Feeding the Birds - Advice from Bill

I Spill most of it!

It is funny how long it sometimes takes to arrive at a sensible decision. For ages, when I first started feeding birds on a fairly grand scale - well, as grand as it can be in my tiny London garden - I always rather dreaded filling up the various feeders. The fact was, I really didn't make it easy on myself. For a start, some of the feeders were just a tantalising couple of inches too high for me to see what I was aiming at. Secondly, I was pouring the seed out of a rather large ex ice cream carton, which I had brought back as a souvenir of Disneyworld. The end result was that at least a third of the seed spilled out onto the ground rather than into the feeder. I suppose it didn't matter too much, as ground feeding birds soon found it, but it was a bit of a mess. The solution: a scoop with a narrow funnel. Now why didn't I think of that!?

No Mess

Heaven knows, I am rarely accused of being a tidy person. I confess my usual mode of dress is casual to the point of scruffy. The same goes for my garden. It is quite fun, and I think rather charming, but it certainly isn't neat. My "excuse " is partly that it is meant to attract wildlife in general, and birds in particular, and therefore at least part of it has to be left - well - messy.
On the other hand, my bird feeding areas are not totally unplanned. Most of my feeders are suspended over little squares of crazy paving, that I put there partially 'cos I thought they looked sort of rustic, and partially so that I could occasionally sweep up fallen seed husks. This was no great chore. Until I started feeding sun flower seeds. They are full of goodness, and the birds loved them, but they didn't half leave a mess, all over the paving and beyond. Within a month my garden was fast disappearing under a layer of sunflower seed husks. I tried sweeping them up and using them as a mulch, but within a week I had covered most of the flower beds, and still the husks were rising. Imagine my delight then when Haith's brought out Husk Free Supermix, containing Sunflower kernels, and much more besides. No more mess. Well, that's not strictly true. The new seeds attracted so many more birds, that the crazy paving was white with droppings within days. But I don't mind. If I half close my eyes, it looks like a light snow fall. Quite pretty really.