Shropshire Magazine

The perennial favourite Erithacus rubecula, the European robin, needs our help at this time of year.

Ken Tudor issues an appeal on behalf of our feathered friends, who have already had to battle through fierce winter weather

An SOS-style message has gone out to gardeners from keen Shropshire ornithologist Martin George, to help our feathered friends to survive the worst sub-zero temperatures for decades by supplying more and more food to get them through to spring.

Many will have perished in the coldest January for decades, and so it is vital that we all do what we can to help those that have survived to get through to the dawn chorus, nest-building and laying eggs.

And at the same time we can, with regular feeding and watering, end up with a wider range of birds in our gardens and a more colourful and interesting winter garden at the same time.

Martin and the staff at CJ Wildbird Foods at Upton Magna, near Shrewsbury, make it plain that it is difficult enough to get birds through the winter anyway because they have to eat a colossal amount of food just to keep going.

It has been estimated at the CJ headquarters, where they manufacture a huge range of feeds and equipment and do a lot of research, that our garden favourite, the perky robin redbreast, only weighs about 20g, and will spend 90 per cent of its time at the feeders to ensure it can survive the long cold night.

“So they need to consume up to 8gm of food a day, that’s 40 per cent of their body weight - in human terms, the equivalent of an average woman having 530 bars of chocolate a day just to survive during the winter.

“These are remarkable statistics. It is vital that we provide the food - not the bars of chocolate, but good-quality bird seed, fats and other nutrients, to help them build up for the busy weeks ahead.

It’s vital to feed regularly, as birds will become reliant on your source of food.

“Birds have had to face the biting winds, had to search out food in temperatures down to minus 15C and seek shelter from the icy conditions in the fields and in our gardens.”

Now Martin, wildlife consultant at CJs, has put out an appeal to get our favourite winter birds - the robin, wren and blackbird - back in trim for nest-building and breeding.

“It has been a dreadful time for birdlife – they have to struggle at times but the weather through December and January has been absolutely awful for them,” he said.

He advised on his monthly advice notes on the CJ website www.birdfood.co.uk that we should think about a “fat, splash and shelter” regime to help the birds who thrill us so much in the garden.

“We should provide additional survival rations in the form of fat products for raw energy to survive the long, cold nights,” he said.

“Hang them up or rub them into bark for more retiring and shy species such as tree-creepers, long-tailed tits and goldcrests.

“It is important too that we avoid disturbing birds when they are sheltering from the elements,” he said. “At night-time roosts and in ‘loafing areas′ during the day, the birds are trying to conserve vital energy; avoidable disturbance is a bit like reducing the amount of food available.”

And we should provide shelter. The nest boxes we put up now will be useful later as windproof roost sites,” said Martin. “The British Trust for Ornithology had a report of 24 wrens using one box!”

The first and last hours of daylight are particularly important feeding times when it’s icy, so the birds should be left to feed up in peace if possible.

Martin re-emphasised the advice given recently by local member of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Louise Pederson, who expressed concern about cleanliness around the feeding stations and the fact that disease can easily kill birds which come into our gardens for help.

“It is particularly important now with the birds being sorely tested by the harsh conditions,” said Martin. “They can be particularly susceptible to infection, so keep on top of the hygiene by moving ground-feeding areas regularly or treating them and cleaning the bird baths.”

And, of course, Martin said it was vitally important to regularly feed, once you start. “The birds come to rely on you for a daily source of food so be reliable and ensure that feeders and water dishes are kept topped up ready for your visitors.

Nutrients

“It is not very satisfactory if we only feed infrequently, because birds use energy to fly in to our gardens and wait around in the hope of getting a feed. It is important too that we try to give the birds high-quality specialist feeds which give them lots of vital nutrients, not just something made of inferior materials,” he said.

They can enjoy fruit – slices of apples and pears are loved by blackbirds and thrushes – and they do enjoy leftovers like grated cheese, porridge, cooked rice and pasta, but it is the black sunflower seeds, sunflower hearts and other materials in the specialised feeds that really keep them flying.

Apart from feeding with specialist seeds and fat feeds – Martin reckons that fat balls can help to attract hungry woodpeckers to the gardens – gardeners could do more by providing more food and shelter in the gardens.

CJ Wildbird Food’s Rowena Coombes fills a seed feeder.

We all know that spring bulbs and other early flowers attract insects and lots of pests which provide good food for wildlife and later on attract bees and butterflies to bring a balanced wildlife environment.

However, the planting of winter-flower and winter-berrying plants can bring terrific boosts, providing berries for their attraction and all-seasons foliage and food and shelter  for birdlife.

Things that come quickly to mind – the hawthorns, pyracantha, cotoneaster and mountain ash trees – provide a lot of benefit, but there are more.

For instance, the wild cherry Prunus avium has lovely spring flowers and juicy small cherries and the Serviceberry tree, the Amelanchier canadensis, is another popular with birds and people – it has fabulous autumnal colours.

Then there is the Guelder Rose, again with red berries, and one of the most attractive of all winter plants Skimmia japonica also provides food for the hungry wildlife.

It is vital to feed where we can, and when I was with Martin he caught one of the many pied wagtails that bob around at Upton Magna and checked if over. “Look how thin she is,” urging me to stroke her so-thin breast. “She is struggling.”

So it is urgent: those which have survived must be helped to get back on their feet and on their perches so that our precious birdlife lives on to bring us those special joys through the year.

Staff at CJ Wildbird Foods – Europe’s biggest supplier of bird food, set up by bird expert Chris J Whittles in 1987 – will continue to research and provide more feeds and equipment and continue to educate us into learning more about how to help our feathered friends.