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Updated: 23rd March 2005
Time for birds in Shropshire
Coal Tit
Help the birds this winter in Shropshire.
We show you how to get the most out of the birds in your garden with our guide to feeding and caring for our feathered friends.

Also find out which were the most popular birds in Shropshire in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
WEBLINKS
RSPB home page
The RSPB is the wildlife conservation charity that takes action for wild birds and the environment.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.
SEE ALSO

Ellesmere Heronwatch
The Ellesmere heronwatch performs a vital service by monitoring the numbers of herons breeding on the mere. It's also great entertainment for visitors who can watch the birds via a screen in the visitor's centre.


RSPB BIG Garden Birdwatch in Shropshire
The RSPB is asking people in Shropshire to join in with the biggest birdwatch in the world. Help them to build up a important picture of how our common birds are doing.

BBC - Nature
A site for anyone interested in animals and the natural world.

BBC - Birds homepage
Ornithology news and information including weekly features, message boards, birdcams and e-cards

TWEET BIRDS

Put out food and water on a regular basis. It's important to all birds for drinking and bathing.

Don't forget to put some food on the ground for bird such as chaffinches.

Plant a hedge for wildlife -make a mixture of native shrubs such as holly, hawthorn.

Put out fresh coconut, popular with blue tits - but NEVER use desiccated Coconut.

Making a fruit Christmas Cake? Spare a few raisins, sultanas and currants for birds.

Keep any bird bath free of ice to help birds drink and bath but NEVER use chemicals.

Time for the Birds
Click on any of the titles below for more information that might help you help our feathered friends...
Caring for birds in your garden
Make a bird cake of melted lard or suet mixed with bird seed, and raisins.

No garden? Fasten a feeder to a window with suction cups - bring the birds even closer.

Planning next year's garden? Research which plants are best for birds and other wildlife.


Birds need water for drinking and bathing - buy a bird bath or use a shallow dish or inverted metal dustbin lid.

Spend a few minutes threading peanuts in the shell on to a string, hang them in the garden, then sit back and enjoy the antics of the feeding birds.

Dried cheese? Don't bin it - crumble it in the garden for wrens to enjoy.

Browse the RSPB web site for loads of information and latest conservation news - www.rspb.org.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.

If you're a cat owner, put a collar and a bell on your cat. In winter, birds can be at extra risk from feline predators. Make sure it's the safe type - ask for one with a quick release buckle and make sure you fit it properly.

Collect some pine cones and stuff fat or bird cake into the cracks. Attach a piece of string to each, and hang them up.

Dead flower-heads provide seeds for birds - instead of cutting them now, leave them until February.
Shropshire's top ten garden birds for 2003
No
Bird Species
Average No
1
House Sparrow
5.2
2
Blue Tit
4.2
3
Starling
4.0
4
Chaffinch
3.0
5
Blackbird
3.0
6
Greenfinch
2.5
7
Great Tit
2.1
8
Robin
1.5
9
Collared Dove
1.5
10
Wood Pigeon
1.4
Shropshire's top ten garden birds for 2004
No
Bird Species
Average No
1
House Sparrow
5.4
2
Blue Tit
3.8
3
Chaffinch
3.2
4
Blackbird
3.2
5
Starling
2.6
6
Greenfinch
2.3
7
Great Tit
2.1
8
Robin
1.5
9
Collared Dove
1.5
10
Wood Pigeon
1.5
Shropshire's top ten garden birds for 2005
No
Bird Species
Average No
1
House Sparrow
5.0
2
Blue Tit
3.7
3
Chaffinch
2.8
4
Blackbird
2.8
5
Greenfinch
2.4
6
Great Tit
1.9
7
Starling
1.9
8
Wood Pigeon
1.4
9
Robin
1.4
10
Dunnock
1.4
Feed the birds -Great recipe's the feather friends will love... four to choose from
Bird cake - Our feathered friends love it!

Instructions:

1. Take two parts nuts (peanuts are best-but not salted), seeds, oatmeal, cheese, currants and
raisins. Mix together with one part melted suet or other fat.
Blue Tit feeding
Blue Tit feeding

2. Let the mixture set in a suitable container - an empty yoghurt pot for instance.

3. Hang it up where the birds can gradually peck out the mixture, or tip the bird cake out onto a bird table.
-----------------------------------------------
Crumble Pastry Maggots - Don't worry - There aren't any real maggots in this recipe!

You need: Mixing bowl

Ingredients: 85g flour, 30g lard, butter or high-fat- margarine - remember birds need the fat.

BBC TV Chef - Antony Worrall  Thompson
BBC TV Chef -
Antony Worrall Thompson

Instructions:
1. Put the flour into a bowl.

2. Mix in the lard with the tips of your fingers.

3. Rub the dry mixture into little pieces that look like maggots!

4. Sprinkle these onto the ground, on your birdtable or around bushes and flowerbeds.

Robins, tits and blackcaps will eat these maggots off a birdtable - look out for dunnocks, wrens and pied wagtails on the ground.
-----------------------------------------------
Suet and Nut Log by Rick Stein

You need:
A broken branch, a saw, a hammer, a drill, hooks, string.

Ingredients: Peanuts, raisins, suet, beef suet or lard, kitchen scraps, sunflower seeds.

Instructions:
1.
Find a broken branch that is covered in rough bark - only take a branch that has already fallen from a tree.

BBC TV Chef - Rick Stein
BBC TV Chef -
Rick Stein

2. Cut it into 50cm lengths with a saw.

3. Drill holes of different sizes through the 50cm sections of branch.

4. Hammer hooks into the top of the pieces of branch.

5. Fill the holes with some or all of the following: peanuts, raisins, suet, sunflower seeds and kitchen scraps.

6. Hang up your
suet and nut log with the piece of string and watch for the birds to start feasting.
-----------------------------------------------
Speedy Birdcake by Jane Asher

You need:
Suitable container - coconut shell or clean yoghurt pot, a heatproof pan, string.

Ingredients: Beef suet or lard (you need one part of lard to two parts of any of the following. You can just use seeds but any of the other ingredients are suitable too), seeds, nuts, dried fruits - raisins, sultanas - finely chopped bacon rind.

Instructions:
1.
Melt or soften the suet/lard in a pan.

2. Pour the other ingredients you are using into the suet and mix well.

BBC TV Chef - Jane Asher
BBC TV Chef -
Jane Asher

3. Place the string into the container so that half of the string is in the container and half is outside. Hold the string in place and pour the mixture into the container over the string.

4. Leave the mixture to cool.

5. Once the suet has hardened, hang up your container by the string that you left hanging outside the pot or coconut.

Enjoy watching the birds eating the food. You may see tits, greenfinches and, if you are lucky, great spotted woodpeckers. Blue tits and great tits may perform acrobatics and hang upside down at times while they eat.

 
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