JackHarryBill

Finally a blog that I may maintain

Keeping the birds alive in Haworth

Posted on | December 21, 2009 | 1 Comment

While clearing snow off the car  just as dawn was breaking this morning there was a rapid tick tick tick tick noise coming from a nearby tree. It was a Robin seemingly asking for breakfast. Small birds are particularly affected by cold weather. The Robin sat there as the snow fell adding to a carpet that covered most of the normally available sources of food. I put out a few dried mealworms and sure enough a couple of minutes later the Robin was having breakfast.

It is easy to help keep birds alive in your garden and particularly important in winter if you want to see them in the spring. Having put out the mealworms I did a bit more than the usual topping up the seed feeders. I made some fatball mixture by grinding up some peanuts and sunflower hearts and mixing them with currants. Melted lard poured over the top and put into containers to be either put on the ground or hung from the trees supplies vital energy for a range of birds.

Some left over rice, multi-grain bread, old ham, more mealworms and extra currants along with some of the fatball mixture were then added to the bird table and put around the garden. Total time – about 10 minutes. Total cost – maybe a couple of quid. The result? So far visitors to the garden include a small flock of Greenfinches, Chaffinches, Coal, Blue and Great Tits, Starlings, Blackbirds, House Sparrows, Dunnocks, Rooks, Jackdaws,  Magpies, Song Thrushes, a pair of Collared Doves and the Robin of course. Although not seen yet a Pheasant will probably show up later along with a flock of Long Tailed Tits and a Wren or two. Maybe some Gold Finches and who knows what else.

It’s easy, simple and about the cost of a pint of beer to help keep this part of our wildlife alive which is well worth it by any standards.

Category: Environment, Wildlife
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One Response to “Keeping the birds alive in Haworth”

  1. Tweets that mention Keeping the birds alive inHaworth : JackHarryBill -- Topsy.com
    December 21st, 2009 @ 12:55 pm

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Haworth Village, Haworth Action. Haworth Action said: Keeping the birds alive in #haworth http://bit.ly/7lFEsi [...]

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