Feed the Birds (Tuppence a Bag)

It's official. Visitors to the nations' gardens are down on last year...visitors, that is, of the feathered variety. The RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch results were out earlier this week revealing that overall, the average number of birds seen in our gardens has declined by a fifth since 2004.

Whilst all our garden favourites were still in the top 10, nearly all of these species’ numbers have fallen dramatically over the past three decades.

Now I will happily admit to being something of a twitcher in my youth and can remember staring out of the window for hours at the crowded birdtable in the winter that was covered with most of the top 10 entrants plus Nuthatches (I can’t remember the last time I saw one of these), Jays and the odd Wren when the coast had cleared.

The thought that these birds are declining so quickly is a depressing one; one that joins that long list of other depressing environmental concerns that we all face. And like most of the items on this list, we gardeners can play our part. I am a firm believer that the way individuals behave in their own backyard can make a difference to our environment; we just need to get enough individuals engaged and behaving in the right way.

So I have registered with the RSPB’s Homes For Wildlife initiative and received from them a long list of ideas to support wildlife of all types in the garden. And I will keep you posted on the progress I make.