Twittering in the garden

It was the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch this weekend. I'd have loved to take part, but just didn't have the time. But I've got a good idea of what's happening in our garden - with a look every time I go past the window.

Despite the salt air and the wind, we've managed to start to grow some good cover and mixed plants to attract our feathered friends, and I've got back onto the wagon of feeding them too, which is already making a difference.

I buy the hulled sunflower seeds because they make so much less mess, and serve them in a feeder with a tray fastened to the bottom, to reduce what drops onto the floor. Our big concern is mice - specifically getting them in places where they shouldn't be...

When we lived in Yorkshire, we had quite a big garden and we backed onto a primary school with fields like the local wood, and at the side of that was allotments, so you can imagine we got every kind of rodent under the sun. I wasn't particularly keen on the odd rat that came to call, but mice were part of life. I kept rabbits for many years in a brick shed in the garden and we often had them in there. One year, we caught them one by one and took them to the woods. I couldn't bear to kill them, and only use poison as a last resort. Our living room backed onto the garden and we used to watch them running round under the birdfeeders - they're very cute.

Anyway, I've made it a mission at Cleveleys to attract the birds - we had everything in Yorkshire, attracted by the trees and natural food they came in their hundreds and plenty of types. Here, it's a red letter day to see a blue tit! Last year we had Goldfinches nesting in the garden which thrilled me, and starlings in the parrot nesting box that I put up when we blocked the holes up in the soffit. The tame blackbird builds half a dozen homes until he hits on his favourite (I throw worms to him when I'm gardening, and he follows me round), and we've had a robin coming every day to feed. We had collared doves by the hundred before, so I'm thrilled that a pair have worked out how to the use the feeder and are hanging about in the garden. I'm wondering now what I can rig up to encourage them to nest...

Then of course there is Mr and Mrs Homer, who seem to be revving up their feeding, presumably to get into top condition for this years baby making. They have their breakfast and then the starlings and blackbirds come to hoover up the bits of dog food that they leave. So this is all conducted with me talking to them all and running a commentary! The gulls do know you though, when I occassionally send my dad or husband out to feed them, they won't come to either of them and feed by hand. Clever birdies, eh?

For more about what happens at Cleveleys, go to http://www.visitcleveleys.info