Much cooler today with temperature struggling to reach 12c this afternoon.
Project Museum finished. So pleased with the end result. I do have the lighting to connect up, have the fittings required so hopefully Monday I can connect to the power supply.
My word what some amazing images from the trail cameras last night. Coloured images of the cubs as they leave and enter the den.
The astonishing images of the night however were of the hedgehogs. Two male hedgehogs attempting to mate with a female. All this again the entrance to the den. Not sure what to make of it all, have never seen such activity before.
Amongst all this excitement there is disappointment however. A total lack of birds this season, suggestions have been expressed as to why this could be but none of it makes sense to me as nothing has changed from previous years in feed etc.
I'm afraid it's well known Pump and indeed very well documented that birds don't tend to CONTINUE TO nest near constant sources of food and therefore constant sources of unnatural numbers of birds and therefore constant sources of avian stress and disease and predators (your daily hawk etc).
ReplyDeleteThe fact that "nothing has changed from previous years in feed etc" is probably the EXACT reason why over time, your local birds have grown to consider your garden to be a valuable source of food but perhaps not the best place to bring up young. Maybe not RIGHT THERE with all that hoo-ha going on. Maybe a garden or two away might be better. Certainly quieter.
You may have got away with it in the past with nesting birds... (you did well eh?) and you'll always have a decent shot at some birds nesting in boxes from time to time... but it's just a matter of fact that the longer you turn your garden into a "bird supermarket*"... the less and less chance you have in filling all your bird boxes with breeding birds.
Remember birds dont form orderly queues at tills and then politely pay for the bird food you put out in your "bird supermarket*".
They fight and scream at each other and bully each other and squabble and get killed occasionally by hawk or disease.
*I call gardens full of bird feeders, "bird supermarkets" but if they were human supermarkets they'd be supermarkets where huge numbers of armed, aggressive people turn up and fight for all the free stuff... whilst avoiding the lions and tigers picking them off from time to time.
Would you want to breed and bring up kids in that sort of environment?
If you are to continue to feed the birds with all your dozens of feeders then group them in one area of the garden and the bird boxes elsewhere in the garden.
But.
Of course the bird feeders shouldn't be static either so you'll need to move them regularly. Every week or so.
I'm sorry if this doesnt make any sense to you and like I say you'll always have a shot at getting the odd nest or two in your lovely garden. But if you want to maximise your chances of nesting birds... then you should really consider
a) catering for breeding birds... or
b) concentrate on ACTUALLY catering for FEEDING birds.
This year may be a particularly bad year for birds not nesting in your garden though, granted.
Next year may be better.
But if you really want to get as many birds NESTING rather than feeding in your garden I hope you'll consider that my suggestions above are evidence based and do actually, I hope, make a little sense.