Talking Point with Vicky Turrell: 'Did you know that wild birds are on the decline?'
It has happened again. “Road closed,” it said. But this time it was not for road works or filling potholes. It is for the toads. At this time of year toads are on the move, walking en masse to their breeding grounds and it just so happens that I came to a road that crosses a path on their migration route.
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The road has been closed temporarily for about six weeks so that these amphibians can cross in safety. This is an official ‘toad crossing’ without the zebra markings. More than a thousand will use it in these next few weeks.
You would think that our new garden was an official crossing for birds. We have a bird table which we have hung with all sorts of treats, peanuts, fat balls and mixed seeds. Added to that I offer titbits from the kitchen like breadcrumbs and cheese morsels. But the blue tits and other little birds turn up their beaks and fly over to the other houses. Is their bird table smarter than ours? Or is their food more delicious than mine? Whatever the reason the small birds are not visiting our garden.
I watch as they settle on our holly tree and then purposely ignoring us, pretending we are not there and not looking sideways they head off for more upmarket feeding stations. They remind me of drivers who do not want to let you in, who drive straight ahead. They do not look, ‘I can’t stop because I can’t see you’. The little birds are the same they go past with blinkered eyes.
Magpies, however, do look and big black crows love the food, especially the fat and cheese. I am hoping that eventually we will be able to interest the small birds. But did you know that wild birds are on the decline? A DEFRA study has shown that since 1970 the woodland bird population has fallen by about a third and farmland birds by almost double that. No wonder we have fewer birds in our garden.
Should we care and what should we do? Well, the loss of birds is probably a sign that other things are going wrong like the loss of insects. It could be to do with our modern farming and there is nothing I can do about that. But I can alter our garden and leave neglected areas and some scrubby land. Garden ‘weeds’ could be encouraged. Perhaps we could leave the weeds to seed in our new neat lawn. The birds would love us then.
But I am not sure our neighbours will approve, as unwanted plants will spring up in their gardens and anyway, they have enough birds.
