With the garden under 4 inches of snow (and then ice) this weekend, and the coldest daytime temperatures I've recorded in 7 years here, all wildlife gardening thoughts turned to that of some more supplementary food and ice-free water for the birds.
Our went mealworms, and fatballs (including some with 'buggy bits' in!), and peanuts, and nyger seed. Oh, and some left-over flapjacks.And down came the Starlings in force, plus a Song Thrush, a Dunnock, Great and Blue Tits, Greenfinches, Chaffinches, Houses Sparrows, Blackbirds, a Robin, Collared Doves and Wood Pigeons. The numbers of birds in my garden shot up massively.
I know this for certain, for as well as religiously recording the temperatures (and the rainfall), I've kept numerical tabs on my garden birds each week since April 2001. I can't recommend it enough. The difference this weekend was clear to see, but what happens with recording in the long-run is that whereas I regularly talk to people who THINK that their bird numbers have gone up (or down) over many years, I KNOW for certain.
What's interesting is whereas I might think that, for example, my House Sparrows are holding their own, or that my Greenfinches are on the increase, I can turn to the statistics and find out for certain, and it often turns out to be different than my mind imagined. Whether recording weather or bird numbers, it removes all that 'guesswork' disguised as fact that one is otherwise tempted to. What I do with the birds is record the highest number of each species seen, just as many of you will do in the RSPB Big Garden BirdWatch recording hour each January, but I do on a weekly basis (as well as taking part in Big Garden BirdWatch, of course!)
What the figures show for my garden are Goldfinches and House Sparrows on the long-term slide, Greenfinches and Blue Tits holding steady, and Collared Doves and Chaffinches on the rise. And then comes the creative bit - trying to do something about it!
Are you taking advantage of the RSPB’s free wildlife gardening advice? Check out RSPB Homes for Wildlife here.
If you want to drop by my RSPB wildlife gardening blog, it is updated every Friday, and I'd love to see you there - www.rspb.org.uk/community/blogs/hfw
With this freezings weather I brush away three of four patches of snow and scatter a beaker full of mixed seed on each patch. This gives the small flocks of ground feeders the chance to feed without being driven off by bigger, more agressive species. Need to re-sweep the patches after or even during persistent snowfalls. If 30-40 fiches or a dozen pidgeo hoovers arrive need to reseed too.
I also have a bird table but like most commercial models the roof overhang is too small and doesn't protect seed from the rain or stop snow covering the seed on the table. Have had to make a heavier cover to the cental seed hopper to stop the big birds taking all the peanuts. Two fat balls hang from hooks underneath the bird table about mid-height from the ground so that magpies cannot get at them. (When fatball was hung from a hook on the side of the bird table the magpies learnt to pull them up with beak and claws - and break the plâlstic