About Mountsorrel > Outdoors > Nature Diary > December 2002
Winter is a
difficult time for many small birds and mammals with a lack of insects and
grubs. Some larger animals hibernate over the winter but most small animals
like mice, shrews and voles have to continue feeding whatever the cold and
wet weather. Small bird mortality is also very high and many of the birds
hatched in the summer will not survive their first winter. Some birds migrate
south to warmer climates but this brings its own dangers with long flights
over water or desert.
We can help birds survive the winter by supplementing their food supply either
supplying them with food scraps such as old bread or by buying nut feeders
or fat balls. A bird table or a hanging nut feeder can provide an excellent
place to observe many garden birds and you will be surprised to see how many
different species will suddenly appear. Nuts will attract a variety of finches
– greenfinch, chaffinch and also house sparrows – and fat balls are very
popular with blue tits, great tits and long tailed tits. A variety of other
birds also come to bird tables – robin, blackbird, hedge sparrow starling
and collared dove. You may also attract a few surprises such as coal tit,
nuthatch and even a great spotted woodpecker!
A blackcap warbler turned up in my garden last week along with a party of
tits. It did not feed on the nuts but picked the remaining berries off the
holly bush. With the change to warmer winters some summer visitors, like
the blackcap, now overwinter in Britain rather than migrating to Spain or
North Africa. However, ringing has shown that most of our wintering blackcaps
originate from the Germany and Austria, rather than being birds breeding
in Britain. Blackcaps are small grey brown warblers and the male has, as
its name implies, a distinctive black cap, whereas the female has a rusty
or rufous crown.
Some less welcome visitors will also come to your bird table. Grey squirrels
are helped through the winter by the food you provide and they will scare
off birds as well as gnaw through plastic nut feeders. They do a lot of damage
to birds, as they will take the eggs and nestlings of many small birds and
along with magpies and cats are the main predators on garden birds.