APOLOGIES for missing images – change of hosting resulted in some missing images from older posts
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| A great selection of quality bird-food for your birds this Winter. |
For the longest time I have been an avid bird watcher, probably not in the binocular sense, but I love to watch birds in the wild; I love to see them in the garden feeding in the winter or flying to and fro from tree to tree in the spring and summer feeding their young. I love to hear birds sing and there’s something that’s really joyful about birds. This world would be a sad place without birds. In fact we need them to survive.
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Blackbirds
Kaleel Zibe (rspb-images.com) |
In the Winter we especially need to look after our native wildlife, making sure they have somewhere to go, something to eat and keeping water topped up when the temperature drops below a certain level.
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Fieldfare
Kaleel Zibe (rspb-images.com) |
Birds are such a big part of our ecosystem, and without birds in the right balance, a lot of the web of life would go into chaos – yes that is how important birds and all creatures are.
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RSPB bird care product.
Nigel Blake (rspb-images.com) |
So for the final day of my ’12 Days of Christmas’ here at ‘Kelly Martin Speaks’ I wanted to introduce the organisation which is the pioneer for birds (and so much more), in the UK. The RSPB – Royal Society For Protection of Birds.
Unfortunately, as urban sprawl increases, as motorways are built and as farming changes, nature is being impacted. We humans are taking away their rightful homes, so it is only right that we correct this imbalance by protecting nature and the bird species who need somewhere to live, somewhere to eat and bring up their families also, much like we enjoy.
And one lucky reader will get the opportunity to win a starter bird seed kit and get a lot of enjoyment out of the birds this winter.
The RSPB – What Do They Do?
The RSPB is the country’s largest nature conservation charity, inspiring everyone to give nature a home. Together with their partners, they protect threatened birds and wildlife so our towns, coast and countryside will teem with life once again. They also play a leading role in a worldwide partnership of nature conservation organisations.
Nature Needs Our Help
“Sixty per cent of UK species in decline, groundbreaking study finds”.
A report this year by a coalition of leading conservation and research organisations stated that 60% of UK species are in decline, so it is even more important this winter and throughout the year that we take care of the bird population and all of nature around us. With the help of the RSPB we can all do this.
This WINTER (from the RSPB)
Giving nature a home
Winter can be hard on your garden wildlife – food’s hard to find, water freezes over and biting winds send a chill down the spine of even the toughest of birds and beasts. The RSPB is asking you to help make this winter a little bit easier on wildlife by taking steps to give nature a home where you live. No matter how big or small your outside space, there’s something you can do to make a difference – whether it’s putting up a bug box to offer some shelter from the cold or braving the weather to make sure your bird bath hasn’t frozen over. It’s also the perfect time for planning your garden for next year so spare a thought for your wild neighbours and include some wildlife friendly features in your plans.
To find out more about how you can give nature a home where you live this winter and to download your free guide, visit RSPB Free Nature Guide.
Request your Give nature a home guide packed full of simple, fun activities to help wildlife where you live.
It’s free and available for download or free postal delivery.
Some cheaper brands of bird food contain fillers that are wasted so you may think you are saving money buying cheaper bird food but you may end up throwing it away once it goes mouldy or the birds don’t touch your fat-balls. Alternatively do check out the RSPB site on what to feed birds HERE.
Along with good quality bird food you can also use a number of foods you find around your home including uncooked porridge oats, cake crumbs, potatoes, grated cheese and also soft fruit.
WIN – STARTER SEED FEEDER KIT (NOW OVER!)
The RSPB was kind enough to offer for review and give-away their Bird food value pack + Starter seed feeder kit
1.2 kg No-mess sunflower mix
Best selling bird food!Tired of sweeping up husks and shells the birds leave behind? This bird seed is a carefully balanced, best-selling, no-waste, no-mess blend of sunflower hearts, kibbled maize, husk-free oats and canary seed for seed feeders, bird tables and ground feeding. Most garden birds love it. Use all year round.
2.25 kg Table mix
Attract several species of wild bird to your bird table or ground feeding area all year round – especially those that can’t use feeders. RSPB Table bird seed mix contains black and striped sunflower seeds, sunflower hearts, husk-free oats, kibbled maize and wheat and it’s especially appealing to robins, finches, house sparrows and blackbirds. Also widely enjoyed by birds capable of using feeders.
2.25 kg Feeder mix
RSPB Feeder mix is a great value wild bird seed blend that we’ve designed for putting into tubular seed feeders all year round. It’s a nutritious mix of oil-rich black and striped sunflower seeds, husk-free oats and canary seed, that’ll attract many garden birds such as blue tits, great tits and greenfinches.
