Garden birds + food scraps = Zero Waste!
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When I was a child we used to feed the garden birds.
Every spring we’d be rewarded with a family of bluetits who would nest in our box and produce a family of their own.
I used to love watching the young birds feed and eventually get big enough to fly and leave home.
Back then, we only used to feed the birds throughout the winter. During the summer they’d fend for themselves.
With changes to habitat and climate over recent years, it’s now recommended that we feed garden birds all year round.
In fact, during the breeding season, busy parents need their sustenance more than ever! And they need high protein foods; especially when they are moulting.
What I love about feeding our feathered friends is that they can help you reduce food waste too!
Here are some of the foods you might otherwise throw away that can safely put out for birds this time of year:
Cheese
You know the end of the cheese that nobody wraps properly and goes hard? Birds love it! Chop it up or grate into small pieces and into the garden it goes.
Breakfast cereal
If you’re a lover of oatmeal, you’re in good company. Have a look through your cupboard, and if you’ve come to the end of a pack of oatmeal you can put the crumbs outside for the birds.
Bacon Rind
While some people think bacon rind is the best bit of the meal, others turn up their noses. Fortunately birds will not turn up their beaks when presented with some finely chopped, cooked bacon rind!
Dried fruit
Doing some batch baking? Put a little dried fruit to one side, soak it, then pop it on the bird table.
Fresh Fruit
Fruit goes off quickly this time of year, but your birds will help you eat it. Try small pieces of apple, pear and grapes.
The key to feeding birds is little and often. The Kennedy Wild Bird Food website advises “It should always be remembered that food should only be available to suit a day’s demand. Never allow uneaten foods to accumulate – they will moulder and attract disease.”
What about you? What ‘food waste’ do you feed to your visiting garden birds?
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