Permission to be untidy ..
The natural world as watched through the kitchen window is fascinating and ever-changing and a great vantage point for us from which to do the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch this coming weekend.
For us, each winter seems to be identifiable in the memory by the birds visiting the garden.
Our introduction to the garden was goldfinch in ‘charms’: their collective noun. Groups of fifty plus birds in what always feels like noisy joyful chatter.
We have, of course, a stalwart team of regulars that includes the common tits, robins, dunnocks, wood pigeons, chaffinches and blackbirds. These common birds are of interest themselves but one year was marked quite literally by a male chaffinch with a white breast (‘Chester’) and a male blackbird wearing white spectacles. We watched out for these until they left us in spring.
One year lesser redpolls were abundant, males sometimes as red as a blood orange.
Another year was made by redwings - song thrush-size migrants from Northern Europe busy foraging feistily amongst the leaves in the Woodland Garden. Windfall apples under the apple trees in the orchard witnessed their squabbling bulkier cousins the fieldfares in good number. Their familiar ‘chack-chack’ calls frequently overhead.
Male redpoll
There was an exceptional year when bramblings were everywhere, the garden buzzing with their calls. They are old gold and black relatives of chaffinches but bigger and much bossier.
This year has been distinguishable by chaffinches foraging on the architectural seed heads of the Turkish sage (phlomis russeliana). Chaffinches always feature among our regular cast list but this year many more have been taking advantage of our management of our Prairie beds where seed heads have been purposefully left for birds to enjoy. Teasel seed heads have towered this year, reaching eight feet in height. Male goldfinches have longer, more slender bills than the females and so it is the males who make the most of seeds hidden within the spikey teasel seed heads.
Male chaffinch
Winter is especially difficult for birds as there is less seed supply in the frequently already-empty fields. Birds exhaust the wild seed available as winter drags on, creating what is termed a ‘hungry gap’ when food is not as freely available for them. A consequence is higher mortality or the loss of condition leading to them breeding less successfully.
The RSPB tells us that we have lost 38 million birds from our skies over the last 60 years. We should be doing all we can to arrest this decline. A message for us as gardeners is very clear - leave untidy areas in the garden for birds. This will also help invertebrates and mammals. We all win!
Lets all be untidy for nature!!