Peckishguests
...and how to keep them happy this Christmas
WHILE you’re snug indoors over winter, spare a thought for our garden birds. Many will struggle to survive when temperatures plummet or snow falls, finding it hard to uncover food, water or a place to take shelter.
Fortunately, we can help. Ensure they always have fresh water to drink or to bathe in and install a number of different feeders. Fill them with some high-energy food and birds stand a much better chance of making it through the next few months.
If you really want to go the extra mile, plant a selection of the right trees, shrubs, climbers and perennials and take a more relaxed approach to garden maintenance. It will turn the least wildlife-friendly plot into the ultimate bird sanctuary.
It’s worth the effort. Apart from making our gardens more exciting, birds are an ally in the battle against pests. Blackbirds eat slugs, great tits like greenfly and thrushes are partial to snails.
The quickest way to make a difference is to dot a few feeding devices around the garden. A polemounted or hanging bird table will be popular among shy species, although chaffinches, blackbirds, thrushes and robins will prefer to dine from a ground-feeding table. Suspend tubular feeders from the branches of a tree or mount on to a bracket attached to a wall or fence.
Alternatively, push a feeder pole into your lawn, border or secure to a stand so it can be placed on a patio. I’ve got one in my garden. The top of the 6ft tall metal pole has four hooks carrying tubular feeders.
If squirrels are a problem in your garden, choose a feeder protected by a wire cage.
Position feeding devices carefully. Birds will only use them if they feel safe from predators, so place where they have a clear view of the garden and can fly to cover if necessary – ideally within 7ft of a tree, shrub or hedge. Don’t use groundfeeding devices if your garden is popular with cats and avoid putting hanging feeders above shrubs or ground-cover plants, where they could catch birds off guard.
There’s a bewildering number of different birdseed mixes available to use with feeders. Keep things simple with a high-energy mix. It will contain ingredients such as peanuts, sunflower hearts, maize, oats, sultanas, red millet, white millet, canary seed, maize, hemp and oilseed rape. Mixes can vary wildly in price, from around €1 per kg to those that are more expensive than a packet of luxury muesli. A blend that costs €2 to €3 per kg will do the trick.
Birds also need plenty of water. Keep bird baths, dishes and hanging bowls topped up and ensure they have access to it in a cold snap by removing any ice that forms.
Awell-planted garden will provide birds with shelter, cover, security, natural food and places to raise their young. Conceal vertical surfaces with a selection of berry-bearing climbers or wall shrubs, such as Pyracantha, Ivy, Cotoneaster and Honeysuckle.
Hedges provide nesting sites and a place to retreat to if alarmed, while flowering perennials and native flowers entice insects that many birds like to eat. Add a few wispy grasses to your borders – birds like to collect the leaves when making nests in spring.
In my opinion, a tree is essential. Birch, holly, hawthorn and elder are ideal as they have flowers to attract insects, berries for birds to eat and gaps for them to take shelter or make nests. You can even hang feeders from the branches. If you’re strapped for space, go for a compact crab apple, mountain ash or Kilmarnock willow (Salix caprea ‘ Kilmarnock’), a weeping tree that rarely grows above 6ft. All can be planted in beds, borders and lawns, or even be raised in large pots.
Resist the temptation to keep your garden as clean as a whistle and it will be irresistible to birds. Allow some windfall fruit to remain on the lawn for ground-feeding birds and don’t be in a hurry to rake up all the leaves – dot a few small piles around the garden so birds can upturn them looking for slugs and other creatures to eat.
Leave border perennials to die back naturally, rather than chopping everything down to ground level in autumn. Apart from adding sculptural interest to the winter garden, many border pernnials have seed heads that are an important source of food for birds. Among the most robust that can be left well into the New Year are Sedum, Achillea, Helichrysum and Monarda.