BIRDS

Putting up nesting boxes and peanuts isn't just to make the garden look nice; you could help save a species of bird, and, very probably, the planet.

The following is simply the text of an article from the Daily Telegraph, 4/9/99. I pass it on to you because I found it interesting and sort of important. 

If birds are to survive and thrive, stale bread and bacon rinds in winter are not enough. Robert Burton explains why

Headlines that the house sparrow is disappearing from the countryside were predictable, but still gave me a jolt. The national house sparrow population has now dropped to less than half its Sixties level.
It is, however, just one of a number of "common" birds of field and hedgerow that has suffered a catastrophic decline. Skylark, yellow hammer, corn bunting, bullfinch and linnet are becoming rare. Worst of all, the tree sparrow has declined by at least 90 per cent in the past 30 years. These facts are now well known and frequently quoted. But the causes have not been fully established.
Predators are not the problem. The sparrowhawk itself has declined by a quarter in the past five years. Intensive agriculture has taken most of the blame, but it is only now becoming clear that a shortage of food is at the root of the disaster.
These birds are seed-eaters. Ian Newton of the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology says that when he started studying finches in the Sixties, large flocks fed on winter stubble. They then moved on to land that was ploughed in February and March to find weed seeds thrown to the surface.
When he picked up a handful of soil, the seeds were obvious to the naked eye. Now, he says, you would be lucky to spot any seeds whatsoever.
These weeds, on which the seed-eating birds depend, have virtually disappeared from arable land in southern England because herbicides now kill the seedlings as soon as they sprout.
Neither can finches glean spilt grain in the stubble because fields are now ploughed soon after harvest.
Prof Newton found that the most important weeds for farmland finches and the buntings, are fat hen, redshank, charlock and dock, all of which have oil-rich seeds that supply the high-energy food that finches need to thrive. As the plants have disappeared, so have the birds. Changes in agricultural practice that leave some room for these vital weeds would almost certainly revive numbers of these birds.
Several organisations, such as Robin Page's Countryside Restoration Trust, are investigating ways of reducing the intensity of modern agriculture.
But these can be only holding operations until a change in attitude among policy makers leads to a reform of European agriculture, Until then, the birds need all the help they can get. It could come from gardens in the housing developments that are spreading over what was once their farmland habitat. Yet feeding the birds is not so much putting out scraps on a bird-table or hanging up single bags of peanuts, as providing bulk supplies of peanuts and proprietary seed mixes in custom-built feeders.
Apart from the pleasure of seeing birds in the garden, most people hope that this supplementary feeding will help the birds. But can their efforts significantly help species whose natural food has been taken away?
Chris Whittles, who set up CJ Wildbird Foods to supply the needs of garden birds, firmly believes that supplementary feeding can play an important role in saving our birds.
As a farmer and amateur ornithologist, he has seen the flocks vanish from the fields and sought ways of making good the loss. He found that birds are choosy about what they eat. Given the opportunity, they prefer oil-rich, high-energy foods.
Observations had revealed that some peanuts are preferred to others and tests showed that there is a wide variation in oil content. Some varieties have so little oil that the birds will not touch them. Among the best are sunflower hearts (sunflower seeds with the husks removed) with an oil content of 60 per cent, higher than the best peanuts and equivalent to fat hen and other arable weeds.
Chris Whittles's food can now attract all our "common" birds, including those most under threat. "If you can find the food," he says, "you can feed the bird."
More importantly, he has found recipes that will encourage successful breeding. Traditionally, we feed birds in winter, but serious shortages can also arise in summer when they are rearing their families.
The value of summer supplementary feeding is being demonstrated at the Leicester and Rutland Wildlife Trust reserve at Rutland Water, which now holds the largest colony of tree sparrows in Britain.
Tim Appleton, the warden, is convinced that summer feeding with sunflower hearts and other seeds has helped the colony increase from a very few pairs to 70 or more. The tree sparrows are laying more eggs and rearing more healthy broods.
Perhaps this success could be repeated around Britain where bullfinches, linnets and other species are now starting to come into gardens to find new bird-foods.
Providing the right food might help maintain a reserve of these beleaguered birds until they can reintroduce themselves into a revived countryside. It may he a forlorn hope, but we would kick ourselves if we lost our birds because we had not made the effort to throw them a lifeline.
 

• CJ WildBird Foods,
The Rea,
Upton Magna,
Shrewsbury
SY4 4UB.
Freephone 0800 731 2820.
e-mail [email protected]
Ask for the Handbook of Garden Feeding.


Appendix
Foods for unusual garden birds:

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