Feed the birds!
Monday 30th January
In this cold weather, please spare a thought for our feathered friends and leave food and water out for the birds. Bird feeders and tables are also great ways to attract birds to your garden, providing unique entertainment whilst you are eating your own breakfast!
If you haven't got space for a full bird table or feeder, you could fill half a coconut, or the holes and cracks of a post, with fatty food such as suet.
To match our nation's soaring interest in birds, the range and type of bird feed and bird feeder available has grown immensely: the market is estimated to be worth almost £200m a year.
The UK has lost 95% of its traditional wildflower meadows, and 50% of ancient woodlands, the more "habitat" we can reproduce in our gardens, even if its just a bird bath or bird feeder, the more helpful we can be.
Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust is already working to redress this situation somewhat with our Farmland Birds Bed and Breakfast project, where we provide subsidised feed hoppers and boxes and advice on where to site them.
Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust's Conservation Officer Mark Speck recently helped to install a bird feeding station and nest boxes at Holly Primary School in Forest Town.
Funding for this exciting scheme to support birds during the winter months through supplementary food was provided by Nottinghamshire Birdwatchers.
In addition to the supplementary food, the school is providing natural habitat across their grounds in the form of a nature reserve, woodland, orchard and allotment. It is hoped that by stimulating interest in the natural environment the children at the school will be encouraged to become the conservationists of the future. The school is also hoping to be able to restore a pond in order to provide further habitat diversity within the school grounds and act as an educational tool for students.
As well as providing advice to schools, a key part of Mark’s work at Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust is advising farmers as to how they can improve their land for wildlife. Through our Farmland Bird Bed & Breakfast Scheme we also supply special seed hoppers and nest boxes designed to help boost populations of farmland bird species such as tree sparrow and yellowhammer.
The Farmland Bird Bed & Breakfast Scheme is also supported by Nottinghamshire Birdwatchers and is another example of how the the two groups are working together to help local wildlife.
