Cold – Wet – Hungry

Pretty much everyone in the country has been affected directly or indirectly by the recent gales and flooding. Whether your home has been devastated or your journey to work disrupted, the severe weather has affected all of us to some degree.

Under these heavy grey skies and sodden countryside spare a thought for our garden birds who cannot escape the conditions. For them, heavy rain and strong winds are far more than an inconvenience; they are a matter of life and death. Wind and rain strip trees of precious fruits and berries that were already in short supply. Bare trees offer little protection from the elements and a wet bird is a bird at risk. All this means shorter feeding times and often longer flights between food sources and more energy expended just keeping warm.

In the middle of winter, I’m always stressing the importance of a reliable food source for birds waiting for them at dawn. “Make sure you fill your feeders every day” I preach to friends and family and generally anyone who’ll listen. Well at the risk of sounding even more like a broken record, I’m bringing this message forward this year. Poor hedgerow crops, a beech mast failure and heavy wind and rain are all conspiring against our garden birds and they need our help more than ever this autumn!