This is the time of the year when I take a look at what we are providing for wildlife in the garden for the year ahead.
This is timely as from Valentine’s Day it is the start of "National Nestbox Week" when everyone is encouraged to not only put up nestboxes but also to refurbish any that are already there.
In general, one of our longer-term plans started last autumn with the problem of buddleias and supplying them all the summer for butterflies. In the last two winters, because of the severe weather, we lost many buddleias especially the ones in plastic tubs.
We put them in tubs to move them around depending where the sun is. With the cost of such shrubs we bought seed and planted them out and then, with winter approaching, moved them into the greenhouse. The result is a greenhouse full of
buddleias and a new heater to make sure they do not catch the frost. Watch this space for how they, and the butterflies, fare this summer.
The bird feeders came into perspective when a friendly neighbour bought us a new feeder and certainly one we had never tried before.
The range of feeders we use is quite surprising but understandable as different designs cope with different seed. The peanuts, for example, have to have a different metal mesh than those of nyjer or ones for sunflower hearts.
The suet balls have a special feeder all of their own whilst the mixed grain is presented in feeders, on a hanging tray, on the large bird table and on the ground.
What is surprising in the last few weeks has been the total lack of interest in the two nyjer feeders. No goldfinches or siskins at them so presumably these birds are still in the woodlands.
As for the new feeder its design is pleasing to our eyes but no doubt it is just another feeder to the birds. Nobody seems to be able to tell me, for example, just how much colour birds can tell apart.
Gardens do not have to be large for nestboxes to attract some birds such as blue tits and great tits. Even small gardens in the middle of the town or village will attract birds so now is the time to think about putting up any new boxes.
Most of the birds occupying them will, originally, be woodland birds used to nesting in natural holes.
With the modern way of managing most woodland, particularly the vast areas of conifers, natural holes are now few and far between so even if the food and general shelter is there it means natural nesting sites are at a premium.
Our foray into a camera inside a nestbox was not successful last year, not because there was anything wrong with the set up but because no birds used the nestbox in question. A great tit and blue tit explored the box on a couple of occasions I was there to see them on the TV screen but no breeding. Let us hope the birds will use the box this summer.
As for the other nestboxes, with the addition of one or two new ones last year, the garden and the nesting sites all seem to be alright.
I will shortly seal off two of the holes in the doocot to stop starlings from taking them all over as I know which two are favoured by the swifts.
Of all the birds we get nesting – even the mandarin ducks and house martins – the swifts nesting with us must be my favourites. I cannot wait until the summer.
The source of information I use the most about nestboxes is still The BTO Nestbox Guide by Chris du Feu published by the BTO in 2003. It is still available and costs £7.50 plus £3.95 p&p.
Garden commotion was fight between starlings
The highlight of the week was at first light one morning when I looked out at the bedroom window to the garden and paddock below.
The first chaffinches and blackbirds were at the mixed seed on the ground under the bird table. Three mallard were walking on the ice on the pond no doubt waiting to walk up to the feed. Then I noticed a commotion at the base of one of the huge wooden tubs under the doocot.
At first I could not make out what it was and to start with I thought it was two blackbirds fighting. It was, in fact, two starlings and for the next 10 minutes or more they were fighting like I have never seen two birds fighting before.
In the last week or so there have been two pairs around the gardens although they are never at any of the feed we put out daily.
Once they have peered out of the holes in the doocot to see all is clear they fly to the top of a sycamore and sing away with that curious mixture of notes and calls.
Most of the time they were fighting I could make out no discernible shape and I began to think they had become tangled up with each other in some way. Then a beak would appear stabbing at the other bird and I thought one would end up injured.
I went outside before the five dachshunds were let out and off the starlings flew as if it was just the normal departure. Spectacular to say the least.
