How to attract birds to brand new garden?

Hi everyone,

I'm new here, nice to meet you all! :D

I've recently been given the chance to completely design the garden at a friend's newly-built house in Oswestry, so I'll probably be making a lot of posts here It's just a blank, turfed-over canvas at the moment!

I was wondering if anyone has any tips on how to attract birds to the new garden? The house is on a new estate and there are still houses going up around it, so it's essentially in the middle of a building site. I haven't seen any birds in the garden yet :( Will we have to wait until there's less building work going on before the birds will be happy to come here, or are there ways of attracting them? I've put a seed feeder up and also placed some food on the ground.

Cheers all!
Toni in Shropshire xx

 

Hello there

We literally have hundreds of birds coming to our table to feed every day and I have found that providing you put fresh food out for the birds every single day at roughly the same time they will keep coming. In fact if I'm a bit late they set up a chorus to remind me. I have found that I get a much larger variety of birds by having a bird table for them to eat from, I bought mine online from www.gardenpine.co.uk. Since I purchased my bird table I have since bought quite a few from this company for my family and we all find the quality very good and whats more the birds seem to love them. Hope this helps.

 

if you plan at least an area of the garden as a wildlife garden, this will help, and be haven for any birds or other wildlife that get to you! Plant things like teasels, have a pond with a boggy area, leading to the wildlife-friendly planted bit, etc. See the english heritage site for lots of ideas http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/

 

birds need water all year round so a nice deep ornamental bath would make a nice feature
........ try to get a hose handy to top up
you are not to late to put a tit box up on the eaves

 

Agreed, birds need food, water and shelter. Once they have a secure base in your garden they will soon start to nest.

Dense shubs like laurel, privet or cotoneaster provide natural nesting sites while silver birch will give a good insect and food source Nesting boxes are an ideal way to make up for natural nest sites lost and usually unavailable in newer houses. Mosses, wool and even shredded paper will get used for nesting material and swallows require mud for creating their homes. Sparrows also love to dustbath - plenty of opportunities on a building site. :D

Tell your friends that if they decide to feed birds it must be regular and be a varied diet of nuts, fats, seeds and dried mealworms etc. A table will help them feed and be safe from marauding cats but, as you have done, throw feed on the ground as well for groundfeeders like blackbirds or robins. Fatballs tied to trees will attract tits and sparrows.

 

Try and put some shrubs in with winter berries as they will benefit from the natural vitamins.
Sunflowers provide finches with lots of seeds but are not everyones favourite.It is a shame modern houses aren't so bird friendly.

 

what's the area like outside the new housing development? I'm in a new houose in a new development, too, but there's a railway line at the back with lots of trees and shrubs, so it's a question of enticing the wildlife in (but NOT the rabbits!!!!). If it's the same in Oswestry, the battle's already half won.

 

Hello everyone,

Thank you so much for your replies, they're very helpful Sadly the garden isn't big enough to have a dedicated area for wildlife (although I will be creating it to be as wildlife-friendly as possible), and we can't have a pond because it has to be safe for very young children. I will make sure that there is a bird bath or similar source of water for the birds though.

Those bird tables are lovely Mavis! I'll see if my friend would like one

The garden is completely bare at the moment so I guess I'll have to put some trees and shrubs in before I see some birds. I put in the very first shrub today - a pyrancantha - so that's a good start I think

The new housing estate is right on the edge of Oswestry and is surrounded by fields edged by established hedges. I've seen flocks of birds flying overhead, so it's just a case of tempting them down to the garden! I'm just impatient I'm afraid :D

Thanks again!
Toni xx

 

You're definitely doing things that'll be appreciated by the birds - just do as Frogesque says - whatever feeding is done must be regular. Hope it all goes well!

 

we were filling seed up every day but now havent filled for over aweek where have birds gone
we have got alot of magpies they are building over the back could that be reason.had 8 in garden other day can anyone remember verse
1 for sorrow.
2for joy

can rememer up to
6 for gold only mum in law driving me madwants to restshe is 95

 

gwenmarriott:

I found a few different versions - there's probably more so take your pick!


One for sorrow, Two for joy
Three for a girl, Four for a boy
Five for silver, Six for gold
Seven for a secret never to be told.

Or;

One for sorrow, two for mirth,
Three for a wedding, four for a birth,
Five for silver, six for gold,
Seven for a secret not to be told.
Eight for heaven, nine for hell,
And ten for the devil's own sel'.

and from Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable:

One's sorrow, two's mirth,
Three's a wedding, four's a birth,
Five's a christening, six a dearth,
Seven's heaven, eight is hell,
And nine's the devil his old self.

 

thanks frogesque will show her tomorrow
see which one she remembers
thanks again.

 

I have to say there is only one way Feed Feed and Feed again. That way they will come again and again no matter where you are.

 

Our fat balls have been trashed by the starlings leaving the blue and long tailed tits just a few crumbs. Lack of chaffinches here this year.
Tonibunny... you could try playing the oboe to them. It's been quiet here while our son is at uni but he will be back for Easter with his buffet Oboe, it's loud but it's a beautiful instrument.

 

Lots of chaffinches here. After playing around with various mixes over the years - in addition to peanuts - I have settled on sunflower hearts, in feeder, table and ground. They seemed to be liked by all but the starlings - and that includes a pair of gold finches. When I first started feeding years ago, it took a while for the birds to find it - but once they did, the traffic is wonderful - prolly cos I feed all year - water too. I hang to feeders of sunflower hearts and two of peanuts under the eaves of my shed, with shrubs/trees close by - and scatter some seed on table and ground

The list today - chaffinch, gold finch, green finch, blue tit, coal tit, great tit, long tailed tit, sparrow, dunnock, robin, black bird, thrush, greater spotted woodpecker, collared dove, wood pidgeon - + a regular visit from a sparrow hawk. Whilst the wren is a regular in my garden, its the leaf litter that attracts, and not the seed.

Even on the greyest miserablest day, they lighten the gloom.