550 g Fruity nibbles
Just about every garden bird loves to feast on these high-energy nibbles. Made from over 35% juicy raisins blended with top quality UK-made suet and cereal. Use all year-round.
Fruity nibbles are a great alternative to peanuts. They can be fed from a wire mesh nut and nibble feeder year-round. As they don’t have the choking hazards of whole peanuts, they are also suitable for feeding loose from tables.
One 500 ml RSPB hanging bird cake
The essential ingredients in our high-energy bird cakes are suet and finely chopped peanuts, with a choice of added ingredients. This bird cake is packed-full of insect pieces.
Each 500 ml suet bird cake has internal supports, making it easy to hang from a hook, or they can be fed from a suet feeder.
RSPB Starter seed feeder
This is a great first-time bird seed feeder, designed for people who are new to feeding birds and don’t have squirrels in their garden. Made from polycarbonate tubing, with polypropylene fittings.
Each item is carefully formulated to provide optimal energy and nutrition.
Blackbird – Blackcap – Blue tit – Chaffinch – Collared Dove – Great Tit – Greenfinch – Goldfinch – House Sparrow – Long-tailed tit – Robin – Siskin – Song thrush – Starling – Wren
I love this kit, great for someone starting out or someone wanting to replace bird food and key products. The bird cake looks so nutritious and the bags of bird seed should take you through a good period of time during the winter. The fruity nibbles should attract a great range of birds into your garden and you will feel happy knowing you are giving the birds exactly what they need for their health and well-being this winter season.
Unlike some shop bought bird food, you will find no fillers and the RSPB do not believe in putting bird cakes or fat balls in netting that birds can get trapped in, to me this is a real bonus. The feeders look lovely in the garden. This is a really substantial starter kit.
Other products
If you are looking for something for the wildlife enthusiast or you simply want to encourage nature into your garden check out the follow products from the RSPB shop.
RSPB Gardening for Wildlife – With “how to” guides, the top 400 garden plants for wildlife and lists of essential jobs for every month of the year, this is the perfect guide for getting butterflies in your flowerbeds, frogs in your water feature and birds in your bushes.
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| Wildflower Seeds |
Wildlife world wildflower seeds – Selected with nature in mind, these wildflowers will add a burst of colour to your outdoor space and are irresistible to wildlife.
Ladybird and insect tower – The perfect hidey hole for your garden mini beasties.
Decorated apex nest box – Provides shelter from the cold through the winter months, and a family home for raising young in the spring.
All of the above can be purchased at RSPB Shop or by calling 0845 1 200 501.
You can also support the RSPB in a number of other ways including joining the RSPB, shopping online, donating and more.. Click Here To Support RSPB
If you like what you see in this review, you can purchase bird food and other products to take care of your local wildlife from RSPB Click Here (in the UK) and you can find out all you need to know to look after birds and nature from the main RSPB site HERE You can also keep up to date with the RSPB on Twitter HERE, Facebook HERE, Podcasts HERE and join in with the RSPB Community HERE
WIN – WIN -WIN (NOW OVER!)
Start entering on the competition app below. You get extra entries for social sharing and much more.
I would like to say a great big thank you to the RSPB
for sponsoring this give-away and providing me with products to review.
MERRY CHRISTMAS & may 2014 be full of blessings for you!
GOOD LUCK!
*ENTERING* – Enter through the app below, click on the first option (comment on blog) and follow instructions. This will unlock further additional entries into the competition
Question being answered in the comments is:
What is your favourite garden bird and why?
Comment only eligible for entry into give-away
if entrant goes through the GLEAM app above.
*Post Disclaimer: I received a bird food gift pack from the RSPB based in UK for review. All opinions are my own.
Win competitions at ThePrizeFinder.com
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Kelly Martin
Kelly Martin, author of ‘When Everyone Shines But You’ is a dedicated writer and blogger who fearlessly explores life’s deepest questions. Faced with a decade of profound anxiety and grief following the loss of her father and her best friend Michael, Kelly embarked on a transformative journey guided by mindfulness, and she hasn’t looked back since. Through her insightful writing, engaging podcasts, and inspiring You Tube channel Kelly empowers others to unearth the hidden treasures within their pain, embracing the profound truth that they are ‘enough’ exactly as they are.
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I personally love the starlings, especially when they pile into our garden and strip the grapevine of it's grapes because I know that the grapes won't go to waste and is filling their hungry stomachs.
The robin – they seem to be so intelligent and try to communicate with us
love to see robins, makes me feel christmasy
fab prize ive recently made a bird feeding station in my garden as we werent getting any birds at all now its great seeing all the different birds every day x
I love to see long tailed tits – they're such gorgeous birds ..with attitude!
