Feed the birds all the year round? Yes, of course. For even in summer, as a writer in The Countryman reminded us, there come wet spells when insects and grubs get washed off the leaves and cold spells where caterpillars may not be so easily picked up. Some birds can have problems in feeding themselves and their young when it is assumed that all is well with them. There is always the argument that a whole peanut, say, could choke a nestling. But modern bird-feeding devices are such that no bird can extract more than a small portion of any kind of nut from them. You do not leave out on the table or on the ground whole peanuts. Better still, don't have a table. As well as nuts, by the way, feeders with easy access to the interior should carry a lump of fat, such as one of the cooking brands of lard. You would be surprised how often it is availed of.
The presence of a set of feeding devices often draws the attention of sparow-hawks. One such rather lavish set is on a river edge, overlooked by a pair of tall willows. From the topmost branches there is a strategic view of the coal tits, greenfinches (very busy just now), blue tits, great tits and at times chaffinches. Long-tailed tits are tempermental and clannish. Earlier in the year, they would come in parties of six or more. And, of course, with small fragments of nuts falling, as they inevitably do, many birds which do not or cannot cling and eat at the same time pick up a reasonable amount of titbits. As for the sparrow-hawk, there used often to be a floating feather or two in the air, now and then, and you would find the feeding hangers empty. Things have improved since an ingenious friend rigged up a curtain of small-gauge chicken-wire, about three feet by two, which swings gently between the sparrowhawks' perch and the feeders. It does not prevent the occasional fatality, as the birds leave the protected area, but gives them a bit more security than they had.
They are 100 per cent safe while they eat, for all the food is in a tangle of branches of three slim, old hawthorn trees. The only unwelcome guests are the grey squirrels, but they no longer disturb the birds. And the latter know that the dog is not after them when she comes around.