Feed a thrush by keeping the grass wet
Aug 18th, 2008 by Birdy Trish
This wet weather has been bad for holiday makers and bad for harvest and it has made for a very depressing time.
This wet weather has been really good for Thrushes. It’s made it easy for them to ‘dig’ into the soft, wet grass with their beaks and get the ‘lovely food’ they find there. Things like worms.
Hopefully this wet weather will mean Thrushes have had a good breeding year.
If I’ve been cleaning the windows I throw the old water onto the grass as well.
Don’t laugh. It all helps.
I know how hard soil can become. I’ve tried digging when it’s very dry and the soil is like rock. Imagine what it must be like for the thrushes trying to get at the food out of the hard ground. Knowing there is food there but not being able to reach it.
all we have to do is throw a little water onto the lawn - in dry weather that is.
Hi Trish
Well what a good idea. Mind you, there’s no chance of any hosepipe bans this year, is there?
I remember my young sister, many years ago, asking why she saw seagulls “tap dancing” on the grass. I said “its to make the worms think it is raining and they come to the surface so they don’t drown”.
Was I right??? It does look odd but who knows?
Andy
Hi. good to hear from you. I’ve heard something like that as well, but cannot exactly remember what.
Thanks for saying it’s a good idea. I thought it may sound a bit silly!
But there is so much free food for these birds under the soil it seems silly for us not to help them get at it.
Trisha
Hi Trish
Have you ever thought that the “old dish water” may contain scraps of food, or residue of fat etc that has been on the plates. This probably creates a feeding ground for small beetles and grubs etc and then, you get the picture, the birds come to feed on this oasis of nibbles. So, as well as softening the ground beneath you are creating a bio area of a concentrated food chain.
know that might sound silly BUT the silly ideas are usually the best.
Long live the happy dish water throwers!!!
Andy. (A fellow silly person)