Lack of insects, birds starving

[noblegiraffe]

I'm seeing a lot of discussion on twitter about a distinct lack of insects this year, possibly due to the cold spring, but obviously pesticides are also an issue.

Birds who eat insects are really struggling and there are reports of baby birds dying because their parents can't feed them.

Please put food (and water) out for the birds! My bird feeder has been mobbed all week.

https://twitter.com/woodlandbirder/status/1662080648922779650?s=61&t=U9XrcF693-JpMxeIueYG7g (warning: contains picture of dead chicks)

Horsetail is a flipping nightmare. It's really resilient and even weedkillers could take many applications over several years to get rid of it.

There's an old gardener's joke.....
Novice gardener - When is the best time to weed out horsetail?
Experienced gardener - Sunday
Novice gardener - Which Sunday?
Experience gardener - Every Sunday.

Seriously though, the only advice I can give you is to dig it out as much and as often as possible. Cut off any new growth you see coming through. Remove all your weed out from your garden. Any tiny bit left behind can re-shoot so be thorough.
This might sound like an impossible task, but to make it easier start in one manageable area and concentrate on that area. Keep going on it. Be meticulous about moving plants from infested areas into your lovely clear patch and watch out for bringing soil in from other areas, even watch what you bring in on your boots.

If you do resort to using weedkiller (and I can see how desperation might make this an option with horsetail) then there's loads of info here. Hope this helps i in some small way - I feel your pain.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/weeds/horsetail

I’m currently digging a wildlife pond and we have lots of naturey things in the garden so v willing to do things naturally. But did recently spray weed killer for the first time ever to kill stinging nettles in our garden. I have young kids and don’t really fancy ripping them out myself (won’t they just grow back?). Any advice how to kill stinging nettles and also brambles?

I just looked on the RSPB website for feeding advice

It says

"Spring and summer

During the summer months, birds require high protein foods, especially while they are moulting.
Only feed selected foods at this time of year.
These food include:

• Black sunflower seeds, pinhead oatmeal, soaked sultanas, raisins and currants, mild grated cheese, mealworms, waxworms, mixes for insectivorous birds, good seed mixtures without loose peanuts,
• RSPB food bars and summer seed mixture are all good foods to provide. Soft apples and pears cut in half, bananas and grapes are also good.
• Some people use soaked dog or cat food and tinned pet foods, but these may attract magpies, crows and cats.
• Avoid using peanuts, fat and bread at this time, since these can be harmful if adult birds feed them to their nestlings. If you feel you must put out peanuts, only do so in suitable mesh feeders that will not allow sizeable pieces of peanuts to be taken, reducing the choking risk to chicks.
• Home-made fat balls can go soft and rancid in warm summer weather, and should be avoided. Commercially produced fat bars are suitable for summer feeding but discard any remains after three weeks.
• Temporary food shortage can occur at almost any time of the year, and if this happens during the breeding season, extra food on your bird table can make a big difference to the survival of young.
• Birds time their breeding period to exploit the availability of natural foods: earthworms in the case of blackbirds and song thrushes, and caterpillars in the case of tits and chaffinches. It is now known that if the weather turns cold or wet during spring or summer, severe shortage of insect food can occur, and if the weather is exceptionally dry, earthworms will be unavailable to ground feeding birds because of the hard soil. In order to help with this, buggy nibbles and mealworms can be provided during these times to prevent starvation.

Remember, good hygiene plays a vital role in keeping your garden birds healthy and disease free.

If food shortages occur when birds have young in the nest they may be tempted by easy food put on bird tables to make up the shortfall in natural food, initially to feed themselves, but if the situation gets bad enough, they will also take the food to the nest.
If the food offered on your bird table isn't suitable for the young chicks, it can do more harm than good, and can even be lethal to the chicks as they can choke on the food. It can be difficult for a human to gauge when food shortage in the wild occurs, and hence it is best not to put out food that is likely to create problems during the breeding season.
Therefore, never put out loose peanuts, dry hard foods, large chunks of bread, or fats during the spring or summer months.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/how-you-can-help-birds/feeding-birds/when-to-feed-garden-birds/

@Owlglasses thank you for advice. Its exhausting trying to keep on top of it. It's on our allotment so I have the additional worry of being responsible for it spreading to neighbours!

I have young kids as in, I don’t want them to get stung. My sentence sounds like I won’t pull them out with my hands because of the kids. Separate issues!

As we continue to bend nature, one day it will have enough. The earth will snap back at humankind and we will be gone but the earth will recover.

I hope the earth will recover without us, we’re a fucking scourge (obviously not the lovely people on this thread and those trying to help/live alongside nature).

Brilliant that you're digging a wildlife pond. Your children will love seeing the birds and other animals that attracts!

The thing about stinging nettles and brambles is that they are so brilliant for wildlife. There are many creatures, especially butterflies that really rely on stinging nettles to exist. Brambles make fantastic habitat for nesting birds, the flowers provide pollen for bees and the berries are brilliant for birds and small mammals.

