They're not to everyone's tastes and some gardeners might consider them their worst enemies. I know one of my neighbours hates them with a passion. He patrols his lawn and plucks the dandelion flowers from their stalks before disposing of them carefully. For slugs, he has devised an even more ruthless strategy: he collects them in a bucket and empties the hapless contents onto the road outside our houses so that they get run over!I see slugs and dandelions differently. Goldfinches adore dandelion seeds, and for me that's enough to make me look upon them favourably.
Because of the cheerful yellow flowers (which I secretly like), I can stand at the kitchen window as some of my favourite birds feed just a few feet away. They soon munch their way through a dandelion head and leave a scattering of down on the grass - minus the seeds. It's unquestionable that slugs are unpleasant creatures, but I've forgiven them this year. The reason? A pair of song thrushes has built a nest in my (slug-hating) neighbour's garden. When I look out of the window, there's often a beautifully-spotted thrush hopping across the lawn with a beak crammed full of tiny slugs in the manner of a puffin carrying sand-eels. I'm proud that my slug-filled garden is keeping song thrush chicks fed, and I like watching the goldfinches making short work of the dandelions. Rather than worrying about how to get rid of these pests, I'm hoping that the birds will do the hard work for me...
Bunny - Often frogs in our pond fall prey to crows and I'm sure the heron that visits occasionally settles for a frog if the fish are hiding successfully. I was really delighted to see a Mistle Thrush on the bird table this week and I'm always pleased to see the Song Thrushes. Sometimes we see Jays, Jackdaws, Sparowhawks, Tree Creepers. We have Nuthatches that come in to feed and a family of Great Spotted Woodpeckers, as well as most of the Titmice and what appears to be the local contingent of Starlings - very noisy, very entertaining.
If I could add to Maureen's comment about cat food left overs... I used to put the old 'wet' meaty food out for the hedgehogs & so another cat doesn't come in, but have noticed that the blackbirds come along & pinch it all... much to the disgust of the magpies that aren't quick enough! So I now put it out first thing for them & if they think its gone a bit too dry they go & dunk it in the bird bath!
Thanks for leaving comments, everyone. It's great to hear about your wildlife-friendly gardens.
Bunny, it would probably be wise to wait until the breeding season is definitely over before cutting back any trees. If you wait until late August, that would be safe.
Petehutch, I'm not sure why birds don't like eating big slugs. The thrushes definitely only took the small, white ones. Maybe the bigger ones are too tricky to handle!
The goldfinches in my garden are certainly not shy. They come for sunflower hearts all day and some will come to a feeder with black sunflower seeds less than a foot from my window. They are quite aggressive and will not move for a sparrow or greenfinch.
In contrast coal tits come only for black sunflower seeds and stay for only a few seconds.
Birds eating slugs seems to be a fairly recent development in my garden. It seemed to start during a drought a few years ago when there were no worms to be found for some weeks. Since then blackbirds, robins and song thrushes eat them, but only small ones. I always wondered why thrushes were said not to eat them but were prepared to break open snails.
I have been using copper tape to protect my troughs from slugs for a couple of years. I have now started using slugrings to protect some of their favourite plants. For the first time I have delphiniums in flower this year.
Well, if there are any slugs left in our back garden ,after the frogs have had their fill, the birds are welcome to them. I found sitting patio pots on top of breeze blocks deters the slugs.
But I was guilty of plucking dandelion heads, and this year went as far as a weedkiller , and we lost all the clover ,daisies, buttercups,shepherds purse,dandelions and others in the back lawn. Husband was very pleased as back lawn was starting to look more like muddy scrub than lawn, I do have quite a few bare patches too reseed.
Question, do any birds eat the frogs that happily hop round eating our slugs'n'snails?
Last year we had goldfinches nesting in tall fir tree out the front. This year great (crested ?) (black & white & red cheek patches)woodpecker has been bringing his fledglings round the back where silver birch is. Where we lived before, one year I left all the fallen apples on the ground from the apple tree, and we were rewarded with a field fare who came to stay as long as they all lasted!
Had to build a retaining wall down the side of our house where the stream is, Dave put in hole for birds nest and it's been used by blue tits both years! How long till I can cut back the Hazel and trim the tree overhangs without disturbing any late nests?
Thankx