Big Garden Birdwatch 2017
It’s the Big Garden Bird Watch this weekend, 28-30 January, so get your bird feeders filled, find a good window to sit at, a nice cup of cosy milk (or tea if you prefer) and get watching! I love hanging out with my feathered friends. Daddy and I went to Jupiter Urban Wildlife Centre recently for their Winter Birds workshop so we have some top tips to share with you on caring for your garden birds…
A robin hanging out on our garden globe
Make a bird house
I am very lucky and have a lovely cosy home to live in so I thought it was only fair to make a nice home for my feathered friends…
Get some left over pieces of wood or use an old pallet. Get a grown up to help cut the wood to the right lengths. There are some great tips in this post from the RSPB including different hole sizes for different birds. My favourite part was hammering all the nails in as it makes so much noise!
Hammering nails into the birdhouse was fun
Once you have completed your birdhouse choose carefully where you want to put it in your garden. You will find some tips on siting bird boxes here.
Make an apple/sunflower feeder
Push sunflower seeds into an apple for a tasty treat
- Push sunflower seeds into an apple for a tasty treat
- Core an apple, put a piece of string through the hole and tie a knot in it then push the core back in.
- Push sunflower seeds into the apple, all the way round.
- Finally, push sticks into each side of the apple to create a ledge for little birdies to sit on and feed.
Make a pine cone feeder
Push the lard into all the bits of the pine cone
- Push the lard into all the bits of the pine cone
- Tie a piece of string around the pine cone.
- Fill all the gaps in the pine cone with generous amounts of lard.
- One covered roll it in bird seed and hang up for the birds to enjoy.
If you want to take part in any of the workshops held by Jupiter Urban Wildlife Centre, visit their website.
Happy bird spotting everyone.
Lulu xx
Feathered friends
Birds are very pretty, they sound nice and they help us gardeners control pests and weeds. Did you know that more than 140 different types have been spotted in our gardens during surveys like the Big Garden Birdwatch and that 30 different types are found very often?
At this time of year the birds are very busy singing and making nests so it’s a great time to help them out. I’ve got some wise words to help you do that and a fun craft project for you to make your own colourful birds.
A robin came to visit our garden
Feed the birds
Just like me, lots of birds have favourite foods so the type of food you put out will make a difference to the type of birds that visit your garden.
The clever people at the Royal Horticultural Society have made up this list:
- Insect cakes for tits
- Berry cakes for finches
- Finely chopped animal fat and grated cheese for small birds, such as wrens
- Sparrows, finches and nuthatches enjoy eating the seeds from sunflower heads. Also, leave seed heads on herbaceous plants overwinter
- Niger seed for goldfinches
- Peanut cakes for starlings
- Fruit for thrushes and blackbirds. Scatter over-ripe apples and raisins on the ground for them
Remember that the feed should not be in bigger chunks. If the mummy and daddy birds feed chunks to their babies it could cause them to choke.
The plants that you grow can also provide berries or seeds for birds. Native berry producing plants you might have in your garden include blackberry, elderberry and hawthorn. Bird friendly plants someone might have planted include crab apples, honeysuckles, and sunflowers.
As I told you in my Big Garden Birdwatch blog, where you put the food will also affect the types of birds that you see. Finches, sparrows and tits like hanging bird feeders. These are best placed over paved or decked areas so you can sweep away and mess and prevent scavengers like rats taking advantage of the feed too. Bird tables are good for robins, sparrows and doves. Just don’t put them too close to trees were predators could jump from whilst birds were feeding. Blackbirds thrushes, and wrens don’t have the 3 second rule and are happy to eat their food from the ground.
Shelter the birds
To help the birds make homes in which to have their baby birds, you can hang up a nesting box. It’s best to do this on a wall rather than tree if you can as it makes it safer for the baby birds as cats and other animals can’t get to it. A north or north-east direction is ideal as it is less likely to get too hot.
