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2150 Saturday 14 April 2001

A bird in every bush

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds [RSPB] Growing Native Tree Trader Landlife Wildflowers

Gardens are nothing without small birds, so offer them food and shelter, says Yvonne Thomas

LAST week there was a sparrow in the garden. Hardly worth a mention - except that it was the first of the year and I felt it deserved a big hello, or at least a few monkey nuts.

It perched on the edge of a pot of wild cyclamen and began pulling off the buds, one by one, and dropping them on the path. I took the pot away. Meanwhile, a bullfinch stripped petal after petal off the cherry tree as if for the fun of seeing them flutter down and cover the path with pink.

Oh, well. Gardens are nothing without small birds and there have been few enough of them in the past couple of years. I would like to encourage them to return. Unfortunately, the law does not allow the shooting of predatory magpies and my neighbour who owns cats would cut up rough if I threw clods of earth at them. The best way seems to be through planting.

What small birds need for breeding is cover for safe nesting, a perch where predators cannot reach them, and a supply of their favourite food. Safety comes first. Birds are not known for their brains: they would probably go for the food, however dangerous this might be. But last year a nestful of baby blackbirds disappeared overnight from its mooring on an ivy-clad wall, and all evidence - the nest dragged down and scattered feathers - pointed to the cat. The answer is a hedge of tough, spiky shrubs and bushes, such as hawthorn, bramble and gorse, pruned into a dense thorn barrier. Small birds like nesting in them and wrens and warblers, in particular, prefer to live in bramble thickets.

Try to find home-grown hedgerow species, especially hawthorn, because foreign varieties are sometimes susceptible to mildew. Blackthorn, mixed with hawthorn and holly, cut down hard at first to encourage lower growth, then cut into a flat-topped "A" shape, makes a good barrier.

A hedge gives particularly good shelter for garden plants (which, in turn, provide ground cover for birds) because it filters and slows down wind. Walls cause turbulence, but creepers, such as ivy and honeysuckle, grown against them also offer nesting sites. Sparrows like holes in old walls.

For feeding and perching, the RSPB says native trees are best because they sustain a variety of insects and berries. Birds seem to have favourites. Alder trees attract goldfinches and redpolls, which like the cones in winter. Redpolls are keen on birch seeds. Young tits eat the caterpillars on oaks and willows; coal tits, goldcrests and crossbills like insects from the Scots pine.

It is the same with flowers: bullfinches particularly enjoy forget-me-not and wallflower seeds; goldfinches like thistles, teasels, rosemary and lemon balm. Linnets and greenfinches prefer dandelion and groundsel seeds which must be why (looking at the dandelion lawn) the greenfinch family always comes back to my garden.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001

Answers

An example of how narrow minded people can be.Last month in the middle of the Foot & Mouth epidemic, I was advised to leave a sheep carcase out to attract ravens.This beggars belief.

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2001

I have come to the conclusion that I don't want to attract birds to my yard.

They shit seeds and I get all the nasty weed plants all over, and they also make a mess.

I'll keep the big black crow, though. He's a cool one! He has two wives!

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

Maybe you can find a small carcasse for the crows to pick on. . . Otherwise, they like stale cat food.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

"Otherwise, they like stale cat food."

Problem is, cats like stale birds.

Since my neighbors have no intention of taking responsibility for their cats and the property damage and destruction they can do on other people's lots, I'm not so sure it's a good idea for me to encourage the birds.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

My bird feeders are on one side of the house, leftover food for the neighborhood cats on the other. Right next to the bird feeders are a Japanese holly hedge and a large Leyland cypress--both excellent bolting places when cats appear--and the birds set up a helluvan alarm when they do. Luckily, two of the three moocher cats are white and easily spotted by the birds. The third doesn't seem a bit interested. Maybe he's from the coast and is a fish-eating cat.

I honestly don't mind the cats because they keep down the mice and rats, plentiful because we're near a creek. I would be upset, though, if any of the cats were seriously predatory and would certainly take to hosing them (only in non-freezing weather). Perhaps my feeding them helps keep the birds safe. I take the food in at night to avoid attracting raccoons and that's when the cats go after the small rodents.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

It's not the feeding stations I'm concerned about, those can be managed. It's the nesting areas. More cats prowling my property means more predation. I bought my small lot to try to create a wildlife habitat, and the neighborhood cats make that impossible. People should take responsibility for ALL their pets, but somehow there is a disconnect where cats are concerned.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

The disconnect with cats is possibly because you don't see them attacking people as they walk down the street, or chasing cars, and you don't see humongous loads in your yard from them.

Not like some dogs I know.

Fortunately, Miss Kitty has the brains to stay in her own yard, and possibly laughs at other cats that try to come over to 'play' with her. She tears em up! And with her around, we don't have cats walking on our cars anymore.

Also, most people don't bother to take the cat to the vet for shots, let alone a license. Miss Kitty doesn't drive, btw.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

Sorry, forgot to mention--I prune off holly branches and put them under the bushes and trees where the birds nest. The cats won't go across them. Luckily, we have lots of mature pines around here for nesting and those Leylands are too thick for a cat to climb. I guess I just don't have to worry too much about the nesting birds--but I have a feeling the raccoons and hawks get their fill.

Do you have any room for a Leyland cypress, Brooke? They grow REALLY fast and the birds get practically impenetrable and cozy shelter. Since the two in our front yard have grown, there are dozens of birds chuntering away in there at twilight. I was thinking of planting some thorny bushes for them too. Anybody have any recommendations?

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

"The disconnect with cats is possibly because you don't see them attacking people as they walk down the street..."

That brings to mind a favorite passage from one of my favorite poems from one of my favorite collections of poems...

"When suddenly, up from a small basement flat, Why who should stalk out but the Great Rumpuscat. His eyes were like fireballs fearfully blazing, He gave a great yawn and his jaws were amazing; And when he looked out through the bars of the area, You never saw anything fiercer or hairier. And what with the glare of his eyes and his yawning, The Pekes and the Pollicles quickly took warning. He looked at the sky and he gave a great leap -- And every last one of them scattered like sheep. And when the Police Dog returned to his beat, There wasn't a single one left in the street."

An excerpt from, of course, "The Aweful Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles, Together with Some Account of the Participation of the Pugs and the Pomes, and the Intervention of the Great Rumpuscat", from T.S. Eliot's Book of Practical Cats. (Yes, that was just the title.)

Barefoot, maybe the kitties in your area are just wussies??

Cats Rule, Dogs Drool.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

TS rocks!

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001