A bird in the hand

LauraNorderr A friend who worked for the Countryside Council for Wales told me not to feed the birds unless it was an exceptionally harsh winter. She maintains Ned that the more we humans interfere in the eco system the more harm we do.

But we already interfere by keeping millions of cats and concreting over our gardens! So feeding the birds is a way of balancing the harm we do.

I feed the birds in winter.

I've planted up my garden so that for as much of the year as possible I have pollinator friendly plants. These attract the birds in droves during the day and bats at night who come for the moths. The seeds of some plants also attract the birds and I have seen big flocks of goldfinch come down to eat the Verbena bonariensis seeds.

We have a pond, feed the hedgehogs and have put in 'hedgehog gates' and now we have baby hedgehogs pottering around in the evening. I used to be a very neat gardener, but now my whole garden is aimed at wildlife and is a bit of a meadow.