Birds are featuring large in my world at the moment.
The hens are causing us a lot of concern. After extensive reading, experimenting, observing & asking a local egg producer we have come to the conclusion that the hens are BORED. Their supply of grass has run out and at the moment we are not in a position to move the run. So I guess we are going to have to be creative- boxes of soil with stuff buried in it, hanging up bunches of greenery, logs to sit on etc etc - so much for hens being low maintenance!
So far I haven't come upon a chapter in a hen book entitled "Boredom". I guess it is still a relatively new concept in the population at large that poultry warrant attention to their mental health. Yet again it is the caring "amateur" & welfare charities that are bringing about the positive changes to animal welfare - not the "professional" egg & meat producers. Long live the great British (& other nationality) amateur!
We have a simple bird table & feeders, attached to our run of bean poles. This year the local bird population has "found us". It is such a "simple pleasure" to watch the comings & goings of the little visitors. Supplying peanuts (whole & in a feeder), a "wild bird mixture" & bits of bread has so far attracted blue, great, coal, willow/marsh & long-tailed tits, a blackbirds, a robin & a nuthatch.
We are also the nominated geese-feeders on the park & this regular feeding pattern attracts more than just geese - there are ducks, moorhens, peacocks, crows, magpies & jackdaws & I bet there are other quieter birds watching & waiting for all the fuss to die down. I'd love to see the local ravens come down to eat!
Not far away is a rookery. Once the youngsters left the nest this summer the rookery became empty. In the last month or so huge numbers of rooks have been congregating at the rookery then flying off to roost somewhere nearby. As coincidence would have it, a few nights ago I picked up a book & started reading a chapter at random only to discover that the book is all about rooks & jackdaws. It's a beautifully written book so if you are still searching for a Christmas present for a bird-lover then this is worth a consideration - "Crow Country" by Mark Crocker (ISBN 978 0 224 07601). I borrowed my copy from the local mobile library - so here's plug for them - "USE THEM OR LOOSE THEM".
Also from the library, I have borrowed, read & can recommend the latest in the Maise Dobbs series "An Incomplete Revenge" by Jacqueline Winspear. So get down to your local library & see what you can find & don't forget that the staff are usually only too happy to help! On that note, it's time for me to log onto the library catalogue & order some books ready to dive- into over the Christmas break.
