Birds of a feather flock together for a fab feast (From Campaign Series)

Birds of a feather flock together for a fab feast

11:10am Tuesday 28th November 2006

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Do you ever wonder what people did before the arrival of TV, Radio or the Internet?

When you consider some of the options, I rather suspect they smiled quite a lot.

It 's amazing isn 't it, how much time and money we spend chasing after 'things ', while there is a whole world around us, just made for us to enjoy, and it 's free entertainment.

My beloved and I spend many happy hours looking out the window, at our little piece of Eden, me keeping an eye on the plants and she keeping an eye on all the wild birds that frequent our garden to feast on all the birdie treats that she leaves for them.

So how about you?

Are you doing your bit to help support our struggling bird populations?

If not, then you are missing out on some great entertainment.

But be warned! Once you start to attract our feathered friends, you can become quite attached.

I always smile when I think of my dear old Aunty Mabel, who lived in an old flat near Paddington in London; she became so attached to her 'cockney sparrows' that she would hang up home made Christmas cards in the trees for them!

When my lovely wife started she was just using one feeder, which was eventually attended by a couple of birds.

We now laugh as we can watch little gangs of birds fly in from all around the neighbourhood to see what delights are on offer today.

We see Blue tits, great tits, chaffinch, greenfinch, Jays, Robins, Sparrows, Starlings, Thrushes and many others.

They are quite funny to watch with all their acrobatics and cheeky chatter.

So I asked Beloved if she could pass on a few tips, from what has worked well for her.

But be warned she always seems to know if I haven 't done as she suggested , so ignore her at your peril!

* Don 't over-fill your feeder, better to under-fill when you are first starting to feed, because if the food is there for a while it can get wet and stick together. Use peanuts initially as they can last longer.

* Fat snacks are a great way of attracting birds to your feeders (These are small balls of fat mixed with seed, that you can easily hang up near your feeders - most species of birds seem to love them).

Coco fat feeders are a larger alternative to fat snacks but more expensive.

*Sunflower hearts are popular with a lot of the smaller birds.

* Shop around for your suppliers. Most Garden centres & Nurseries now stock food and feeders.

* Plant some shrubs and trees, if you have space, so the birds have somewhere to wait their turn and have a chat.

If you haven 't got room for any plants, fear not you can pick very ornate (and not too expensive) bird feeder stands.

You simply push these into the lawn or border, and then hook on your feeders and hey presto.

Finally don 't forget that as well as eating the food that you supply, wild birds will often eat some garden insect pests, such as Aphids, This summer our Large Sambucus (a black leaved Shrub) was smothered with probably thousands of Black fly.

I thought about spraying with an insecticide, but wanted to give nature a chance to sort it out.

I wasn 't disappointed because a few days later I spotted a group of Blue tits gorging themselves on the black fly, so they really are our feathered friends.

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