Last year I wrote about my love-hate relationship with the birds where I had been feeding them bird seed, bread and bird truffles and spending many hours enjoying watching their antics. Over the summer I valiantly tried various means to keep them from eating all my fruit. Now it is winter again and I am trying different things to feed them: Bird Seed Cake Fat is an excellent source of energy for small birds in winter, when their body reserves are used up quickly. But the only species … [Read more...]
Take part in the Garden Bird Survey
The garden bird survey is a citizen science project established to monitor the population trends of common garden birds in New Zealand. It attempts to answer the question, “Are garden bird populations increasing, decreasing, or remaining stable?” Each year Landcare Research and Forest & Bird ask for the public's help with a Garden Bird Survey. For just one hour anytime between 27 June and 5 July 2015, look for birds in your garden, local park or school grounds. You simply count the … [Read more...]
Stopping the Birds from eating all the Plums
I am very fortunate to have two fifty-year old plum trees in my backyard that are wonderful for screening out the neighbours and providing welcome shade for lounging under in the summer. They also produce a great crop of plums that I love to use in all sorts of different preserves (as well as eating them fresh of course). But my biggest problem is getting them before the birds do! I am happy to share some of my crop with the birds but birds don't share nicely: they insist on pecking every … [Read more...]
A Love-Hate Relationship with Birds
I love to sit at my dining table and look out at the birds in the garden: blackbirds and thrushes strutting around on the lawn, pausing and listening, and then homing in on the worms; fantails flitting from branch to branch searching for insects; and in spring tuis feasting on kowhai and flax flowers. From my kitchen bench I can see tiny wax-eyes searching for insects around the camellias. I throw out my crusts on to the lawn and hope some of the smaller birds get there first before the … [Read more...]