There are many ways to enjoy bird watching, with one of the simplest being to attract as many birds as possible to your garden. You can attract birds to your garden by using different bird feeders filled with seeds or even nectar and there’s also the possibility of placing a bird bath in your garden. This will provide your newly found feathered friends the opportunity to splash about and keep themselves nice and clean. The other option that you have is to provide a bird table with food placed on it.
You can of course go to your nearest pet store and buy the latest thing in bird tables or alternatively you may decide to try your hand at making your very own bird table. This can be a very simple project to undertake and yet the satisfaction that you’ll gain as you are watching the many birds it attracts will definitely be worth your effort.
In order to begin you’ll need a strong pole to support both the table and any visiting birds, a large flat piece of wood to act as the table top, and some thin long strips of wood to place at the edges of the table top. The pole needs to be about 1.5 meters high. This will help keep your birds safe from any prowling hungry cats. Firstly you should attach the thin strips of wood to the edges of your table top. These strips need to be about 2 inches high and ideally there should be a small gap between the wooden strips and the table. This design feature will allow any rain water drain off of the table rather than gathering in a puddle. You can attach the strips of wood to the table top before you nail it to the pole or afterwards as you prefer. However, you must make sure that the pole and the table top are firmly attached to each other.
Before you hammer the bird table into the ground, research where you think will be the best place for your new table. Remember that you want to be able to observe the birds without disturbing them and that this site should have some shrubs nearby so the smaller birds can flee from any Sparrow Hawks in the vicinity, (although there shouldn’t be too much ground cover as cats can hide there).
Once your new bird table is firmly planted in the ground you can put out a variety of foods for the birds to enjoy. They like to eat a wide variety of foods such as, unsalted peanuts, fresh coconuts, fats like suet, dripping, meat fat and bacon rind. Cheese, stale cakes, biscuits and pastry with interesting fillings will also tempt their taste buds. Besides these types of food, birds enjoy fruits, apples, dried fruits, sunflower seeds, bread and of course some wild bird seed food.
This is a great way to see different birds, but you’ll also need to remember that all this food is likely to get the attention of any local squirrels (who just love any kind of free food). If you do manage to attract the attention of a squirrel, (and it’s bound to happen), you have two choices: fight them or join them. Since fighting them requires a huge amount of energy, joining them is the simplest course of action. This simply means placing enough food on the bird table for them as well, and will ensure that you have hours of added fun watching their antics along with those of the birds.