I haven't posted anything for a while for a couple of reasons - the first because I've been really busy, but the second being because the birds haven't needed a lot of feeding recently - well, not by me, anyway.
For the rest of May and most of June, I was still replenishing all the feeders more or less daily, certainly the various fat and suet feeders, and the ground feeding station was proving popular. The caging of the tables seems to have eventually discouraged the pigeons - yes, they still appear but not in the numbers they used to, and there's been a definite increase in smaller birds, including a delightful invasion of long-tailed tits, so sweet!
But since July started I've only really had to refill the seed feeders, and that on more like a weekly basis. Nature's bounty has taken over, there are bushes full of fruit and insects everywhere, why would the birds choose to eat anything else? Well, to be fair, they do still eat my seeds, but not as voraciously. In particular we've got a bush with berries that I can't identify (they look a bit like rosehips but not on roses) that also has wild blackberries twined through it, and everytime I walk past it I disturb huge clouds of sparrows, which is a very good thing to see. We also have an old apple tree which has already started dropping apples everywhere, and the birds eat them and also the many insects that live on them - so there's still plenty to watch in the garden, I just don't have to pay as much for the pleasure!
The only change to my feeders since last time is that with a recent RSPB seed purchase I got an additional seed feeder on special offer (£1 for a feeder? Yes please) and lacking space on the apple tree to hang it I've attached it to the trestle fence on the veg garden side, and the seed in that goes at twice the rate of anywhere else in the garden - presumably due to the proximity to the big hedge and trees at the bottom of the garden, and the wildlife pond.
Mind you, we're getting towards the end of summer now, and although that means the autumn bounty of berries and fruit, winter draws on (as they say) and soon the feathered fraternity will be relying on me once more to supplement Mother Nature's menu. It's nice to be needed.
