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Care for birds Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer.

Garden birds calendar – Looking after birds all year round

The garden bird calendar is pretty straightforward – the most important thing is continuity.  If you feed and provide for birds, you will enjoy the company of birds, learn much more about them, and you are likely to support an important, useful increase in the local population of these wonderful creatures.  However, if you suddenly stop feeding them, they are likely to suffer when competition for existing food increases.
It is therefore a good idea to plan to help our feathered friends all year round – you will enjoy many more birds and they will be helped enormously.  The gardens of Britain add up to a huge “bird reserve” of immense importance.  There are also organisations such as the BTO who appreciate useful information and data collected by bird lovers.

Winter
Food, water and shelter are critical at this tough time of year.  Nest boxes will be used for roosting and provide welcome shelter in harsh weather and during cold nights, so put up as many boxes as you can.  Keep your feeders stocked with high energy, fatty foods and make sure that water is provided – a drinker is good, a bird bath is better and a small ice-free pond is excellent.  Areas of natural vegetation (weeds to you and me) will provide extra benefits in the form of tiny seeds and small food items.  Many birds begin staking out breeding territories around Christmas time in preparation for the breeding season, so get boxes up early.

Spring
The breeding season gets under way and good, secure, snug bird boxes provide the very best nesting sites, so tend to attract resident birds.  Feeding is important – birds tend to establish territories where feeding is good, but it is also important to build up breeding vigour.  Once nests are established, whole peanuts should not be fed in open trays – they should be fed in wire baskets so that inexperienced parents have to peck bits off and cannot feed whole nuts to babies.  For the really dedicated bird lover, live foods (mealworms, waxworms, etc) will be very welcomed by hard-working parents.  Areas of natural vegetation, native trees and a pond will all provide more insect life, in turn providing more food for the growing family.  A healthy population of birds is one of the greatest assets to organic food growers – birds have a never-ending interest in common garden pests!  Water is important for busy parents to bathe in and keep their over-worked feathers in good condition.

Summer
Many birds will continue to produce additional broods through the summer, so many of the requirements of spring apply in the summer, too.  Feeders (fat balls, hanging feeders and tables) are all important at this time to give newly-fledged babies a good start – there can be few more heart-warming sights than a feeder covered in excited babies.  Weedy areas give babies some cover while they learn to forage, and shallow sided drinkers or ponds provide the necessary refreshment and a cool dip in hot weather.  Sparrows, especially, enjoy a dust bath.

Autumn
Time to clean out nest boxes and re-hang them as the weather closes in. Summer migrants will go off the warmer places, but your local residents will stick around, often joined by numbers of others who have come in from the countryside to enjoy the better provisions in your garden.  Many boxes used during the breeding season will now be used for roosting as the nights grow cold.  A snug roost will conserve vital energy and can make the difference between survival or death for a small bird.  Feeding will make sure that parents who have lost condition during the heavy demands of the breeding season, soon regain their condition ready to face the winter.  Feeding will also give late babies the very best chance of growing big enough to survive, too.  Weed patches are extremely important in autumn, providing seeds and insects that provide vital nutrients in turn.  Watch out for ice on drinkers and ponds.

So, when you think about it, there isn’t a “best time” to look after and study the birds in your garden.  In all of nature, there are different seasons, but the different seasons are all equal in importance in various ways.  The same applies to the things you can do for birds.

It also means that you can enjoy yourself and make and hang up boxes, “prepare” weed patches, organise feeders and install a pond while the weather is nice so that these things will provide benefits all year round. 

Remember, too, that bird boxes, feeders, small pond kits and other provisions make wonderful presents for birthdays, Christmas and any special occasion – you don’t have to wait for a “special” time to provide these things, and they are always acceptable – even for those “difficult” friends, family and acquaintances who seem to have everything or “don’t need anything” and for whom it is difficult to find presents.

Children delight in making provision for birds and they can learn valuable things in doing so  - not only the natural history, identification and biological aspects, but also lessons in practicality, nutrition, cause/effect, planning and a host of other important life lessons.  Most of all, it is a valuable exercise in unselfish giving that will teach responsibility (and routine) at the same time.  Making and painting a nest box is an absorbing project, and then waiting to see if it is used provides anticipation and an exercise in patience.

There can be few more acceptable presents for older people, too.  They have the time to provide and the time to watch, study and be fascinated.  It provides an ongoing interest and looking after a local bird population is important real responsibility at a time when many older people sadly feel “useless” and unimportant.

And don’t forget the bird and wildlife organisations, charities and even your local parks department – they appreciate gifts of nest boxes.  Many organisations will appreciate nest boxes, feeders, feed and other things to use themselves or for fundraising purposes.

And, of course, the birds will appreciate it all even though they have no way of telling us.

© handykam.com 2006

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