6 : Creature Features

Feathered friends

Bird feeders and bird platforms

Birds have preferred feeding habits and foods - those with hard bills (finches) are mainly seed eaters; those with pointed bills (tits and warblers) are mainly creepy-crawly eaters. Try to offer both hard and soft foods, distributed around the garden at varying heights and locations. Here's how:

1. Bird tables, (and ledges, which are attached to walls) of at least 30cm², with sides to stop food blowing away, a gap for sweepings, sloped slightly so water drains off, and also a landing twig. Site -1.5m high, near handy perching branches. To catproof, raise to 1.75-2m high, or suspend from a safe tree, 2m from cover
2. Mesh feeders, with nuts and some with fatballs - hung near perching branches at different heights and positions; high, low, in the open, in bushes or under shrubs (but exercise cat caution)
3. Some birds (e.g. sparrows, blackbirds) prefer foraging on lawns or patios, where there is good visibility. Sprinkle food around, 2m away from cover (to thwart moggie menace)

To stop disease, move feeders once a year, check for old food daily.

Which sorts of food?

1. Cheese, cooked potato, porridge oats, fruit, melon seeds, raisins, stale cake, sultanas, tinned cat/dog food, unsalted peanuts, chopped bacon rind, currants, mealworms, nuts, moistened bread, suet, uncooked pastry, black sunflower seeds
2. Avoid: white bread, hydrogenated fat (in many margarines), salty food, desiccated coconut. Beware! Cheap peanut mixes may harbour poisonous alfatoxin packet should bear the RSPB/BTO stamp. Put peanuts in a mesh, where the adults can peck little bits, whole peanuts can choke nestlings
3. Provide sources of clean drinking and bathing water nearby (watery sounds also attract some warblers)

Natural foods

Artificial nest sites and food sources form important habitat supplements for wild birds, but gardens can be managed to provide these more naturally

1. Wild birds need wild plants as they produce a steady supply of food caterpillars and other insects. Exotics support fewer insects, and so fewer birds. Grow as many native plants in the garden as you can (see below). Cut out chemical sprays, and let the birds do the pest control work for you
2. To attract specific birds, plant teasels (goldfinches), sunflowers (cut off the heads as they ripen and them hang up for the tits and finches), crocuses and honesty (chaffinches, bullfinches). Cultivate berry and nut/seed bushes: Berberis, Pyracantha, vines, guelder rose, cotoneaster, crab apple, hawthorn, and female holly are all birdy favourites
3. Tolerate some untidiness. Leave cuttings on the lawn for a short while after mowing (for juicy grass dwelling invertebrates and soil creatures), flowers in path edges, and windfall fruit on the ground. The birds will be truly grateful

Bird boxes - who nests in a box like this?

Build boxes from unstained, untreated, unplaned, roughcut timber. Moulded plastic sweats, and prepared/treated or painted wood is poisonous, (a new 'rockcrete' compound seems more promising). Plain, subdued functional boxes suit avian tastes! There are many different nest box types:

1. The TRAY: 10 x 15cms, with a 3cm raised edge, placed 2m high (lower for robins) against a climber covered wall. An abundance of cover will serve blackbirds or even spotted flycatchers. Put up in a garage or shed with a clear approach and access, and you may get nesting swallows
2. The ROBIN BOX, with an open front. Make sure these have a good overhanging roof as protection against magpies
3. The TIT BOX, with an entrance hole. The hole diameter determines who nests there: ~3cm = blue tits, 3.5cm = great tits, 5cm and above = sparrows. If you live near a wood, nuthatches and woodpeckers might make their own modifications Position your bird boxes out of the direct sun, facing away from the south-west prevailing wind (i.e. with the entrance opening to the north-east), at a height of at least 2m. Walls are preferable to tree trunks if cats patrol your garden. To avoid territorial disputes (see above), ensure that nest boxes and bird tables are at least 20m apart.

Natural nests

1. Garden birds need cover for nesting and roosting and the key feature is likely to be the garden hedge. Enhance it with species such as hawthorn, blackthorn, holly, yew, privet and dogwood, with ivy, Clematis and honeysuckle. Don't trim your hedge until winter, when nesting and fruiting are over
2. Ensure that suitable nest building materials are readily available: moss from the lawn, dead twigs, dry grass, and a soaked patch of bare earth for fresh mud (used for nest lining)

To feed or not to feed?

1. STOP putting out food as nesting starts. Adults become territorial, having to defend a feeding station all day is almost impossible. It is thought that nestlings will not learn how or which foods to forage for in the wild.
2. Leave potential nesting material on your table instead - old leaves, feathers, moss, short rope, wool (NOT cotton wool), pet hairs, fresh mud, spiders' webs, twigs, dried grass. These will be collected over 500-1000 separate expeditions! The birds need to build up a store of calcium to help them make their eggs, so put out a few cuttlefish bones for them to peck at.
3. Resume feeding in late summer, (caterpillars become scarce), keep feeders and tables well-stocked throughout the winter

Attracting Butterflies . . . . The Serious Wildlife gardener