We are enjoying the weather as it becomes colder, adding layers of clothing, filling up our hot water bottles, and eating more soups and stews. We’re also noticing changes in the garden and we’re thinking about the beautiful small birds that visit our garden. 

The cooler weather and the loss of daylight can leave these smaller birds more vulnerable, as they have fewer hours in the day for foraging and they lose heat quickly to the cooler temperature. 

Setting up a bird station in the backyard can give a little helping hand for making nests cosy.

Making your station may also coincide with cleaning up the yard - pruning trees or grapevines that you could use in making your bird station. Another option below includes a simple net bag filled with your foraged items.

Items to collect and forage with your family to help make a bird station might include;

• Small dry twigs

• Scraps of wool

• Sheep or Alpaca wool you sometime see on fences where animals have rubbed to scratch themselves

• Pet hair (or your own hair from hair brush!) 

• Scraps of fabric (natural fibres) 

• Torn bits of brown paper and packaging

This strange looking bird station was constructed with some trimmed bits of grapevine. It didn’t become the beautifully shaped ball we were aiming for, but that’s okay! 

• Using string and vine we made four similar sized circles and tied them together to form the basis of our ball. We then threaded some other pieces of vine through this to make our strangely shaped ‘ball’. 

• Hanging it from the tree we popped in different bits and pieces birds might use to make a nest, little twigs, pet hair, scraps of fabric and brown paper. We’ve hung it to stay out of reach of cats in an area of the garden where birds visit. 

Something else you might enjoying doing is making a little snack for the birds.

You can use either a bird mix, crickets or meal worms from the store or opt for some raw seeds, nuts and grains from the pantry.  It’s good to avoid bread, human snacks, meat and honey. 

This little snack bowl is made using the shell of an orange - dig out the fruit and have your own snack first! 

Find a few different seeds and grains from the pantry, some possibilities are wheat, millet, rolled oats and unsalted, unroasted peanuts. You can mix these together with some coconut oil or peanut butter to hold the seeds together, make some holes in the side of the orange and attach some string to hang in the tree as part of your bird station. 

And who doesn’t love to pair things with a book? Here’s two to start with and you’ll find many more at the library.

Animal Architects: The brilliant builders of the animal kingdom: Amazing Animals Who Build Their Homes. By Julio Antonio Blasco and Daniel Nassar

Kookaburra, Kookaburra. By Bridget Farmer