[Rosemary]

I'm not a bird watcher in the real sense, but I do like to see birds in the garden, we do feed them and I can recognise the more common garden species. Anyway, today we had a Goldfinch in the garden - they are so pretty! They come for the thistle seeds that I have been "cultivating" all summer. And we have a wren in the garden. This must be my favourite garden bird and I'd really like to encourage them. Anyone suggest anything I can do to do that?

[stephen]

im guessing (as im not a bird watcher etc) planting plants that produce berries, encourage other smaller wildlife (flys, bees etc) hedgerows etc so they have plenty of places to nest, bird feeding table / bath, nest boxes, seeds / nuts / fat balls in the winter months etc. when i lived with my mum and dad we had a robin that made its nest in the bush by the washing line, it used to hop along the washing line as my mum hung it out and followed us all round the garden! it was so relaxed with us it would stand only a couple of feet away from a spade as it went into the ground! and stand on the back step while my mum was in the kitchen! the robin had babies and came back (or the babies did!) for a couple of years after that! everyone has since moved so i have no idea about him / her now! 

[Liese]

How about putting up some wren sized bird houses?  Here many people will use gourds for them which is a bit rustic looking but fun.  Gourd growing does take a pretty long season but otherwise easy.  I have seen from your video that you are right along water but even still maybe a basin of water might be attractive to them.  I keep the basin filled all year and our Bluebirds and Cardinals really enjoy it - everyone else seems to have headed further south now.  The birds also seem to like my failed cheeses too!

[Tony J]

We have a pair of wrens that nest in a neighbors shed, they spend a lot of time in & around my compost heaps, made from old pallets, feeding on insects there. We also have a robin that lives in the garden, it gets very territorial and chases other birds it's own size and smaller away from the feeders outside the kitchen window. We certainly get a wide variety of birds here just about all the tit family including coal tit and long tailed tit, nuthatches, bullfinch-they take the flowers off runner beans, green woodpecker & lesser spotted plus the normal garden birds. In the late spring we get visited by a buzzard for breakfast, takes young birds from the feeders in the early morning, obviously to feed thier own young because this is the only time of year it happens, we also have the red kite - beautiful birds
Tony 

[pigsatlesrues]

In UK when we didn't have cats, we used to have a vast amount of sparrows, blackbirds, the odd thrush, a resident robin, and bluetits. We had various successful boxes that were regularly used and even though our garden was small, planting the right shrubs etc with berries and flowers, encouraged them to keep coming to the food source. The planting seems to be all important because for all of the sparrows we got, the house opposite never got a one and commented on the fact many times, but they had finches and we didn't.

Here in France we have 8 cats (not through choice, they have all started ferrell and just arrived!). I am not able to encouorage birds here into the garden for obvious reasons, but actually it is not a problem in as much as there are so many trees, they arrive and are safe. I have never seen so many finches of all sorts of colours. They roost in the bay trees at night. John said there could be a couple of hundred at a time in each tree, so although we don't get to see many during the day, they are certainly there at dusk, it is incredible. We have wren hopping around, and robin, and the swallows return to the hen house every year. Two seasons ago one of their nests fell to the ground with chicks inside. John repaired it with chicken wire, put it back up with chicks inside and the parents returned, thank you very much and still use it now. We are so looking forward to seeing them return again - it has been a bit of a competition here to see who spots the first one!

The most magnificent birds we see are the birds of prey. Some of them are huge, and sit so close to the house. They sit at the side of the road, and the sheer scale of them is breathtaking. An unusual site for us having come from Fareham; probably not so uncommon for those of you living in Scotland and the outer areas/islands of the UK.

Looking forward to the spring and see what arrives here this year.

Kate

[Francis Bacon]

The wild birds here in France are wonderful, In Gardeners World which my mother in law sends me each month they showed you how to use big fir cones stuffed with fat, seed, fruit & nuts to encourage the birds, I made some & the birds absolutely love them and they told their friends & so on    now we have alsorts visiting us, although I love seeing them all my favorite is the Tree Creeper   

Donna

[pigsatlesrues]

Just picking up on what Francis is saying about bird feeders - we have successfully used used plastic
1 ltr milk bottles. We mix fat with ble, pour it in and let it set.  Cut out four windows and push a firm twig through underneath the windows as a pirch and hang them in the trees. We have hundreds of finches that roost in the trees here and they love them.

Kate

[Francis Bacon]

That sounds even easier, you should of seen the mess I made 
Donna

[Rosemary]

Good idea - will give that a go.