Hello!
After a bit of advice please :)
Firstly, i currently live in a semi rural area, and have put in a lot of effort with the local birds, and have goldfinches, robins, woodpeckers, pigeons and others who visit every day which i absolutely LOVE. Unfortunately I'm moving pretty soon, and I get the feeling that whoever buys the place will probably knock it down and start again. My question is, should i start to minimise the amount/frequency that I am feeding the birds? I would hate to think that they rely on me and then when I moved away they just abruptly stop being fed.
The place i'm moving to is in the centre of a town, no parks or woods nearby, with a really small concrete garden. Do you have any tips on how I can encourage some birds to come and visit?
Thank you in advance!
Sad you'll be losing your feathered friends, but now is the best time of year, when there is abundant natural food for them. Personally I'd try and work out how much to put out so you run out as you're moving date arrives (less to pack!). As for the new garden, I'd start with a single feeder (probably sunflower hearts depending on what species are local to your new place), and a source of water, and even if it's pots some sort of foliage they can perch on/in. Ohh... and patience... it can take weeks for birds to find a food source, and to decide it's safe and start using it
As said - there is plenty of wild food available at the moment to now is the ideal time to tail off feeding. If the space is big enough plants and planters lots of them and different heights of plant - think vertical layers. You are sadly more likely to attract rats to start with tho and probably pigeons which will annoy and upset your neighbours if previous posts from town centre dwellers are anything to go by.
Cin J
It's a shame you couldn't right it into the deeds of the property to feed the birds. I was saddened when I found out the the new owners filled in our mature garden pond..
I can empathise ... left a front & rear garden full of perennials plus pond & waterfall but I should have taken all the plants as new owners scrubbed up & dumped the lot and just kept the grass for their two young boys to play on!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Carry on feeding and getting your enjoyment out of the birds. But don't worry, if they turn up one day and there is nothing out for them they won't starve, they will just go elsewhere and it will be the new owners' loss.
Hello Ruby
My heart goes out to you. I too left a rural garden where I had all the woodland birds visiting in huge numbers. I have moved to a town and first put up one squirrel proof feeder with sunflower hearts, I now have goldfinches visiting every day along with great tits and blue tits and also nuthatches. I have increased the number of feeders gradually and also planted insect loving plants. The garden which was almost sterile with no obvious wildlife is now a constant source of delight, winter and summer with more birds than I can afford to feed! I still miss my rural garden and never see a GSW or hedge sparrow or tree creeper. It’s sad but I’m gradually getting used to it and I’m still hoping to see a greenfinch one day. So far no sightings of these either. Keep going with your town house. You may even have house sparrows, a species I have never seen in any of my gardens.
bye for now