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Snowdrops sprinkle the hedgerows and a few brave daffodils proudly nod their bright yellow heads. You can hear the sound of birdsong -it seems like spring is here!
Winter can be a difficult time for birds, even if the weather seems mild, they have to eat enough food, in the short daylight hours, to build up vital energy reserves needed to survive the night.
With lighter mornings and lengthening days their birdsong fills the air, singing either to defend their territory or to attract a mate. A female often chooses a mate who sings the best because it's a sign of fitness and strength. He's likely to be well fed, have a good territory and well able to help raise a family. But singing is hard work and uses up precious fat reserves so many species sing less once they have attracted their female partner. Spare a thought for a bird that sings on late into the season, he probably hasn't been able to find a mate.
Once paired, they have a home to make. Although birds may only spend a few days of the year building nests they are certainly action packed days! A Long-tailed tit can fly 600-700 miles collecting various materials and use up to 2,000 feathers in each nest! This all takes about 3 weeks because the nest is an intricate ball of moss, spiders' webs, hair, feathers and lichen.
You may spot the signs that nest building is on going. Help by leaving out plant trimmings, moss from the lawn and hair or fur from grooming the family pet. Many birds like to use mud in the building of their nests so if it's a dry spring try and make sure there's a muddy puddle handy. Spiders are another source of nest building material - whilst spiders themselves are a suitable food for adult birds and chicks, their sticky cobwebs are essential for nest building too. The birds will be quite furtive about approaching their chosen nest site but if you watch closely you may discover their secret hideaway.
You can encourage nesting in your garden by putting up nest boxes. It's best to fix them into position early, even before Christmas, so they become a familiar part of the territory and may even be used for shelter during the winter months.
Once the nestling's emerge the pace will pick up and you just won't be able to keep up with their demands for food - every time you check the feeders will need re-filling! The babies or nestling's are often fed different foods to the parents. The adults search for suitable foods, insects, spiders and caterpillars, journeying back and forth to the nest. Different species handle this in different ways. Take the Blue Tit, both the male and female feed their young, making up to 1,000 trips a day between them, bringing one item at a time, whereas the House Martin parents return only a few times each day often carrying at least 50 insects at a time.
The workload is immense. For example a newly hatched Great Tit chick will weigh just over a gramme. After two weeks his weight will have increased to around 15 times more than at hatching. What a help to the adults to know they can make a quick stop at your feeders for a meal.
And then comes my favorite time of all when the fledglings are coaxed to the feeding station. It's a tentative start with much wobbling about as they wait to be fed. The next step is the landing and perching technique that they have to perfect - this looks particularly difficult to master. I've witnessed some very ungainly landings and quite a few missed branches, which has had me in stitches!
Once they have mastered these skills, Bird Feeders and Bird Tables are even more crowded with young and old queueing up and overflowing onto the ground beneath - but unusually this doesn't necessarily mean more squabbles - it seems everyone is so intent on feeding that they'll put off fighting over territories and Bird Food for another day.
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