Ivel Valley Wild Bird Blog

Have you heard of the Corn Bunting? Corn Buntings are notoriously plump, brown & white flecked birds with a quintessentially British name! The name derives from its preference for nesting and feeding in lowland farmland. Seeds, cereal grains, and freshly sown crops are the Corn Buntings foods of choice and this countryside favourite has played friend […]

Fresh Air & Flowers Welcome along to Spring! Yellow daffodils have broken free and rapeseed floods the fields with their sweet aroma and vibrant yellow colour. Spring has finally arrived and you can look forward to fresh mornings and warmer evenings. Your garden is slowly starting to wake up from its winter slumber. Buds start to […]

Farm Update! March 9th, and apart from it being a touch windy it’s a beautiful bright Spring day. I’ve just got back from the farm and at last I’ve got some good pictures of a Chinese Water deer, you can even see its tusks! Also some nice pictures of a Heron being dive bombed by […]

Baby hedgehogs are called hoglets. They have poor eyesight, but an excellent sense of smell and hearing, which makes them ideal nocturnal animals. Each hedgehog has over 5,000 spines on their body — they last around a year before falling off and regrowing. There are 17 different species of hedgehog but the UK only has […]

Use a low level feeder, preferably with plenty of drainage. Only scatter bird food straight on the ground if you’re confident that it will be eaten quickly or if you are prepared to pick it back up if it doesn’t get eaten in a day or two. This is the best practice to avoid attracting vermin […]

Offer a good quality seed mix in a dedicated seed feeder or on a bird table. Finches are known to love Nyger seed, which is a small black seed full of healthy proteins and oils. Goldfinches, Greenfinches and Redpolls are know to return to Nyger Seed feeders (as well as Siskins). Sunflower Hearts are also popular with Finches as they […]