Emma's Wild Bird Adventure: A community of birds

In the final blog post from Emma's inspiring Wild Bird Adventure series, we catch up with Emma to find out more about the community of birds now living in her garden, and her final thoughts on the experiment.

Hi Emma, how is your wildbird adventure going and what other birds have you spotted?

Really well, we are now starting to build up a real community of birds! We have a resident blackbird which sings very early in the morning and who tends to feed mainly on the ground.  The pigeons have told their friends - they sit and wait on the roof until the coast is clear along with the two collared doves. The robin is becoming very tame. It loves the mealworms! Hopefully by this time next year, with training, it will be feeding from my hand.

We are in awe of newly arrived gold finches!  They really are beautiful. We waited a good hour to see if we could get a photo but no luck.  We have been told that they love Nyger feed, so we plan to try some, but they also seem to love the sunflower hearts. 

We top up the superior seed, mealworms and fat balls daily. The peanuts have hardly been touched; it’s odd as friends & neighbours swear by them!  The window feeder is now being used, the starlings really love the mealworms. We are monitoring our nest box but think it’s too early for new residents yet. 

Have you and your family enjoyed this wildbird experience?

Yes, we’ve loved every minute of it! It’s now a part of our morning routine. We all have our favourites. Jack loves the robin and Olivia the starlings, because she can see them up close in the window feeder. She tries to be very still, so she doesn’t frighten them off. I’m fond of the robin too. It’s like they’ve become a part of the family.

What have you learnt from the experiment? Would you do anything differently?

We should have done it sooner! We didn’t know when we started out, but the feeding station is definitely staying, so we are probably going to buy a more heavy-duty unit for the long term.  When you see the birds you want to know more about them and what attracts them.  This has led to lots of research and trying to accommodate their tastes. 

Could you please summarise your experience in 3 words?

Exciting, fantastic and therapeutic! It’s so calming to take a minute every day, sit watching the different birds and just be in the moment. I would urge anyone thinking about it, to give it a go! It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. 

Any plans for the future?

We are planning to make the feeding station more of a feature, maybe with wildflower planting underneath.