Friday 30 December 2016
Kennedy Wild Bird Foods: Feed The Birds
Kennedy Wild Bird Foods: Feed The Birds: The best way to encourage birds into your garden is very simple: give them food. Garden birds bring music, colour and charisma to a garden....
Thursday 22 December 2016
Feed The Birds
The best way to encourage birds into your garden is very simple: give them food.
Garden birds bring music, colour and charisma to a garden. And gardens have become important to birds, providing havens for declining species.
Goldfinch . Credit: Dave Pearson
Natural food
The most natural way of providing food for birds is to grow it. If your garden plants have fruit, berries, hips, seeds and nuts, they'll be a larder for birds, particularly in late summer and autumn.
The plants in your garden will also harbour birds' other natural food source - insects and other invertebrates. These are especially important during the breeding season. Features such as long grass, flowers, hedges, trees, dead wood, compost heaps and ponds all encourage invertebrates and therefore birds.
Providing food
Vary the mix of foods to encourage a good mix of birds. Garden birds come in different shapes and sizes and all have different preferences. Sunflower seeds are popular with greenfinches, whereas goldfinches prefer niger seed. Kitchen scraps add variety to a bird's diet. In winter fat balls provide a great calorie boost for hungry birds, and in the breeding season putting out mealworms will provide an excellent protein source for birds with hungry chicks to feed.
Use a variety of feeding techniques and locations to attract as many birds as possible into your garden. Bird feeders are likely to attract many finches, tits, sparrows and even great spotted woodpeckers, but for any larger birds a bird table is a good addition. Many birds, such as thrushes and blackbirds, feed on the ground, while treecreepers benefit from food smeared into cracks in treetrunks.
Safety
Some food can be harmful to birds, so take care what you put out. Salty foods should never be put out, and dried foods such as desiccated coconut can be fatal as they swell in birds' stomachs. Dry bread should be moistened first for this reason. Choking is another potential hazard, mainly for young birds. Whole peanuts should not be used during the breeding season. Birds are susceptible to food poisoning too, and raw meats or mouldy food should not be provided.
Hygiene is important, and feeding stations should be cleaned regularly, with uneaten food replaced when it starts to spoil. Ideally the location of feeding stations should be changed regularly, to prevent bird droppings from accumulating and spreading disease.
Be careful to site feeders in places that cats can't reach, and with good all round vision to allow the birds to keep up their vigilance. If feeders have to be near vegetation, then a prickly bush, or one clipped closely around the base, should be unsuitable as an ambush point for felines. Sparrowhawks and other natural predators may also be discouraging to some wildlife gardeners, but these are unlikely to cause significant damage to populations. To many it is a real thrill to have a hunting sparrowhawk visit the garden, and is a clear sign of an ecosystem functioning well.
Garden birds bring music, colour and charisma to a garden. And gardens have become important to birds, providing havens for declining species.
Goldfinch . Credit: Dave Pearson
Natural food
The most natural way of providing food for birds is to grow it. If your garden plants have fruit, berries, hips, seeds and nuts, they'll be a larder for birds, particularly in late summer and autumn.
The plants in your garden will also harbour birds' other natural food source - insects and other invertebrates. These are especially important during the breeding season. Features such as long grass, flowers, hedges, trees, dead wood, compost heaps and ponds all encourage invertebrates and therefore birds.
Providing food
Vary the mix of foods to encourage a good mix of birds. Garden birds come in different shapes and sizes and all have different preferences. Sunflower seeds are popular with greenfinches, whereas goldfinches prefer niger seed. Kitchen scraps add variety to a bird's diet. In winter fat balls provide a great calorie boost for hungry birds, and in the breeding season putting out mealworms will provide an excellent protein source for birds with hungry chicks to feed.
Use a variety of feeding techniques and locations to attract as many birds as possible into your garden. Bird feeders are likely to attract many finches, tits, sparrows and even great spotted woodpeckers, but for any larger birds a bird table is a good addition. Many birds, such as thrushes and blackbirds, feed on the ground, while treecreepers benefit from food smeared into cracks in treetrunks.
Safety
Some food can be harmful to birds, so take care what you put out. Salty foods should never be put out, and dried foods such as desiccated coconut can be fatal as they swell in birds' stomachs. Dry bread should be moistened first for this reason. Choking is another potential hazard, mainly for young birds. Whole peanuts should not be used during the breeding season. Birds are susceptible to food poisoning too, and raw meats or mouldy food should not be provided.
