Article published in The Charlbury Chronicle (June 1997)

by Christine Elliott 

I have been watching with delight what's going on inside the nestbox in my garden through a spy camera fitted to the lid. 

As early as February, a male blue tit started bringing in moss and then in mid-March, his mate started bringing in sheep's wool to line the nest. For the next month she spent ages forming the nest bowl with her body and flying out with rejected stuff. 

The first egg was laid on 13th April, and from then on she stayed on the eggs overnight. She laid 11 eggs, one each morning and then, a few days later, started incubating them during the day with her mate turning up frequently to feed her. 

On 8th May, the eggs hatched - a wriggling pile of naked flesh - and then the real hard work began for the parents who had to feed them constantly from dawn to dusk. Chicks grow so quickly that they are full size and fledge at just 2½ weeks. 

The parents found all sorts of food for them - large juicy caterpillars, beetles, mouthfuls of aphids - sometimes coming back every minute but often away for several minutes. In winter, blue tits eat beech nuts and come into our gardens for peanuts, but in spring they change to insects because the phenomenal growth of the chicks requires a high protein diet. The parents have to decide how far it's worth flying for food: considering the energy it takes to fly the distance, the nutritional value of the food, and the need to ensure that the chicks get enough food. The parents need to find over 1,000 mouthfuls of caterpillars and aphids every day for nearly three weeks just to get their brood to the stage of leaving the nest. 

The serious question is, can they find enough food? and the serious answer is no, it's becoming increasingly difficult for them and for all our song birds. Anyone who watched the special Nature report on BBC2 on 7th May 1997 will share my dismay about the serious decline in birds because of the lack of food in the countryside making it harder for them to feed themselves and to successfully rear their young. Numbers of many species have halved over the past 25 years. The birds have lost their supply of insect food and the loss of the habitat which their food would live in. This is caused by the use pesticides which are removing native plants and insects from the countryside. While 30 years ago, birds were dying directly from pesticides poisoning the food chain, now the effect is indirect: chemicals are applied in lower doses and are even biodegradable but they are also much more effective and used more widely. The result is that crops and grass fields are much "cleaner" and are devoid of the variety of weeds and insect life that birds would feed on.  

We help the birds in the winter with nuts, and again in the spring with nest boxes, but how can we help them when they need a supply of insects? Like farmers, who are leaving a 5 metre border unsprayed around their fields and managing set‑aside land for wildlife, we too can make decisions in our gardens which will have a positive effect on wildlife. We can grow plants organically by avoiding chemical pesticides and herbicides.  We can give the natural predators such as birds, ladybirds, and lacewings a chance to work, they will work - be patient. Instead of using slug pellets, we can encourage frogs, toads, beetles and use barriers such as grit, pine needles, or hair. Instead of keeping grass closely mown which is like a barren desert for wildlife, we can allow grass to grow to provide the increasingly scarce hay meadow type of habitat that's full of insects. 

Generally, and very simply, our native wild plants have evolved slowly, side by side with our native insects, so, if we encourage more of our native plants, we will also promote a plentiful supply of insects for the birds.