Bird table

You will need:

• Bird table
• Bird food
• Notebook and pencil
• For bird pudding: suet, nuts, dried fruit, meat, lard, string, yogurt pot

This is what you do:

• Set up a bird table where you can view it from the window. Put a variety of food on the table to attract different birds. Some birds only eat seeds, other eat insects and worms, some will enjoy breadcrumbs and some prefer tiny bits of meat.
• In Winter, birds need fat, so offer them suet or a bird pudding (see recipe below). At Christmas, treat them to a block of creamed coconut (grated or chopped). You can use this instead of suet in the pudding.
• It would be interesting to keep a record in a notebook of how many birds were at the table at different times of day and what they all ate.

BIRD PUDDING:

• Put into a large mixing bowl a variety of seeds, some breadcrumbs, chopped suet, nuts and dried fruit plus some little bits of meat such as bacon. Mix together.
• Melt some lard with help from an adult so that it is just liquid but not too hot and pour this over the seed mix.
• Now it must be kneaded (a messy business).
• Loosely pack the mixture into a yoghurt pot. Push a string down the centre and then press the mix down so it is tightly packed around the string, adding more mix if necessary.
• Leave to harden, then turn it out and hang it up for the birds by the string. Squirrels love this too, but they are likely to run off with the whole pudding!

Tel: 01983 533334
email :