Holiday garden birdwatching……

Posted on March 12, 2011 by wildlifegardening

If I am on holiday in the UK somewhere, it is usually in a rented cottage in the Welsh, Cornish or Scottish countryside. Taking a bird feeder with me is a priority – it may sometimes bring bird species to the garden that I rarely see at home. My temporary home beside a tidal creek on the River Fal in Cornwall has a tiny garden on the edge of the water. From the windows I have seen a variety of waders and ducks including shelduck, teal and curlew, but the garden has little visiting it apart from dunnocks and a song thrush. A peanut feeder has immediately changed that and within a couple of hours three species of tit and a chaffinch appeared. Garden total so far is only eight species but maybe that will increase as the feeder gets noticed.

About wildlifegardening

Jenny Steel was a Plant Ecologist at Oxford University before becoming a writer. She has more than 20 years experience of writing about and teaching ecology, natural history and wildlife gardening. She is also a photographer, journalist and former plant nursery owner, and a lecturer and tutor in adult education. She has appeared on a variety of radio and television programmes including Gardener’s World with Alan Titchmarsh, and she presented a series of items on the BBC 2 gardening show, How Does Your Garden Grow. She has worked with and written for a variety of organisations including the Royal Horticultural Society, Natural England, Atropos, Ernest Charles, the Adult Residential Colleges Association (ARCA), Haiths, Usborne Books, Complete Gardens, Oxfordshire County Council, the charity Growing Native and several of the Wildlife Trusts. She is also the Garden Bird Guru for the wild bird food company JustAddBirds of which she was a co-founder. The Emmy Award winning film company Panache Productions are currently making a film about her wildlife garden in South Shropshire. She has written 10 books on wildlife gardening. Her website can be found at www.wildlife-gardening.co.uk and her bird food company at www.JustAddBirds.co.uk

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1 Response to Holiday garden birdwatching……

Jan Miller says:

March 28, 2011 at 4:23 pm

what a great idea! I also take a portable moth trap sometimes – amazing what you can find that the locals had no idea about!

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