Urban birds
WillowBark
Posts: 236
Hi, all. New poster here and I am hoping I might be able to get some feedback on what is reasonable to expect from my garden.
We moved in to our house not long ago, and I have spent the past few months turning the garden from a plain little square of grass into something a bit more varied and wildlife friendly. So far, there has been a huge improvement in terms of insect wildlife, but, despite having done my best to encourage them, there seems to be a limited range of birds using it.
The regular visitors to our garden are:
Starlings
Blue tit
Robin
Collared doves
The semi-regular visitors are:
Pied wagtail
Magpie
Wood pigeon
And then there are the very occasional visitors - goldfinches only twice during summer, sparrows only twice during summer, blackbird only once.
Does this sound like a decent level of diversity and frequency of visits for a tiny urban garden, do people think? I grew up in the countryside and I feel like there should be more, but it could be that I am expecting too much from what is a very built up area with few green spaces. I provide water and a wide range of different types of bird food, and I've planted things for insects, so I can't think of much else to try to encourage more birds into the garden (other than planting more shrubs for cover, but we just don't have room for that). One of our immediate neighbours has Astro Turf and the other doesn't like "mess", so the gardens adjacent to ours are ecological dead zones.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
Thank you.
We moved in to our house not long ago, and I have spent the past few months turning the garden from a plain little square of grass into something a bit more varied and wildlife friendly. So far, there has been a huge improvement in terms of insect wildlife, but, despite having done my best to encourage them, there seems to be a limited range of birds using it.
The regular visitors to our garden are:
Starlings
Blue tit
Robin
Collared doves
The semi-regular visitors are:
Pied wagtail
Magpie
Wood pigeon
And then there are the very occasional visitors - goldfinches only twice during summer, sparrows only twice during summer, blackbird only once.
Does this sound like a decent level of diversity and frequency of visits for a tiny urban garden, do people think? I grew up in the countryside and I feel like there should be more, but it could be that I am expecting too much from what is a very built up area with few green spaces. I provide water and a wide range of different types of bird food, and I've planted things for insects, so I can't think of much else to try to encourage more birds into the garden (other than planting more shrubs for cover, but we just don't have room for that). One of our immediate neighbours has Astro Turf and the other doesn't like "mess", so the gardens adjacent to ours are ecological dead zones.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
Thank you.
0
Posts
It can take a while for birds to get wind of the new facilities you're offering, and certainly, over winter, you'll get them visiting regularly and building up. There was very little activity in this garden when I moved in, as there were hardly any plants, but with a few changes, plenty of planting, a water source and feeders, I now have loads. Very few people round here are gardeners too, but it's improving.
If you don't have room for shrubs for cover, you can use climbers. If you can post a couple of photos, you'll get suggestions for other plants or ideas for providing cover too
In terms of shrubs, I have one Escallonia in the centre of the main flowerbed that I am hoping will fill out a bit next year. On the climber front, I have some passionflowers training up willow canes on the side of the shed, but it's a run down old shed (much loved by a family of mice!), so I don't want to add too much else to its load in case it collapses. I also have some clematis, a jasmine, and a blackberry that I am training across some knee-height willow arches next to a fence (didn't want to put them directly on the fence as the neighbour would not have been keen), and another golden clematis going up an obelisk to try and hide the black plastic compost bin a bit. Given what you have suggested, perhaps they will end up providing more cover for the birds than I realised - I thought only shrubs were really dense enough to do that! Are there any other climbers you would recommend for a newbie gardener that won't encroach on the neighbours?
I am not sure if I have any decent photos of the whole garden, but I'll have a look.
Thanks for your help and encouragement!
The sparrows here seem to do the same as your collared doves - I've seen them in neighbouring streets, but hardly ever in mine. Strange, isn't it?
I was pleasantly surprised when the pied wagtail started making regular visits, as I'd only ever associated them with supermarket car parks before! He was an unexpected addition, but I think one of my favourites to watch.
Thanks.