Just before Christmas, I welcomed the BBC Countryfile team to my garden, along with presenter Paul Martin, to film a piece for their Winter Diaries series. Our brief was to show the different ways that you can support garden birds, and other wildlife, in your garden. The team and I came up with a series of ideas before the shoot so we had a plan of action for the day!
The team arrived early and, as usual, my hall was soon full of bags of kit for the day!
We started in the kitchen, as we filmed a piece about how easy it is to make fat balls for the birds; a simple mix of softened lard, bird seed, chopped apple, stale unsweetened cereal and oats. #gallery-17411-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-17411-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-17411-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-17411-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
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I then showed Paul how I use cheap whisks to hold these fat balls…. #gallery-17411-7 { margin: auto; } #gallery-17411-7 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-17411-7 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-17411-7 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
This is a great half term activity with kids and I bought a set of 3 whisks in a bargain store for just a few pounds. The birds love them and the whisks are easy to fill and easy to clean.
I also showed Paul my other use of kitchen utensils….. ladles and mini sieves form Wilcos. They make great simple feeders! I have been using these for years and often use the Bushnell to record visitors!
The label also doubles up as a bird bath!
Paul and I also made a simple watering hole from an old tyre (free from your local tyre centre). I have blogged about these before as I already have a few in my garden. They are really popular with the wildlife and I have even had frogs moving into this small water space. Simple to create and another great half term holiday activity. If you want to see some of my other tyre waterholes, check out these 2 blog posts. Just click on the images.
Triple Tyre waterhole
They are really simple to make and provide a perfect small water space for wildlife! #gallery-17411-8 { margin: auto; } #gallery-17411-8 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-17411-8 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-17411-8 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
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Finally, Paul had a look at some of my feeding stations, all of which you can watch on my live cameras! #gallery-17411-10 { margin: auto; } #gallery-17411-10 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-17411-10 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-17411-10 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
Thank you to a wonderful team who were a pleasure to work with! I was delighted with the piece and have had lots of positive feedback already!
If you missed it, my piece is available on iPlayer It is worth watching the whole show, but my piece starts at around 19 minutes.