Hygiene is important, and feeding stations should be cleaned regularly, with uneaten food replaced when it starts to spoil. Ideally the location of feeding stations should be changed regularly, to prevent bird droppings from accumulating and spreading disease.
Be careful to site feeders in places that cats can't reach, and with good all round vision to allow the birds to keep up their vigilance. If feeders have to be near vegetation, then a prickly bush, or one clipped closely around the base, should be unsuitable as an ambush point for felines. Sparrowhawks and other natural predators may also be discouraging to some wildlife gardeners, but these are unlikely to cause significant damage to populations. To many it is a real thrill to have a hunting sparrowhawk visit the garden, and is a clear sign of an ecosystem functioning well.
Wednesday 14 December 2016
The RSPB’s Great Garden Birdwatch 2017
What is the Big Garden Birdwatch?
The Big Garden Birdwatch is a great way of helping the RSPB build a picture of all our garden wildlife across the UK. It means, as a nation we can get involved and identify what wildlife is in danger - and what is thriving.
So with Christmas less than a fortnight away, it’s never too early to start thinking about the wildlife you’ll be watching in your garden for 2017s biggest birding event
Last year, over half a million of us counted a staggering 8 and half million birds. With 2016 being such a roaring success, the RSPB promises this year will be bigger and better! In fact, the RSPB have provided an entire extra day to count all the birds and wildlife in our gardens over the weekend at the end of January.
For the first time, this three-day birding bonanza will take place over Saturday 28th, Sunday 29th and Monday 30th January.
Rupert Masefield from the RSPB said “This time around I can look forward to a nice relaxing hour on Monday afternoon spent watching the garden birds out of the window and unwinding after the weekend – perfect.”
Get your garden bird ready now!
Although this Big Garden Birdwatch takes place at the end of January, you don’t have to wait till then to make a mini wildlife sanctuary in your garden
The more you do now, the more you will be doing to help the birds thrive, especially in this cold climate. By doing this, you are likely to see a whole host of wildlife in your garden when you participate in the Big Garden Birdwatch!
Make sure you fill your feeders and stock up on all your garden birds favourite treats. These include:
Rupert Madefield continued to say “In the winter, making sure there is food and shelter for wildlife in your garden can really make a difference. Leaving leaves on the ground, creating log piles for hedgehogs to hide in, and have boxes for roosting birds and bats will all be appreciated by the wildlife that lives in your garden – and let’s not forget feeding the birds!”
For more information on how to get involved, make sure you visit the RSPB website.
Tuesday 6 December 2016
How to Look After Your Garden Birds Through the Cold Months
Why is Winter Feeding so Important?
The cold weather means that birds burn more energy trying to keep themselves warm. Therefore, they need more calories in their diet. This is why a regular food supply throughout the winter is essential for survival, especially when snow and frost on the ground can become an obstruction for birds trying to pick worms, seeds, and berries.
It's also important because most birds will lay eggs in the spring and will need the extra calories to ensure enough warmth for the incubation period. The bigger birds may have to incubate for around 6 weeks! But this can differ from species to species.
So How Can You Help Feed Your Garden Birds Through the Winter Months?
The colder climate also affects the growth of plants and other sources of food. A great way to feed garden birds is to leave out fat balls and a mixed array of seeds on your bird table. The fat/suet balls are great for building fat storage as the extra flubber will provide the birds with extra warmth in the cold months. Yankee feeders are also a perfect nutritious aid for birds as they make it virtually impossible for squirrels to steal food. This means you can load it up with a mixture of bird food with the peace of mind that you are doing your best to help give them a nutritious calorie boost.
Don’t forget that birds need hydrating too and that clean water is crucial for a successful winter diet.
How Can You Attract Birds to Your Garden
Ensuring birds will come to your bird feeder is the last piece to the puzzle. Birds (like any other animal) have a primary instinct of survival, so ensuring your bird feeder is in a secure and easily visible area of your garden is vital.
Secondly, if you can position your bird table in a close radius (approximately 3 metres) to surrounding trees and bushes, this will offer birds cover, shelter and a convenient journey to your bird feeder.
Lastly, make certain that your bird feeder is well raised from the floor as pet cats or your neighbour's cats will be eyeing up birds that are close to the ground as prey.
Final Note
Bird food is best to be replenished twice a day during the cold winter months. In the morning it will restore the energy lost overnight, and in the afternoon to build up energy before the night time.
By looking after your garden birds in the winter time, they will thank you by continuing to return all year round.
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