Living in nature can quiet often be difficult for animals – many animals get injured in storms, frosts and other challenging weather conditions; some don’t make it through the winter if there is not enough food around…
Once Gary and I moved to the countryside, from the first day of living in our new home we decided we would help the animals in the area. And the first and most obvious step for us was getting bird feeders to help the birds survive the winter. We got one bird feeder, which did not attract any attention at first. But time went by, and in a few weeks we started seeing some activity – little birds were occasionally coming to feed from the feeder. It was hard to enjoy the moment for long though – as soon as they spotted us, they would fly away in fear…
However, the birds’ shyness did not last long – hunger prevailed. Soon we started seeing many different types of birds in our garden – from little ones like tits, sparrows and robins, to bigger ones like starlings, black birds, parakeets, wood pigeons, doves, and even occasional magpies (who, being considerably bigger than other birds, scare all others once landing on the feeder)! Time passed, and we realised that a few feeders would not be able to accommodate the number of birds we had. So we bought a big stand with 4 bird feeders and 2 trays… Now we have 9 bird feeders around the garden, we have an unbelievable number of birds constantly hanging around! It is amazing to observe how different birds seem to have different feeding times, and how more than a couple of birds manage to share one bird feeder!
Thanks to the successful experiment that we stared last autumn, we now have regular groups of parakeets in our gardens (who are always noisy and will definitely let you know before they are coming in to eat!) We have friendly birds – robins and black birds – who got so used to us it is sometimes unbelievable (our female blackbird and robin often come closer than one meter distance from Gary and do not seem scared at all!) And the most amazing new change we had is… BABY BIRDS!!
We now have baby starlings and baby sparrows constantly feeding in our garden and sliding on our roof (sometimes it feels like we are in a kindergarten or a zoo, but we still love them)! And even though they sometimes get through quiet big amounts of food, we manage to keep our costs down by buying bird food in bulk for very reasonable prices (we calculated – it comes up to around £3-4 per week). And the experience that we now get while we are either having a meal or working inside the house or in the garden doesn’t really come close to anything else – we feel much more connected to wildlife, nature and the animals around us, feeling like a true part of nature and the whole – I guess, the way we all used to feel when we were closer to nature and more connected to the animal and plant kingdom… If you love nature and animals, or just want to help local wildlife and make new friends in the animal world, we would definitely recommend to start feeding the birds – the results can be very touching and rewarding!
This are just a few bird species we managed to spot in our garden so far!
Here are the examples of bird feeders that you can use – the ones that we currently use in our garden. There are many cheaper and more expensive options on the market, so it could be a good idea to browse before committing to buying.
We tend to feed birds in our garden with fat balls (we get ours from here), sunflower seeds (you can get the ones we are using from here – parakeets adore them!), and bird food (we get it from here). We also get bird food from here – they have great deals (like Tri-Buy Wild Bird Food Selection 27.75kg).
When we go out to feed birds and animals, we take oats and bird food for the birds (we get the oats from here), and peanuts for the squirrels (we get them here, and we are extremely pleased with the quality for the price).
Note, bread is not suitable food for birds or any animals! In fact, it can damage or even kill them! So when you go out to feed birds next time instead of taking the leftovers of the bread loaf just take some of the oats you were using for your morning porridge – birds love them, and it will actually do them good (unlike the bread).
Are you feeding birds? If you do, which types of birds do you get? What food do you feed them, and which bird feeders do you use? What was your experience after you stated bird feeding? Did you find the information useful?
We would love to hear your thoughts on the subject!
