Blood orange bullfinch

A garden orchestrated for songbirds.

You know what colour I love the most, I think that rich, blood orange juice coral. And Christ, you know the only supermarket that sells it I think Waitrose! Not that much of a Cotswold resented resident then really are you Arthur, duck. I love it with gin.

Anyway, as I was brushing my teeth the other day, which is necessary morning therapy, I close my eyes and hope the sonic vibrations go into my head like that expense brain tapping treatment . This is apparently worth having but you need a spare couple of grand. I opened my eyes for once during this moment of tooth paste vibrating bliss to a distant burst of the most beautiful bauble of coral orange. It was hovering about some branches in the garden opposite.

The bauble was in fact, a wondrous and elusive male bullfinch. He settled and began eating the vanilla little blossoms of the winter flowering honeysuckle. I was mesmerised. I sometimes see a bullfinch as I cycle along the hedgerows but this was a treat to see one perched for a minute. When I am cycling, they tease me, flying in front of my bike. They are fast, flitting fliers and larger always than I imagine them to be, diving into the hedge as I get closer. The females, lacking the blood orange breast feathers and having a coffee froth attire are even harder to spot but they are often in pairs. The Bullfinch I was watching from the bathroom was so wondrously plump. He ate a few flowers with his little but almost parrot like jet black beak and then flitted away.

So I have ordered a winter flowering honeysuckle this weekend from Crocus. They are in the winter plant sale. Winter flowering honeysuckle, wouldn’t have been a plant that I’d have noted when I started gardening. Now though, I’d rather plant a whole hedge of them than a bulb lasagne of parrot tulips. Its early pollinator feeding and now bullfinch attracting credentials, give just as much excitement to me as such annual bulbs used to do.

There is much talk about bird feeding at the moment. It is today at the time of publishing, the RSPB big bird count and at the same time there is much real fear about avian flu.

I think to be a good garden bird custodian, you have to employ some good bird fancier knowledge to your bird feeders. I bred canaries and zebra finches when I was a teenager with much joy on both sides of the keeper and kept, you have to keep your aviary very clean. Wherever little birds feed and congregate, bird droppings and seed husks combine to make bad mould and harmful bacteria incredibly quickly.

Every weekend, I would be in my aviary with a bucket of hot soapy water washing down the wooden interior frames and getting it all ship shape. Drinkers and feeders would be emptied and submerged in hot soapy water too with a glug of dettol and they’d be scrubbed and then dried before being refilled. All very necessary to stop mouldy seed and gunk and to stop harmful bacteria.

This exact same sort of housework, should be deployed onto wild bird feeders for the same reasons. Old seed, when it becomes wet quickly goes sour and mouldy yet it’s very easy to find photos of dirty wild bird feeders abound. It is only recently that this message is being deployed although not readily enough if you ask me. Finches are especially at risk from salmonella poisoning and the dreadful blight of trichomonosis , commonly termed as fat finch disease.

I don’t mind feeding the birds traditionally with feeders if it’s required. To be honest, I think visually most are f-ing dreadful but many species such as gold finches have definitely benefited from this feeding. Thriving in urban areas as a result of all the on offer Niger seed. Feeding some species benefits others that are too shy to gather at feeders, allowing the wild seed heads of silver birch trees to be on offer for more delicate feeders whilst others can take their fill from human bird feeding.

My mum religiously chops up an apple for the blackbirds, fruit is very popular with them in the winter. A lot of bird seed mixes are poor in quality, more of a pigeon pick and mix than what a tits beak could easily manage so try and buy seed mixes that contain lots of small seeds rather than those just of grain and the odd bit of black sunflower heart.

Perhaps what gives the birds the most sanctuary in my garden, is the bird bath. We have 2 large plant saucers that act as lovely shallow yet just deep enough spas.

One is raised up on the gardens table that is surrounded by a security of visually protective pots for little bathers and then one that is on the floor too. Interestingly the latter seems to get less use. The birds especially the sparrows seem to like to drink from the dolly tub that is that gardens little pond. Like the bird feeders, bird baths obviously need to be replenished of dirty water and scrubbed of scum almost every day in the summer. Even on cold winter days song birds need to bathe.

I am very species specific when it comes to animals. You may not follow me after this admission but I hate Grey squirrels nothing more than dirty great, fluffy tailed, invasive rats! You might not know but they predate many birds nests, eating eggs and chicks. A grey tree rat will take over an owls nest too, they are very cunning indeed in these take overs, springing nastily upon a nesting owl just as a rat would do so to a roosting little bantam hen.

And unfortunately, garden bird feeding readily supports them so bird feeders that are able to conquer their feasting are the only ones that I’m interested in. Most don’t and those that claim to do so still require hanging up with a squirrel like minded intelligence, often on bungee cords to name but a few methods I’ve seen deployed but it’s amazing what those strong claws and nasty sharp teeth are capable of doing.

It’s all about balance and education of supporting the birds in our gardens that really need supporting responsibility with knowledge of how best to help them which is largely dependent on our gardens individual location. Countryside and village gardens are far more likely to easily attract songbirds into them than urban ones but the latter can quickly do so with garden bird attractive planting and being mindful of the power that natural seed heads have too in gaining visitors.

Garden boundaries that are of hawthorn and Holly need to be planted far more and those that are established need to be defended at all costs. A dense, old hedge is a cathedral of nesting opportunity and shelter for little birds, cover is the vital thing for the little dears not wide open lawns and stiff fence panels only Mr wood pigeon and his wife will frequent those. And remember that sharply spined Holly will be a deterrent against prowling cats too, another menace and real killer of countless birds!

Of course you should be cautious about nesting birds too, I have to watch I don’t get too romantic about hoarding my foraged bundles of birch and hazel in the gardens corner. To me it is an awaiting mass of garden structures but to a nesting bird it is a welcome thicket of possible nesting places. Robins especially take advantage of man made garden mess and chaos as nesting sites regularly nesting in stacks of dusty plant pots.

Fences can become hedges too draped with climbers, honeysuckle especially but clematis too and climbing hydrangeas along with the roses that give good rose hips in the winter. Crab apples and cherries give blossom and then fruit.

Then there are many grasses, especially those of the panicum family whose seeds birds really love. Annual millets, Amaranthus, cardoon, lavender and sunflower seed heads and the growing stance of letting seed heads form and stand into the autumn and winter for natural forage along with a complete banishment of herbicides and pesticide, to let aphids and insects be present for parent birds to feed their hungry nestlings with, all help aid a garden to hold court to a who killed cock robin nursery rhyme scene. We must do all we can to keep this glorious, sublime and delicate songbird casting alive, what would our lives and gardens be like without their sublime magic after all.

Best Arthur x