We could be feasting on delicious Christmas fare over the festive season at a time when food and shelter for our wildlife is scarce and a few gifts for our garden creatures could mean the difference between life and death.
“During the cold months, gardeners can significantly impact the survival of various species by offering food, water, and shelter,” says Helen Bostock, RHS senior wildlife specialist.
Making bird food cookies, shelters for insects and other small but vital gifts should make life easier for our garden visitors through the winter. Experts offer the following guides.
Festive bird cookies
Dawn Casey, author of RSPB Bird Tales (Bloomsbury Wildlife, £22), encourages readers to reconnect with nature through bird-related activities and suggests making cookies for robins.
Use one-third lard or suet to two-thirds mixture of seeds, nuts, dried fruits, raw oatmeal and cheese, she advises, and you’ll need cookie cutters to shape the mix, perhaps in star or other festive shapes.
Melt the lard, pour it into a heatproof bowl and add the remaining ingredients, stir the mixture around. Put the cookie cutters on a layer of greaseproof paper on a freezer-proof tray.
Spoon the mixture into the cutters, flatten it out and use a pencil or straw to make a hanging hole in each shape, then place the tray into the freezer for a few hours to allow the lard to go hard again.
Once it’s set, remove the ‘cookies’ from the cutters and thread twine through the holes, before hanging on the branches for winter birds.
The RHS suggests that you could also use pine cones as the basis of seed cakes. Simply push your seed mixture between the scales of each pine cone.
If you make a batch of bird cookies, you may want to take them out of the freezer two at a time, rather than putting the whole lot out in one go.
If you have cookie mix left over, you could drill a hole in one side of half a coconut shell (flesh and milk removed) then pour the mixture (while still warm) into the shell, leaving the drilled hole exposed, thread some string through it and once the mix is cooled and set, hang it sideways from a branch.
Bird feeder garland
You can use this garland on a balcony or to decorate an outdoor Christmas tree, says Bostock. It is also a fun festive activity for all the family to enjoy.
Using natural materials, decide how long you want your garland to be and cut a length of twine or string to size. Thread a strong needle with your twine and then tie a knot in the twine at the opposite end to the needle.
Push the needle through each piece of food to thread it on to the twine. Make sure to check that all the food is suitable for wild garden birds. You can use dried fruit, plain popcorn, chunks of apple and pear, fresh or dried berries. When the garland is full, remove the needle and secure the end with a knot.
Hang your garland in an outdoor space and wait to spot how many birds come to feed. Different species of birds like different treats, so you could research what your visitors like to eat by experimenting with different foods and monitoring what gets eaten.
Once the birds have enjoyed their tasty treats, put any leftovers in the compost bin. Also remove any fruit that starts to look mouldy to prevent it causing harm to wildlife.
Other ways to help wildlife this winter
Keep water topped up
As well as using bird baths, provide a shallow dish or container of water at ground level to benefit other garden wildlife that needs to drink. Check it daily especially in icy conditions to ensure a supply of clean, unfrozen water is always available.
Make a bug hotel
If you have a new garden with few mature plants and hiding places for insects, make a bug hotel and put up in a sheltered position. Overwintering ladybirds and lacewings will find this useful.
Build a beetle bank
Do this by adding a mound of soil, particularly in flat gardens, providing shelter for lots of invertebrates. Alternatively, create a beetle bucket by filling a bucket with rotting wood and leaves for beetles and other insects. This is perfect for small gardens.
Other gifts
Leave healthy herbaceous and hollow-stemmed plants unpruned until early spring, which can provide homes for overwintering insects, and cut up prunings into even lengths to makes piles of twigs for hedgehogs and amphibians.
Follow simple instructions from the RSPB to build your own bird box, to give birds a safe place to nest and roost and get the kids to paint it if they want to personalise it, but only with non-toxic water-based paints.
