Creating A Garden For Birds In Winter

One of the wonderful parts of having a garden is that even in the depths of winter you can look out the window and see nature. 

Even on a freezing cold and windy day like today when, even a a keen gardener, I know I will probably do more harm than good tramping across wet grass and muddy borders, I can look out and see our lovely garden and all the wildlife that visit.

 For me now the garden and the wildlife are intrinsically bound together. What happens with one affects the other so now I always try to keep both in mind with everything I do. 

I love birds and get so much pleasure from seeing all the different ones, hearing them singing away so beautifully, having them nest in our garden and all their lovely antics all year I always want to help them through the often difficult winter months.

So at this time of year I sort out all the bird feeders and go to the shops or the farmer's markets and stock up on the bird feed.

I usually get a variety of bird food so that different birds may enjoy it. We have many different birds visit our garden such as blackbirds, starling, thrushes, sparrows, greenfinch, wood pigeon and many more! So I have just bought some sunflower seed, niger seeds and fat balls. I will be getting more in as the weeks go by.

Then I position the bird feeders especially those for smaller birds, so that they are grouped together but a fair distance from each other to reduce squabbling and high enough so they are hopefully out of reach of ground predators. Then its just a matter of waiting.

After years of careful planting for wildlife with a mix of evergreen and deciduous trees and shrubs with lots of cover and food, there is an abundance of berries and autumn bounty in our garden.

So I do wonder if the birds may not need quite so much from me this year but we do not yet know what kind if winter it will be mild or severe or somewhere in between, so I will give the birds the option! 

Many of our songbirds are declining in number so I think they need all the help we can give.

Also, I do love to watch them at the feeders and if possible take some photographs so it is always lovely when they do visit.

It is also important to leave water for the birds and we have a large birdbath that they visit every day. 

We change the water every day as birds from tiny sparrows to large wood pigeons do love to bathe in it a lot! 

During the freezing weather, we always go out and break the ice on it so they always have access to clean fresh water.

You may like to read more about the importance of a Bird Bath in Do You Have A Bird Bath In Your Garden? 

The birds in our garden give me such a lot and are such an integral and important part of our natural world.

 It is lovely to know that by planting the trees and shrubs they love for cover and berries and I love for how they look and make me feel,  that I can help the wildlife out a little as well. 

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