Definitely for the birds

GROW:Even the average Irish suburban garden can be transformed into a rich haven for birdlife, hosting up to 30 different species – and now is the perfect time to start

UNTIL A FEW DAYS before my trip earlier this month to Birdwatch Ireland’s wonderful East Coast Nature Reserve (ECNR) at Newcastle in Co Wicklow, I didn’t know that this 90-hectare coastal site – a giant patchwork of pools and rivulets, polders and dikes, woodland, wet grassland, fen and shingle ridge – even existed. So to visit it on a crisp, sunny winter’s morning in the company of expert “birders” Oran O’Sullivan and Declan Murphy of Birdwatch Ireland was a revelation.

As to how the association somehow found the funds to acquire such a large plot of land, O’Sullivan explains: “We were lucky enough to buy the site back in 2002 with the help of EU Life funding,” adding that before its purchase, the grasslands were being used for intensive sheep and cattle grazing.

As chief operations officer of Birdwatch Ireland and project manager of the Newcastle site, he has since overseen the painstaking restoration of the reserve’s wetlands habitat, something that has been achieved through careful water management, low intensity grazing (this helps control over-vigorous or encroaching plants) and tree and scrub removal.

The wonderful result of all this hard work is that ECNR is now home to an astonishing diversity of bird species. Depending on the time of year, visitors to the Wicklow reserve might spot lapwings, warblers, skylarks, swifts, swallows, housemartins, finches, geese, ducks, swans, herons, little egrets, snipe, water rail and different birds of prey.

On the day that I visited, a male hen harrier flew just overhead – a rare sighting that had both men immediately reaching for their binoculars – while just moments later, a pair of mute swans flew above us, the winter sky filled with the rhythmic whistling of their beating wings. But as Oran O’Sullivan and his colleague Declan Murphy are both at pains to point out, it’s not just wild places such as the ECNR that provide important habitats for birds: even the average Irish back garden can be quite easily transformed into a rich haven for such wildlife. Admittedly, it’s highly unlikely that any such garden will be visited by a hen harrier or a pair of mute swans, but it’s entirely possible that a well-designed, habitat-rich, Dublin suburban garden might host up to 25-30 different species of smaller birds in winter, including robins, blackbirds, tits, magpies, finches, wrens, sparrows, starlings, dunnocks and thrushes.

So exactly how does one go about making a garden as bird-friendly as possible? One suggestion would be to purchase the book Ireland's Garden Birds – How to Identify, Attract and Garden for Birds(Collins Press, €16.99), an excellent publication co-authored by Oran O'Sullivan and the wildlife writer and broadcaster Jim Wilson, which includes advice on how to create bird-friendly garden habitats and how to select the most bird-friendly plants for your garden.

Another suggestion, and one already being practised by many of the country’s gardeners, is to put up nest boxes and bird feeders. Now is the perfect time to do this, in very early winter – while bird populations are at their highest, natural sources of food are beginning to dwindle and the annual ritual of prospecting for nesting sites has yet to begin.

But as Declan Murphy gently points out, it’s not quite as simple as nailing a nest-box to the nearest wall and hanging up a few fat balls.

Instead, try Birdwatch Ireland’s Top 10 ways to attract birds into your garden.

Birdwatch Ireland’s top 10 tips for a bird-friendly garden

1. Different nest-boxes suit different birds, and the exact size and design of the opening is surprisingly crucial. For example, blue tits will only use a hole-fronted nesting box with an opening of 27mm to 32mm, while a pied wagtail will use an open-fronted box with an opening of 60mm. All nesting boxes sold by Birdwatch Ireland take this into careful consideration (for details, check out their excellent online shop, birdwatchireland.ie).

2. Siting is critical. For example, blue tits will happily use a nest box that’s fastened to a bare wall but robins and blackbirds won’t, preferring a shadier, leafier, more secluded site, amid deep cover.

3. Height matters. Coal tits, wrens and robins all prefer a box that’s sited less than two metres above ground level, whereas blue tits, great tits and house sparrows prefer their nest boxes to be at least two metres above the ground.

4. Aspect matters. Try to situate any nesting boxes so that they’re facing northeast to southeast, away from bright sunlight and prevailing winds, and tilt them slightly forward so that rain is less likely to enter through the opening.

5. Birds are very territorial, so try to keep nest boxes at least 7-10 metres away from feeding stations – otherwise the nesting birds will spend their time fighting the feeding birds. Not good.

6. Remember to clean out nest boxes at this time of year by removing old nests and debris and scrubbing the box out with boiling water (wear gloves). Bird feeders and tables will also benefit from a good monthly scrub down.

7. To maintain a healthy environment, try to regularly move feeders to different positions within the garden.

8. Don’t be too downcast if birds don’t return to the same nesting box each year – there’s every chance that it will be used again the following year.

9. Birds don’t recognise garden boundaries. Their territory might stretch to two or three gardens, which means that in any given area of land, there’s only so many nesting boxes that will be used.

10. Feed birds all year round – not just in winter – using a good quality seed mixture, suet balls and peanuts held in wire feeders. Avoid cheap birdfeed (too high in wheat and barley grain) and processed breads (dry bread can swell in their gizzards and choke young birds).