Saving energy
The are asking us all to lend a helping hand to our wildlife and in particular the birds, during this cold snap.
Birds use up precious energy flying away from us when spooked, so please bare that in mind next time you want to get a closer look at something.
As the ground freezes over, food becomes incredibly scarce and our feathered friends begin to move into areas that we humans also like to frequent such as parks and gardens.
Wildfowl (ducks, geese and swans) in particular will be looking for areas of open water on ponds, lakes and reserves.
Due to the more severe weather in the north and east of Britain, birds will also be flying west to areas in Wales to try and find places where they can still feed.
This little chap flew into a house looking for warmth and shelter and remained on the owners hand for about 4 minutes before flying away. I've seen robins do this before but never blue tits, which are normally very timid birds - so it just goes to show how cold and vulnerable our birds are at the moment. Image by Janjo195 on Flickr.
Remember to leave fresh warm water out whenever you can. If you leave cold water out then it freezes over very quickly, so I tend to use luke warm water and place it somewhere the birds will feel safe e.g. on top of a hedge or wall rather than on the lawn.
There were some great feeding tips from the RSPB in my last blog on this topic so take a read if you have time.
Gull
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