We have several bird boxes to choose from
Make your own bird
How about making your own colourful spring bird? (thanks to Happy Hooligans for the idea.)
- paper plates
- card for beak
- googly eyes (or darker card for eyes)
- white paper
- crafting decorations such as feathers, crumpled tissue paper, shiny cellophane
- paint
- glue
Tilda is trying to steal my lovely bird plates!
Big Fun with the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch
A coal tit came to visit
What is the Big Garden Birdwatch?
The Big Garden Birdwatch is a survey of the birds you can see in your garden or nearest green space and has been running since 1979- that’s so old (almost as old as Mummy and Daddy). It helps brainy conservationists learn how healthy the countryside is and if the numbers of any bird types are dropping so we can give them extra help.
Did you know that gardens make up about 4% of the UK’s land and that birds come into our gardens for food and shelter when conditions in the countryside get really hard?
Starlings love the fat balls in our garden
What do you need to do for the Big Garden Birdwatch?
This year’s Big Garden Birdwatch is happening on January 24th and 25th and is really, really easy to be part of:
- Get your Mummy or Daddy to help you register online
- Spend one hour watching and recording the birds that come to your garden (it doesn’t matter what time of day)
- Submit your results online
- Feel all smug that you’ve helped gather super important information to help the birds
A beautiful greenfinch in our garden
What you might see in your garden
I recently reviewed the fabby RSPB book on how to identify the different birds you might see in your garden and how to make a trendy bird feeder to encourage them. But you don’t need to have that book as the Big Garden Birdwatch website has great pictures of each of the different birds you might expect to see in your garden.
The birds you might see will depend upon the food they can find in your garden and the type of feeder you use.
Blue tits, and Great tits like seeds in hanging feeders.
This common redpoll came for a visit
Blackbirds and wrens like their food to be scattered on the ground.
House sparrows and Bullfinches aren’t fussy and will eat food from any location.
The Big Garden Birdwatch website even has a super cool live bird counter that you can use on a computer or smartphone. It has hints and tips and lots of fun facts to learn whilst your doing your important work.
If you prefer furry or scaly creatures to birds then you’ll be happy to hear than you can also count the number of squirrels, hedgehogs, badgers, deer, grass snakes or slow worms.
A beautiful chaffinch
I’d love to hear what birds you see in the Big Garden Birdwatch.
Happy bird spotting!
Feed The Birds, Tuppence a Bag…
I love birds. They can fly for one thing, which is pretty cool. They are also great friends to us gardeners. In my latest blog I am reviewing a super book all about garden birds from the cool people at the RSPB. I have also created a trendy bird feeder which is soooo easy for you to make at home.
Book Review: My First Book of Garden Birds (RSPB)
The lovely people at the RSPB do an incredibly important job in protecting our feathered friends. They kindly sent me their “First Book of Garden Birds” so I could read it and, more importantly, tell you all about it.
The first thing you notice before you even open the book are the beautiful bird illustrations on the cover. These continue throughout the whole book making it beautiful and colourful as well as educational.
The book is split into interesting sections. “Birds in your garden” tells you some basic information on what its important to do to look after the birds in your garden and to encourage more in.
The “Guess Who” section is my favourite. You are given lots of clues about common garden birds and a beautiful illustration and you have to try and recognise them. It’s a great introduction to bird spotting for littlies like me and you don’t even need to venture outside with binoculars and waterproofs!
Loving reading My First Book of Garden Birds
There is also an explanation about some of the terms used when talking about birds such as plumage and markings so you can talk like an expert!
At an RRP of £6.99 for a hard backed copy, this book is great value and a wonderful introduction to the world of birds. It’s a must for all young readers who like the outdoors and nature.
One of the things that this lovely book tells you about is how important it is to feed the birds in your garden. I have created this awesome bird feeder from an old drinks carton. Read on to find out how…
You will need:
- Empty juice carton
- Scissors
- Paints, glue and things to decorate your feeder
- String or ribbon
- Pencil or doweling
My lovely new bird feeder!