Little Miss Green makes a box for National bird box week
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This week is National Bird Box week. It started on Valentine’s Day, so as well as showing our love for all the people we care about, we can show our love for the birds too!
National bird box week is older than me! It’s been taking place for 10 years. Last month we took part in the RSPCA’s Bird Watch week. We saw lots of birds and we even saw two of them that were on the more ‘unusual’ list!
The main birds we have in our garden are blackbirds, sparrows, blue tits, robins, wagtails, long tailed tits, starlings, thrushes and coal tits. We have also occasionally seen a woodpecker, wrens and kingfisher. We feed them every day and it’s a great way to reduce food waste – you can feed them old bits of stale bread, cheese, seeds, burnt toast, meat scraps and Mummy’s cakes and biscuits. They love Mummy’s baking! The robins have very round tummies and I think they have a sweet beak like Daddy has a sweet tooth.
We don’t have to worry about our cat any more. She only chases cat biscuits now, but she has jumped up onto the small log to gobble up the bird food, especially if there are meat scraps or baking out there. Mostly, she just lies and watches them with us.
For bird box week, people are asked to put up a bird box in their garden. Because we are zero waste people, we didn’t want to buy anything with packaging, so Daddy rummaged through his rather messy woodshed and he found a piece of log with a hole in it and a little bit of room inside; just right for a Mummy bird to come and lay her eggs. The hole had been made by a woodpecker, so I think it’s just right.
The log had a hole at the bottom and top, so me and Daddy went to find the right pieces of wood to fix on it, to stop the eggs falling out of the bottom and the rain coming in at the top.
We nailed them in and then went to show Mummy how it looked. She was very pleased and said it would probably do, so this week we are going to put it up. I have my own tool kit with real tools in it and I did some sawing, nailing and found a sanding block so there are no rough edges for the baby birds to hurt themselves on.
Our bird box was made from old scraps of wood, so I think this was a good way to reuse them and I hope the birds do too.
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Wow! I’m very impressed Little Miss Green! Well done.
A bird box is a swell idea. Gardens need to be bird/insect friendly.
My bird types are broadly similiar: starlings, magpies, solitary blackbird pair, robin. Rooks and jackdaws are ever-present for feeding. Sharing a backdoor with 4 neighbours+, there is plenty of food put out. My usual is steak and bacon rind, which disappears within seconds every time.
That looks a lovely bird box. Well done for all your hard work! I hope it provides a cosy home for a lovely bird family.
That’s a cool new home for some birds LMG 🙂
My mother in law really likes to watch birds out of her kitchen window and identifies them all, looking for usual friends and unusual visitors. I did a bit of this when I was at junior school, but don’t remember most of the types any more.
Hello Little Miss Green – that is a wonderful bird box. I hope you get lots of birds in it. Perhaps you could persuade mummy and daddy to put a webcam in it so you can see the birds and any little chicks. In our garden we have robins, pied wagtails, blackbirds, collared doves and huuuuuge pigeons, who love to eat our leftovers. Can’t wait to get some others too. 😀 x
Good job, Little Miss Green! It looks wonderful!
Well done LMG, that IS a very good bird box.
I have a few more RSPB magazines for you next time we meet up….I think you will enjoy them by the sound of it 🙂
Great birdbox – it’ll be interesting to see what type of bird nests there – my money’s on a Great t it or Blue tit family. We too use our (home made)bird table as a way of reducing food waste and are always amused to see the huge woodpigeons trying to get under the little roof. One day I even saw a sparrowhawk making use of the bird table as it tucked into one of the woodpigeons which obviously had gorged itself and was unable to fly away quickly enough!
Well done LMG, that is a great article, and a brilliant bird box.
@Sarah: Thank you Sarah; I hope the birds like it too.
@John Costigane: I’m glad that the birds like you and that you have lots of birds. I can understand how the food you put out for them disappears so quickly. Usually in cold weather our food disappears quickly too.
@Grandma Green: We think there might be a bluetit coming to nest because Daddy has seen one stick its head inside before flying off.
@Kris: I’m glad your Mother likes birds; we like birds too. Once we have seen six wagtails all on the log together, all at once before they flew off to find some food to eat.
@Almost Mrs Average: I wish I could get a webcam, but Mummy just said No when I asked her what it was! I’ll have to watch from the window instead.
@[email protected] Frugal Girl: Thank you Kristen – I’m glad you visit our blog from America. When you next come to the blog; can you tell me a few American words and tell me what they mean please?
@Compostwoman: I loved the magazines and I’m glad you have more for me. We are taking part in the Wildsquare phrenology challenge – maybe you would like to as well:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildsquare/register/index.asp
@Dormouse: We used to have a bluetit; he was very, very fat and he looked like a tennis ball. If he didn’t have a tail on him, I would have surely thought he was. Each day he came to our bird table and had an enormous feast. Then he sat on the garage with his tummy bulging infront of him and he couldn’t fly for a while.
@maisie: I’m glad you think our bird box is rather nice. I’m really pleased with it and thank you for commenting.