Happy birds

There's a blackbird in our garden who is very brave and hops onto the bird table as I'm putting the bird food out every morning. I always say 'hello' to him and then he gets a bit scared and shoots off into the hedge. There's a robin too who follows me around when I'm gardening. I see him perching on the wheelbarrow or pecking away at the newly weeded soil and he makes me feel quite happy, like he's looking after me.

The robin and the blackbird are just two of the many birds who visit our garden every day.  There are some collared doves  who arrive as a group, they're fairly calm and quiet. Unlike the very greedy starlings who seem always to be squabbling. The  magpies are like bovver boys, strutting across the lawn, wobetide anyone who gets in their way!  The  woodpigeon is another scary bird who will perch on the nearby garden chair or table surveying the scene as if he owns the place.  There are blue tits, coal tits, long tailed tits, sparrows, dunnets, a chaffinch and the robin, who wait until the big birds have gone before they come to feed on the remaining food.  Then there are the occasional visits we get from a thrush, a couple of nuthatches, a jay and some goldfinches ( I wish they would stay, I really do).

I suppose I feel like all these birds are part of our family, because I know them so well. They seem to be very happy, as my daughter commented the other day when she heard the noise of twittering birds coming from the holly tree. Because they seem so happy and because there are so many of them  makes me think that I must be doing all the right things. Well I spend a lot of money on food for them. My husband says they are better fed than we are!

We have feeders in various places around the garden.  Some are in the apple tree at the top end of the garden. There is a bird table with feeders on nearer the house and another feeding area, a stone platform which was originally intended to be a seat for us but the birds took it over (sigh).

The garden itself has plenty of mature trees, shrubs, and a hedge where the birds can hide, nest and feel secure.  The apple tree provides enough apples for us to share, we leave a lot of the fruit where they fall. There are plenty of perennial plants in the borders which I don't cut back in the autumn.  I leave them until late winter, so that the birds can find food in the winter from the seedheads and insects.

I put out sunflower hearts ( not the black sunflower seeds which make a lot of mess), dried mealworms, suet pellets and the 'no mess' bird seed. There are feeders filled with peanuts, mixed seed, niger seed (for the goldfinches) and fat balls. Feeding areas need to be kept clean because birds can get all sorts of disease, so I clean the feeders and feeding areas with disinfectant every so often.

We get a really good view of the birds from our dining room window and I love to sit there with a cup of tea watching them.  There are squirrels too, their antics are quite amusing, but we could do without them really, they eat a lot of the birds' food and dig up the garden.

Next weekend I am taking part in the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch. If you want to take part just click on this link   http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/

For more information about feeding the birds in your garden click on this link
http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/helpingbirds/feeding/

or  :http://www.wildaboutgardens.org/thingstodo/allyearround/feed-the-birds.aspx