Natural Connections – Helping out our garden birds

We found ourselves at Ravenswood Local Nature reserve last Sunday finishing off the works around the Banter Bench to prevent mud accumulating on the installation. Big messy job, but I have to admit it looks lovely now and I might extend these works around that area to bring it all together.  We met two local residents with their children and they told us that they love the Banter Bench and often have a seat while the kids go off and explore the woods within their sight, anyway I am digressing.

We heard a lot of bird calls and one of the sounds in particular stopped Paul in his tracks.  He heard a blue tits mating call and considering it was the first week of January, we thought it was a bit too early.  Sure enough two tiny wee birds were darting about from limb to limb above our heads with the female leading her determined intended, a merry dance.  The danger of this as we experienced later in the week is that winter has not quite gone yet.  Sudden temperature drops and high winds can cause havoc with our feathered friends who are feeling an early St Valentine’s day rush.

So how can we help? Ensuring that your garden birds have a good food source is a good first step, placing nesting boxes is a good idea to.  Nesting boxes and nests in general are only used for the birds to raise their young but in exceptionally cold weather birds have been known to huddle together in a nesting box to wait out the cold and harsh conditions.  These simple steps can be a great help over winter, why not post your garden visitors to our Facebook page.  In case you are wondering how the Banter Bench look now, here a photo just for you.