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<\/a>I managed three days back before succumbing to winter lurgy and a loss of voice! Hooray! I hear you cheer \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\nOh well\u2026 once again there was no white Christmas for us at home (other than the West End musical version we went to see – excellent cast! We also went to a panto for the first time in years to see Aladdin at Woking). But once we’d tidied away the decorations for another year, we turned our attentions to what 2020 would bring us.<\/p>\n
For our wildlife though, their thoughts are focused on surviving the colder months and staying fit enough to start another family in the spring. We of course can help them out here – as well as receiving a huge amount of enjoyment in return by welcoming them into our gardens and onto our balconies.<\/p>\n
Choosing the right food for wildlife can be tricky for the average person, how many of us thought we were being kind leaving a saucer of milk out for the hedgehogs? And indeed, when did you last see one of those lovely little creatures? In my childhood they were a very common sight and I can honestly say that we haven’t had one in our garden for many a year now and we’ve left gaps under our garden fences large enough for them to get under. \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n
Despite their shocking decline there are some amazing hedgehog charities working hard to help these incredible creatures – so with our help such charities may turn their plight around, let’s hope so.<\/p>\n
There are many things we can do to encourage wildlife into our gardens and one of the easiest and quickest ways is to feed our beautiful UK birds. For a few winters now I’ve been using Richard Jackson’s<\/a> Premium High Energy Bird Food<\/a> – developed, of course by my pal and gardening expert, Richard Jackson.<\/p>\n The good news is that\u2019s it\u2019s our Gardening Pick of The Month for January and this Premium High Energy Bird Food is packed with fantastic ingredients, including whole sunflower hearts, kibbled peanuts, oat hearts and oyster grit, plus new recipe suet pellets – a key high-energy ingredient much loved by birds throughout the year.<\/p>\n Richard told me he worked with leading bird food specialists to develop his premium feed. Other ingredients include red and white dari, kibbled peanuts, canary seed, hempseed, nyger seed and dried mealworms.<\/p>\n Although developed for all-year-round nutrition, the inclusion of suet pellets can help birds survive cold winters and whilst looking after their young during fledgling season in spring and summer.<\/p>\n Chosen with care, Richard\u2019s bird food is free from wheat flakes, a cheap filler used in many bird foods, which offers no nutritional benefit. The kibbled peanuts attract robins, blackbirds and blue tits, naked oats attract song thrushes, sunflower hearts attract many birds including green finches and woodpeckers, and nyger seed attracts goldfinches – all stunning birds which I’m pleased to say returned to our garden last summer.<\/p>\n There is an Auto Delivery option available too, which allows you to receive Richard’s Premium Bird Food every 60 days for five additional deliveries, at the same great price and with nothing to pay on postage and packaging.<\/p>\n I set up my camera to record the activity around my feeders, having first thoroughly washed out our bird feeders and re-filled with Richard’s bird food. Immediately the bush telegraph did its job and the usual suspects started to enjoy the welcome goodness. As is often the case, other bird varieties made an appearance, which I missed on camera, including long tailed tits and a great spotted woodpecker early one morning. If you continue to feed through the spring and summer you’ll probably see many more varieties appearing on your feeders, hungry after a long flight from the sunnier climes.<\/p>\n<\/a>\n