as much as you can, particularly between dusk and dawn. Make them wear a ‘bird be safe’ collar. ese collars really help birds see them coming, giving them a chance to escape.
• Please don’t cut hedges and other vegetation between March1 and August 31. e law is there to support birds that are already under such stress.
• If you haven’t any mature hedges in your Ark, then it is worth investing in a weatherproof, safe nest box, attached securely to a tree trunk or the side of your house, high enough to keep the threat of cats away and preferably with a little shelter. If you can get one with a camera in it, even better!
• Offer some suitable nest-building materials like piles of dried grass stems, twigs, moss and so leaves. Feathers, pine needles and strips of bark are also welcome. Leave out baskets of them or pack them into bird feeders and hang them on your washing line.
• Don’t leave out any material that is longer than an inch, as birds can get their little feet tangled in it. Forget about dryer lint, tinfoil, plastic of any kind or any artificial materials. All of these are damaging to our fluffy nest builders. Avoid pet hair if you use insecticides for eas and ticks, as the residue will damage the birds and their offspring.
• Provide a nice wet muddy area for swallows to collect material for their nests, built so ingeniously from mud.
• Gradually replace garden wall and fence boundaries with native hedgerows. These are the perfect nesting and foraging sites for our little birds.
• Plant native trees and shrubs and allow the native wild herbs to populate your Ark. These are the larval food plants for all our native insects, (not the garden centre plants from farflung shores). Native plants are the foundation of the whole local food web. Birds need between 300 – 800 larvae such as caterpillars and grubs every day, for around six weeks, to feed a brood of hungry chicks. No native plants, no baby bird food. You can feed them a supply of meal worms and grubs if you can nd them, but factory-grown grubs are a little like fast food. It may ll their bellies, but it is not a healthy whole food. Also, too much support of our wild birds can be detrimental, as their cultural memories can be wiped out in a generation or two, same as ourselves. It’s best to provide the native plants which supports insects to grow a new generation of their species, which happens to also be the best baby food for birds.
Mary Reynolds no longer describes herself as a gardener but as a guardian, focusing on restoring native biodiversity to our gardens (and balconies and terraces), enhancing their natural beauty, while encouraging wildlife, working with the seasons and helping conserve native Irish species. wearetheark.org