In Praise of Sunflower Hearts

Mrs S & I get a great deal of pleasure from the birds that visit our garden - and, luckily for us, the visitors are rarely in short supply. On one memorable afternoon last summer I actually had go out and remove the fat-feeder for a while, as we had over 40 Starlings causing a screeching cacophony on and around it. Large numbers of Sparrows nest under our roof tiles, performing chirruping tap-dances on the ceiling to wake us each morning - we sleep at the top of the house, directly beneath them. We have a resident pair of Collared Doves. Dunnocks, Blackbirds and Thrushes all stop by. So too do Robins, Great Tits and Blue Tits. Until we had the fence erected a couple of years ago, a group of Wild Chickens occasionally wandered in from the fields to create havoc. Once or twice we've even had the slightly surreal experience of a Pheasant inadvertently landing in the garden - it's always a toss-up who's more surprised, us or the Pheasant. With all this activity, it feels a little unappreciative to complain, but (with the honourable exception of the Robins and Tits) up to last year, we'd seen very few splashes of colour amongst our visitors. A friend advised us to try filling a feeder with sunflower hearts. I gave it a go and, very gradually, they came. New visitors this year have included Goldfinches, Greenfinches, Coal Tits, Siskins and, my favourites, a seemingly inseparable male and female Chaffinch.

I bring the feeders in each evening, particularly during the winter months, to dissuade any Rats who might roam in off the marsh in search of food. Every morning when I take the feeders back out, various groups of birds are sitting waiting around the fence, shuffling excitedly. They all pounce the moment I hook up the feeders and are already stuffing their faces by the time I get back indoors to my breakfast. On a couple of mornings this week I had a camera on hand as I watched them tuck in.

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