Kokova Magazine

Despite your best efforts, are you still unpopular with the wildlife in your garden? Do you wish the birds would come to your feeding table more often?

We spoke to Matt at Living With Birds to find out what tips they could offer to make our gardens more attractive and inviting.

"It is common knowledge that wildlife needs readily available food, water and shelter to survive and thrive. By providing your garden wildlife with those essential elements you'll ensure that birds, hedgehogs and other wildlife will come to visit. But if you've noticed that you don't see many birds and hedgehogs in your garden despite your best efforts, you might be doing some things wrong which may be discouraging wildlife rather than encouraging"

Matt - Living with Birds

Food

You may think that putting bread out for the birds is increasing your likelihood of birds visiting however in reality opposite is true.

Any low quality bird seeds commonly sold in discount stores that have not been especially made to provide birds with nutrients may have ingredients that can damage the health of the birds that eat them. Household scraps and stale food including bread and seeds can have the same detrimental effect.

If you really want to encourage birds in your garden, buy high quality bird feed from a trusted supplier. High quality bird feeds will enhance the health of your existing garden birds and entice new birds to visit.

You'll also want to do some research into what kinds of foods and fruit the most common birds in your garden like to eat. Offer those, and you'll be sure to see more and healthier birds. Use the RSPB Bird Identification tool to discover what birds are roaming your garden.

Water

Especially in the rising temperatures, it is essential that your garden wildlife have water readily available to them to keep them hydrated during long flights and long summer days.

Although puddles keep your birds and hedgehogs hydrated temporarily, they don't last forever and as the summer weather gets closer wildlife may find it difficult to find the liquids they need to survive.

To ensure that you keep the wildlife visiting through the warmer months, you should set out a clean bowl of water to give them consistent access to fresh water. Provide this all year so that the wildlife doesn't have to go searching for a clean water source and will continue to visit your garden.

Shelter

With trees being cut down and the garden design business thriving, it can be hard for wildlife to find a safe place to shelter.

Unfortunately working in your garden can distress the animals and ruin their homes. That's not to say that you can't work in your garden - you just need to be careful of how and where you do it. Before you begin a project, check that there are no birds' nests in the surrounding trees or hedgehogs in areas dense with leaves that you want to work.

Take extra care when checking older parts of your garden. Older, less disturbed areas could have less obvious and more fragile wildlife shelters. Avoid disturbing these as much as possible. You can also buy specially made nest boxes to ensure your wildlife has a place to shelter during inclement weather.

As long as you provide a good habitat for your wildlife with adequate food, water and shelter you can enjoy seeing them for many years to come.

For more information on how to care for your UK wildlife and to purchase high quality wild bird supplies visit www.livingwithbirds.com