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)

Well you will all hate me as I have artificial grass in the back. But I do love nature i just can't keep on top of a lawn. We don't seem to have many birds round here and use of our bird table is quite low. Out the back we get a blackbird, starlings, Robin, lots of house sparrows, pigeons and I saw a waxwing recently! We also have a mini wildlife pond, birdbath, hedgehog house, insect houses, a smaller water dish for the birds and one for the bees and butterflies. I'm not a very knowledgeable gardener but we have a fuschia the bees love and I bought another this year. Unfortunately my lavender seems to have died this year so I need to replace that. I bought something that produces berries in the hope the birds would eat them but they all ignore it lol.

Out the front we see goldfinches and the odd blue tit. We've recently put a peanut, seed and suet feeder out front with a water dish but no one has touched it as yet. The grass is wild and we only mow it a few times a year. But the neighbours cats hide in it so not sure how great it is for the birds!

I also have a lovely bit of phlox which has loads on insects and slugs under it.

this is possbibly because younger people have to work much harder to pay rent or mortgages.

On that note, its socially acceptable to not the mow the lawn, right???? :)

I've just had two sets of starling parents with 2 babies each doing bathtime in the bird baths! As well as scrapping over the feeders! they are beautiful birds but I wish they were as well behaved as the blackbird babies who are so fluffy and polite right now! Also had a goldfinch, couple of blue tits and two of my four usual robins over the weekend as well as the usual sparrows. Sadly found one of the starling babies dead on the patio last night - assume it flew into the patio door.

One of my neighbours recently suggested that everyone gets together to tidy up our estate, by cutting back the hedges.

I was very restrained in saying it was nesting season so the hedges had to stay, my first reaction was fuck off!

We tried a wildflower garden last year which was awful, we had a lot of nettles and sticky weed, but no flowers, this year I'm planting bulbs and generic flowers, but we have put in a woodchip path which the birds love. We no longer own a lawnmower, dh cut the grass down a bit with shears this morning.

I've recently had to clear my bird feeders away as we had a rat start to visit the garden. Bold as brass it was, climbing the bird feeder

Gutted as I've definitely seen less birds in our garden since

feel better out my slightly wild back garden now. No pesticides. No astro turf. Allowed to grow out quite a bit and minimal pruning. We get lots of birds.

If you have sunflower heads at the end of summer snap them off with about 1ft of stalk and tie them into tree and bushes. The birds will use them for snacks all winter. Mine are left untouched until mid-December then they have a little peck every day.

We have a tamarisk tree that birds love, they seem to take it in turns to use it, firstly I noticed it was exclusively being used by long tailed tits, then magpies and this year goldfinches. We also have a camelia bush that is home to house sparrow nests, has to be plural the amount of noise they make, and pigeons under the solar panels the latter which strew their white eggs over the patio.

noblegiraffe · Today 15:59

I just looked on the RSPB website for feeding advice.

I've also seen that you should soak dried mealworms, as they can cause dehydration. Make sure to do that outside, because they absolutely reek, when you add hot water.

We're in Gloucestershire suburbs and seem to have ALL the insects, also currently a cacophony of birds, and later in the evening, hedgehogs, foxes and bats. Clouds of flying gnats at the moment above the grass and ivy.

We mow, but to the highest setting, keeps it tidy for us but clover and daisies don't get shorn.

(Not mowing when you have a dog that virtually lives in the garden in the sunshine can be a bit grim poop and tick wise)

The dog brought a frog in from round the edge of the (raised) pond last night. That was fun! Trying to catch a stressed frog on carpet before it headed under the furniture... whilst an excited dog bounced around barking. (never a dull moment here!)

My husband thought I was distinctly batty for "feeding the flies" in the garden last year, but I was honestly unnerved by the sheer silence of the summer.

This thread has confirmed the method in my madness: I will keep on feeding the flies, and the birds in turn.

thecatsthecats · Today 19:10

This thread has confirmed the method in my madness: I will keep on feeding the flies, and the birds in turn.

How right you are, I missed this lady's lecture last year, but my neighbour went. (Maybe 2021?)

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-secret-life-of-flies/erica-mcalister/9780565094751

Also put out water. Our water bath has been full of bees drinking every day - sometimes 20 at a time.
The birds love it too.

We have feeders out but the birds aren't very interested (unlike earlier in the year when they were mad for them)- sunflower seeds and fat balls. Is there anything they might like better? We have blackbirds, blackcaps, tits, chiffchaffs, robins, wrens, chaffinch.

Thanks for the nudge I needed! I stopped feeding the birds a couple of years ago after we struggled with a rat invasion. I have been inspired to order some seed, mealworms and sunflower hearts arriving tomorrow and can't wait to clean everything and set it all back up again!!

Love my bird feeders and can hear swifts and swallows overhead right now, the most beautiful sound. Agree the starlings are going nuts for the fat balls, they just strip the feeders bare in a few hours!

Plastic grass should be banned, awful awful stuff.

Just watching my feeder, there was a goldfinch and a bluetit. The goldfinch was very unhappy at the bluetit and was shouting at it, waving its wings and generally being unpleasant. The bluetit went to sit on the fence to regroup.

Then it flew back and properly went both feet in and booted the goldfinch off the feeder.

I thought I was going to have to go in and break it up saying there was plenty for everyone!

If you have rats shimmying up feeder poles then squirrel baffles work a treat.

If you also have greedy dogs who eat all the suet ball scraps on the floor and give themselves the shits then turn the baffle upside down and it collects all the bits for birds to then get. Still foils the rats.

Bovrilla · Today 20:32

If you have rats shimmying up feeder poles then squirrel baffles work a treat.

We have a metal one, shaped like a shepherd's crook, no good for thieving rats!

I remember how spattered the windscreen used to get by insects when I was small and now it never does. I always try to buy organic even on a budget as I think pesticides do more damage that we perhaps realise.
On a positive note we live near woods and have all sorts of weird and wonderful insects, I wish we had fewer but it is cheering we hsve a good local ecosystem!. And great bird life and bats too

If you want to really give the insects in your garden a treat, this is a really easy thing to do in your garden or even in a pot. You just clear a patch of soil, sprinkle it with a packet of wildflower seeds, rake it in (or faff the soil around a bit with a trowel or your hand) and then water. This lot cost about £2 and was buzzing with insects all last summer.

That’s lovely!

I bought two packs of wildflower seeds from a reputable online retailer last year and all i got was two pots of nettles and grass. Awful.

Bee bombs