Читать книгу Your Wildlife Garden - Jackie Bennett - Страница 9

This is probably the month during which garden birds benefit most from a little human intervention.

Natural food sources like windfallen apples and hawthorn berries have been used up by the population of local birds, in competition with visitors from the Arctic north who take refuge in gardens at this time of year. Insects are in hibernation, the ground is frozen solid and water sources are iced over. It is therefore vital to feed birds regularly, putting out food every day. Early morning is the best time, although you can put out a second ‘feed’ in the early afternoon. Fresh water is important too, even if you have a pond — many birds will drink from the bird table and wash their feathers in the pond.

Put out a range of food, on the ground and on the table. Include hanging feeders with nuts for tits, sparrows and rarer visitors like siskins; apples on the ground for blackbirds and thrushes; and seeds, nuts and fat on the table for robins, starlings and other species. They will come to rely on this food supply, so once you’ve begun to feed keep it up until the worst of the winter is over.

Recommended Bird Food

Peanuts These should be unsalted, although the salt can be washed off and the nuts dried thoroughly. Commercially produced nuts should bear the Birdfood Standards Association’s seal of approval. This guarantees the nuts are free from contamination by aflatoxin, a toxin produced in nuts which have not been harvested and packed correctly, sometimes resulting in death to birds who eat them.

Sunflower seeds Wild bird food mixtures containing sunflower and other seeds are available from suppliers advertising in bird magazines and, increasingly, from hardware and pet shops.

Half a coconut Drill a hole in the top and use string to hang the shell downwards so that it stays dry. Don’t use desiccated coconut as it tends to swell up inside the bird.

Kitchen scraps Not all food scraps are suitable. Try bacon rind, suet, dry porridge oats, cheese, baked potatoes, apples and raisins. Stale bread or cake is acceptable but it should be soaked in water to make it easier to swallow.

RECIPE for bird cake

¼kg (½lb) suet or lard, melted

½kg (1lb) dry ‘cake’ mixture: seeds, nuts, oats, dried fruits, cake etc

A mould: small bowl, half a coconut shell or empty plastic carton

Put the dry mixture into the mould and pour the melted fat over it. If you intend to hang the ‘cake’ from the bird table, place a piece of string in the bowl before pouring in the fat. Leave to set and tip out onto the bird table.