Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Feed the Birds, Tuppence a Bag!


In the garden stands a lovely walnut tree. It's great all year round. In Spring it provides some shelter. In Summertime it gives us shade and during the Autumn, Winter and early Spring it's a 4 star restaurant for all the birds in the neighbourhood.

It's great fun to watch the birds feeding from early morning till dusk. I use my binoculars to see them up close and personal. The cats love it too, it's a kinda daytime TV for them of which they never tire.

Birds are good friends to have if you are a gardener. Many birds eat lots of insects that are harmful to your plants such as aphids, slugs and snails. By feeding the birds you lure them into your garden and hopefully they will make a habit of popping in regularly to see what's on the menu. Today's special : juicy slugs served with a side order of aphids. By getting rid of many insects they help keep the pests under control in a very eco friendly way.

And there are many kinds of birds that come to feed. There's that lovely couple of turtle doves, Sven the cheeky robin, sparrows, jays, blue tits, blackbirds, finches and many, many more.

One day I found this rather strange bird eating bread crumbs from a bowl in my garden and I caught it on camera. I have no idea what kind it is, do you? It's very pretty though with all those stripes and dots, so I'll hope it will come again..


A garden needs time, the gardener patience.
Rose-Marie Gerritsen, Onze eigen tuin. Spring 2005

3 comments:

firefly said...

Looks like a kitten (it's not one of your cats, is it?).

I am a soft touch for strays -- I wish I could take them all in, although the four I have already (one was a stray we adopted) would not be very pleased with me!

Sigrun said...

Your bench looks great, so different colours. I'm so sorry, that I not have trees, everything is young in our garden.

Sigrun

Anonymous said...

What a strange bird on you last picture...I thought I saw a pussycat....I did.....I did