For The Birds

The sparrow gang is noisy in the overgrown hedge in my back garden. The planting is a mix of a spiky Pyracantha and two variegated Euonymus, one green and white and one yellow and green, which being evergreen glows brightly even in the depths of winter. It is the final reminder of the previous residents' choices, provides a useful barrier to the road beyond and great cover for small birds. I watch them peer out from the bush, dash across to the birdfeeder, then make a series of hops and jumps into my two fruit trees. The apple is looking particularly resplendent at the moment, freshly minted leaves and delicate five petalled blossoms, white with pink tips.

We’ve had a bird feeding station in the garden since the children were small, and it’s currently positioned directly opposite the kitchen window, providing hours of entertainment whilst washing up. But now it seems that even a tube of birdseed is not a simple unalloyed public good. New advice released last week by the RSPB warns that bird feeders can help spread a disease called trichomonosis. This highly contagious disease spreads in places where large numbers of garden birds gather, including at bird feeders. Greenfinches seem to be especially susceptible, they were among the most common garden birds in 1979, but their population has dropped by 65%. The RSPB now recommends that we feed seasonally, and pause feeding seeds and peanuts between 1 May and  31 October. They also advise cleaning feeders weekly when you are putting food out between November and April.

I have tended to feed the birds in a spirit of ‘come for the seeds, stay for the aphids’, and not think too much more about it. But this new information does feel important and I will pack the feeders away at the end of this month. It feels like a small thing that may help make a difference. The process of wilding my garden continues, dry spiky teasel heads from last year stand guard until the new flowers are up. A tray of sunflower seeds is germinating, to plant out in pots later in the year, hoping that the seedheads will provide a good meal for the birds in autumn.  Piles of twigs and deadwood are piled in corners to encourage invertebrates, the fancy word for this is hibernaculum. Most of all I try to avoid the urge to tidy and neaten, knowing that leaf litter hides a whole world of life. Recently I saw a punky bluetit, dressed in neon bright spring plumage to attract the ladies, pulling at a clump of moss in my shady border that was nearly as big as him. Nest building calls.

Find out more about the RSPB research and their updated advice on feeding garden birds here. I am enjoying the pause of the school Easter holidays, and trying not to think about exam season looming. Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit finally came in at the library, I am revelling in reading and dreaming of really big walks. One day...

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