I totally get that they can be a nuisance in the garden so even if you want to keep some for your pond wildlife you might want to contain them. To get rid of nettles so they won't come back immediately you need to get rid of their roots. You'll need thick gardening gloves. I get mine cheap in Wilkos. Wear thick, old clothes and boots. Tuck you sleeves into your gloves and secure them with a hair band around your wrist to protect your arms, then go at them with a fork/trowel/spade. Bag up the waste and put into your green bin/take to the recycling centre. Same with brambles really. It might be a mare of a job and you might have to do it a few times over a year, but it will get easier every time and you will definitely get ahead of it. I cured them in a garden last year with one hard morning of work and the results were worth it.

It's worth remembering that even if you spray with weedkiller the plant is still there and needs pulling out using the same process above. If you don't use the right weedkiller then the roots will stay and come back. Weedkiller might get in your pond and that would be awful.

Really hope that's helpful and that your pond is a joy for your family and all the creatures that visit your garden.

Good news about the scourge rectification.

I wish I could come and help but I have enough problems with the weeds on my allotment!

D'you know, Joe Swift gave up his allotment as he couldn't bear the horsetail so you are definitely not alone. He'd rotavated his and dug the horsetail roots in deep all over the plot! Keep at it, you'll get there.

@MyFaceIsAnAONB I knew what you meant 😀

My neighbour's garden is a haven for birds - the nettles and brambles which escape into mine are less welcome!
I don't use pesticides at all - so if any bird would like the 3698347536773 greenfly and thrips and whatever else, they're most welcome.
And there's the daily replenished bird feeders and hedgehog bowls too.

I saw my 1st swifts of the year (in England) in a meadow somewhere, 2 weeks ago. Often I don't see any until late May so that was relatively early. But total numbers could be down, I suppose.

We had a rat infestation last year. So stopped feeding the birds. One of our neighbours had chickens and we think the rats came from there. No longer have the chickens so I have risked putting food out again

Zippedydoo123 if you can’t afford to buy a bird feeder but want to feed the birds (great) there are lota of free/cheap diy ideas on line eg put peanut butter over outside of loo roll and roll in seeds, hang up with string. Also you can upcycle plastic bottles and milk cartoons. Or just put sultanas/raisins/currants out on saucer high up (not if you have a dog though as poisonous to them). Good luck.

Commercially produced fat bars are suitable for summer feeding but discard any remains after three weeks.

Lol - I put out feeders, containing 4 fat balls, a suet block and suet pellets everyday. I can guarantee they will all be gone within 3 hours, because the starlings! If I put fat balls on the ground, a crow will carry a whole one off in its beak; and if they didn’t, the rooks would demolish them in 10 minutes!

You are more likely to see a snow ball in hell, than I’d have to throw remains away after three weeks!

Every shit who puts down plastic grass should be buried 6ft underneath it!

We put our meal worms, corn, bird peanut butter everyday and they completely raid it !

In the back garden I have suet balls, suet cake,half coconuts with mealworm, 'buggy' peanut butter, sunflower seeds and Niger seed. I'm having to replace the suet and coconut every day - it's costing me a fortune! I love 'my' birds though - most of them don't even move when I'm refilling their feeders 🥰

I use terracotta saucers for water which all the birds use - I love seeing my woodpeckers, and have seen a couple of fledglings too

Have the poplar trees shed their seeds yet? Every May the air is full of their snow but none this year.

We face a wild area and our neighbours keep pestering the developer to mow it. It use to be full of grass hopers. Not seen the bats around.

It took a good few weeks, maybe a couple of months, fir a variety of birds to find my feeding station. Fatballs, thefilled coconut shells, sunflower seeds and general bird seed all go well. Meal worms are the favourite. Peanuts aren't touched but the crushed peanuts are.

Oh I was just thinking how busy it was with insects outside. My car is covered in them!

We've loads of birds and bugs. Definitely not an issue here but ... its a farm and there loads of poo for bugs to feast on.

Many many swallow and swift nests as well.

We feed the bird all year round in our garden. We tried to do no mow may but the dandelions went crazy and I only lasted 2 weeks and ended up cutting the grass last weekend.
We do however have plenty of wild areas in the garden that I leave alone and a wild cherry tree that in a couple of weeks will be stripped bare of all its fruit.
We also get the occasional hedgehog and squirrel.
We've had quite a few bees this year but I've not seen any ladybirds this year and only 1 butterfly that I spotted this morning.

I get a lot of birds in my garden but in the last few days it has gone crazy with starlings in particular feeding their fledged babies. I'm going to put even more food out now I know this. It's costing me a fortune but I hate the idea of the babies going hungry.

We counted two pairs of adult starlings and twelve fledglings earlier. They land on the windowsill as well as the bird stations we have hanging from the tree. That part of the garden I'd like a wild bird aviary. We've just had an adult sparrow with two fledglings. Watching the parents feed the babies is beautiful.

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