Donal Hickey: Why have the birds abandoned my garden?
Foodstuffs Is Birds Feeders They More As It For Wrong The That Garden They For Disappear The Feeder, Birdwatch, Simply As Aren’t Peanut Reason, For Is For Is Reliant Birds Fruit Fact, World Normal Haven’t At Nor Natural Summertime, Anything It’s Your For Time: With In On A In Abandoned To Likely A Better Bird Certain Insects, Explains Pletely Are Spoiled And Brimming While Winter In Abundance, With A Are Birds " Choice! This “in Seeds,
Some readers tell us their gardens have got much quieter with birds apparently leaving as summer went on.
The same people truly love their wild birds, providing them with nut-filled feeders, water, and whatever is needed. Indeed, they treat their feathered friends like household pets and, with the likes of robins which can walk in the back door to you, that’s not surprising.
Disappointment then that the birds have seemingly deserted their presumed human friends, but, as always with nature, there’s a practical reason.
Birds haven’t abandoned your garden for a better peanut feeder, nor is it likely that anything is wrong. In fact, explains Birdwatch, it’s completely normal for birds to disappear for a while at a certain time: “In summertime, the natural world is brimming with foodstuffs. With insects, seeds, fruit and more in abundance, birds are simply spoiled for choice! For this reason, they aren’t as reliant on bird feeders as they are in the winter."
From late spring to the middle of the summer, and longer for some species, birds are thinking about finding a mate, building a nest, incubating a clutch of eggs and, all going well, spending several weeks frantically trying to feed a hungry brood.
The adults then can’t travel far from base, or they could lose their territory, or mate, to a rival, a predator could find the eggs, or the chicks could go hungry.
People often ask whether they should leave bird feeders up in the summer, when birds have plenty of natural food available.
“While it isn’t as vital to do so as in winter, there is no harm in leaving the feeders up throughout the year," says Birdwatch.
“Adult birds are required to feed both themselves and their chicks during the summer. Supplying them with food in your garden allows them easy access to food for themselves, giving them more time and energy to search for more protein-rich food for their chicks."
Talking about wild fruit, blackberries should now be ripe for the picking and, from casual observation, there seems to be a good crop on the brambles this autumn.
Finally, and unfortunately, there also seems to be a prolific crop of ragwort (buachalán), again this year. Even though it is illegal to allow this bright yellow member of the daisy family to grow, it seems out of control, especially on roadsides, as we saw during our summer travels around Cork, Kerry and Clare.
Ragwort is toxic to cattle and horses and, experts tell us, the best way to eradicate it is to pull plants from the root. Some job, given the ubiquity of the problem!