It is surprisingly easy to do something to help garden wildlife in the lean and cold months of winter. Even if you carry out just a few of the following tasks, it can make a difference.
Helping birds
- Help birds in winter by placing fat blocks in wire cages. Balls in plastic nets are not recommended as birds such as woodpeckers can get their tongues caught
- Create your own fat blocks by melting suet into moulds such as coconut shells or logs with holes drilled in
- Alternate different recipes to entice a range of birds; peanut cakes for starlings, insect cakes for tits and berry cakes for finches
- Put out finely chopped bacon rind and grated cheese for small birds such as wrens
- Although fat is important, do also provide a grain mix or nuts to maintain a balanced diet
- Sparrows, finches and nuthatches will enjoy prising the seeds out of sunflower heads
- No-mess mixes are more expensive but the inclusion of de-husked sunflower hearts means there is less waste. Inferior mixes are often padded out with lentils
- Use wire mesh feeders for peanuts and seed feeders for other seed. Specially designed feeders are needed for the tiny niger seed, loved by goldfinches
- Feed placed on a wire mesh held just off the ground will entice ground-feeding birds such as robins and dunnocks
- Thrushes and blackbirds favour fruit. Scatter over-ripe apples, raisins and song-bird mixes on the ground for them
- Consider planting berrying and fruiting trees and shrubs such as Malus, Cotoneaster and Pyracantha to fill gaps