Having read this on Friday, I asked Bob to make some bird food to hang up in our garden. Passing birds already have a pick at any food the hens leave but with the snow still covering the ground their supplies of worms, insects and vegetation are vastly reduced. Bob and Nairn made these in a matter of minutes and had a bit of fun doing it too.

Findlay spent half an hour on Tuesday cracking open the massive bag of monkey nuts that always seems to go uneaten after Hallowe’en and these were crushed in the food processor and added to some of the quail feed and layers pellets that we have lying around. Finally Bob melted some fat and added into the mixture, shaping three reasonably large balls with a length of wool through them so they could be hung up. Once they’d cooled and the fat had solidified, Bob hung them on our washing line where they’ll hopefully tide over a few birds until the snow goes away.

We were lucky enough to have bird seed on hand, but the advice in that article is to put out leftovers like grated cheese, porridge oats, soft fruit, unsalted bacon, cooked rice or pasta and the insides of cooked potatoes. If you’re feeling especially generous, it’s suggested that you could put out mealworms, fatballs, crushed peanuts, dried fruit & seeds and grain. All of these things will bring a host of little birds into your garden as well as assuring their chances of survival are just that little bit higher while the weather is so dreadful.

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