Bird Table News

It’s not all sweetness and light in birdworld

I’ve seen photographs of a Heron swooping down onto a duckling - trying to kill and eat it.

The mother duck skimms across the water in a vain, frantic and courageous effort to chase the heron away.

It is no contest. the Heron is a very large predator.  The duck’s head would just about come up to the Heron’s chest.

The Heron caught the duckling and ate it in front of the mother duckling.

The heron has no compunction about killing this young Duckling.  It cannot comprehend the agony it is causing the mother duck.

I suppose all birds are like this.

Even the sweet little robins that I put food out for and care for fight each other in territorial fights.

Crows eat blackbirds.

Magpies pinch eggs and young from nests in the quiet English hedgerows.

Bird killing bird must have been going on since birds evolved.

The heron is a meat eating bird.  It’s the way it has evolved.

It’s not all sweetness and light.  It’s not about bird caring for bird.  Survival means everything.

Another way of feeding birds is to plant a variety of shrubs, bushes or even hedges.  This is natural food for birds.

So next time you go to a garden centre - think British Bird.  Ask what plants feed birds.

A bush needs planting once and provide fruit and shelter for our garden birds for years

Some of the birds that enjoy Berry bearing shrubs are 

• thrushes,
• blackbirds
• starlings,
• finches,
• tits,
• robins and
• pigeons,
• You may also attract waxwings, redwings or fieldfares - winter vistiros.

The following list includes 3 berry bearing shrubs which are popular for bird food.

British  species support more insect life than non native and are more attractive to birds. 

Planting bushes in the garden also gives cover to birds as well as providing bird food every year.

BLACKBERRY OR BRAMBLE  (rubus fruticosus}  up to 2m (6 1/2 ft).  Native

If you have room for a bramble patch in your garden it will be used by birds all through the year.

SOME OF THE BIRDS THAT EAT THE FRUIT  starlings, bullfinches, Great Tits and Blue Tits.

NESTING  - Blackbirds, warblers, thrushes, Long tailed tits, finches and dunnocks will nest in the safety of it’s prickly branches.

In Autumn and winter finches and sparrows will gather in the bramble hedge to roost.

To keep the bramble bush /  patch thick and attractive to birds trim the long branches each year to stop them rooting.

ELDER BUSH  (Sambucus nigra) up to (10m) (32 1/2 feet

SOME OF THE BIRDS THAT FEED ON ELDERBERRY   blackbirds and thrushes and starlings

NESTING .  It provides nest sites for blackbirds, thrushes, chaffinches and bullfinches. 

Elders grow very quickly but new growth can be trimmed back by about 1ft each year which will help provide a nest site.

 HAWTHORN (Crataegus monogyna) 2-10m (6 1/2 - 32 ft) native

SOME OF THE BIRDS THAT FEED ON THE DARK RED BERRIES OF THE HAWTHORN - (especially in early winter)

The hawthorn  hedge bears crimson berries which are called Haws. 

Many birds feed on these Haw berries in Autumn and early Winter including Blackbirds, redwings, fieldfares and waxwings

The leaves of the hawthorn are eaten by woodpigeons. 

 NESTING - thrushes, finches, buntings, warbler

Hawthorn hedge keeps out predators such as cats and sparrowhawks.

I often see blackbirds near Hawthorn

Hedges and shrubs provide safety and shelter for birds

Eat some of the fruit yourself

Remember some bushes provide a good source of food and shelter for birds

If you don’t have a garden you can still have fun feeding birds.  I have just sent for a window feeder  which I will fill with bird seed.  I know I’ll enjoy watching the birds so close to the window.  I should get a good view - have been told it’s a great way to take photos as well. 

Anyone can get involved with feeding or watching birds.

We haven’t seen as many swallows near the houses and farm sheds this year.

The sky seems empty of swallows.

I don’t understand it and it is worrying.  There are less swallows here this year than there were last year.

this means fewer swallows will make the return journey to Africa at the end of summer 2008 than made the journey in 2007

How long can this downward trend continue. 

I can’t imagine a summer without swallows.

Why is it happening at our farm.  Is it happening all over the country?

One good thing happened today.  I was helping get the cows in from the grass field as it was milking time.

Cows and flies go together!  Where there are cows there are flies - believe me.

There were a number of swallows zipping in and out of the cows legs, flying low over the cow’s backs and generally twisting and turning in flight over this herd of cows.  They were following the flies that accompanied the cows.

I’ll try and get a video of it - it would be better than photos.

It was good to see these few swallows vibrant and free.  I hope they all breed well here in Yorkshire, fly safe and come back next year.  

 Bird food - the feeder is now full of millet.  I now have a garden full of frantic sparrows trying to sort out their ‘pecking order’ to get the millet from the feeder.

Millet is good bird food because it has a good food to energy ratio.  That means when it is eaten it does not take long before the millet is changed into ‘bird’ energy.

Millet is very small seed and it takes a special feeder -

I ran out of millet a few days ago.  There was always an array of sparrows sitting on the tray of the bird feeder pecking the millet - until I ran out of millet seed.

I’ve read over and over again that, at this time of year especially, all birds need a continuous supply of bird food. 

I find it hard to believe that my feeder being empty for 4 days would be a matter of life and death to this small flock of sparrows.  Yet, these sparrows surrounded the feeder as though their lives depended on it.

I have other feeders that sparrows and other birds can go to.  The droll yankee feeder is the only feeder in that garden that is (usually) full of millet and that is only used by sparrows.

20th June 2008  - running out of bird food

Sparrows love millet

Info on millet and other bird food

Millet can also be one of the ingredients used in this bird food mixture coated in  fatl

House Sparrow fact sheet

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

A year ago today - 25 June 2007 Home Made Bird Food - bird food from left over scraps in the kitchen

Birds were singing just outside out front door.

The chirping and cheeping was coming from a nest inside the roof space.

I was really pleased to hear the singing every time I opened the front door.

I still can’t believe that the nest is full of starlings!

young-birds-in-a-nest

A lot of birds visit my garden. I sometimes think they must fly in from miles away, that is why I’m showing you some of the countryside near where I live.

I do live in the middle of the countryside so it’s obvious I’ll get a lot of birds in my garden.

There are bushes and trees for a variety of birds to nest in. There is some food in the hedgerow. There are garden ponds and farm ponds for them to drink and have a bird bath in.

I’m going to do a Calendar of birds in my garden. Also thinking of doing a calendar of the Yorkshire Countryside. Do you think any of these photos would look OK on a calendar.

Trisha

PS I took these photos today . Look how bright and clear the weather is. The exact opposite to what it was a year ago today -

A year ago today - 23 May 2007 WALKING IN A THUNDERSTORM