I like to see and hear a thrush – they are pretty and usually have a song to sing.
The Robin.We live in the countryside and see a lot of them. They are the bird we look for the most.
how can I choose? I'd have to say the long tail tits who visit my garden en masse regularly
Blue tits because they come right up to my living room window 🙂 Like robins too for the same reason.x
I love robins, they are so chirpy and brighten up my day 🙂
Robins because they are adorable!
Such a simple idea to attract the wildlife in front of your cosy house.
The Blackbird – they're so confident and cheeky.
My Favourite Garden Bird Is A Robin Because It's So Pretty
Robin, remind me of my mother-in-law as they were her favourite bird
My blackbirds – 3 generation now and they sit on the patio table waiting for breakfast every morning
The robin – it makes me feel xmassy!
Robins, they're not only gorgeous, but often they seem so tame. When I'm digging in the garden, I often get a friendly robin checking for goodies next to me :).
I like Robins because I have one that lives in my back garden and he's fearless. When one of my cats gets too close that little Robin will twitter like crazy and jump up and down until the cat runs off.
I love robins! There's one that sits on our back fence and follows me as I walk through to the front of the house! They're just so cute! 🙂 x
robins, see them more often than I used to 🙂
Starlings, they are so comical, noisy, argumentative and are wonderful to see in large numbers in starling murmurations.
I love the Jay Bird as its colors are beautiful
the Robin, this cheery little bird has always been very significant to our family
Am I the only one that LOVES magpies? They are the coolest looking bird and SO very clever. (logged in under my hubby's FB scott broomhead, sorry i dont have one.)
Goldfinches…their colours are so exotic and their high pitched song is delightful
robins they are just so sweet and they are so tame this was hard for me to choose as i love birds 🙂
Blackbird because he is the first one down in the morning to greet me and get the 'early bird ' treats.
I love blackbirds especially as we always have a nesting pair and enjoy seeing them look after their young.
We love robins, they look so adorable in the garden
I love the dunnocks. They work so hard at ground level collecting what other birds have dropped from the feeder oblivious of us or any other bird 🙂
love robins!!
Robins. They are pretty, distinctive, and fascinating to watch.
Long tail tits – love the way they go round in gangs from garden to garden
I love robins – we have several which visit our garden and I do do all I can to encourage them.
I adore chaffinches, just because they're so bouncy and jolly!
Goldfinches,they're so pretty.
This may be controversial…but Magpies are my favourite bird. They turn up in my life as a sign that all is well. Yes, they eat baby chicks in the spring, but they are not responsible for the decline in bird numbers – A "study found that songbird numbers were no different in places where there were many magpies from where there are few. It found no evidence
that increased numbers of magpies have caused declines in songbirds" – from the RSPB website.
(including a link in case anyone's interested)
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/m/magpie/effect_on_songbirds.aspx
The wren, they're just so small and quick!!!
I love all birds especially Robins
Long tailed tits – love the way they bounce from tree to tree chirping as they go
The Nuthatch, we don't see it very often and it is so elegant.
I love the family of goldfinches that feed in my hazel tree
Blue tits because they are so cute.
robins are the cutest little birds
Robin because the one in my garden just seems to sit around watching into my kitchen window
I love goldfinches – so pretty!
I love those big fat wood pigeons with their lovely song!
Favourite Garden bird is the Thrush… What a beautiful bird, and such a lovely song!
it has to be the magpie cos they are so brazen
I love magpies, not controversial at all. Humans do more damage than nature ever does. Thanks for sharing.
I love my black birds…I could watch them for hours, standing at the side of the garden then running out onto the grass to grab the worms
Robins because I like seeing them in my garden.
I love the robins their colours are pretty and always looks festive when they are around
Got to be a Robin, There are so pretty and love the colours
Hummingbirds because they are so beautiful. (Gianna)
my parents have a couple of green parrots that live in their trees. They are so beautiful and often feed from their bird feeders 🙂
Robin. They are so pretty. I love to see one in the garden, but unfortunately isn't very often. My hubby also likes them and loves to receive a christmas card with one on
Weaver, I grew up in South Africa and could watch them for ages, they have such cheeky personalities.
I love little birds especially multi-colouored
Robins, they follow me around the garden, in hope I may dig up a worm.
Robins! I loved the video, never thought about the window sill idea before, will definitely be trying that!
I love the little Wren, its just so small and sweet. I could watch it in my garden all day.
I love wagtails…they always look so cheerful
My favourite is the long tailed tit – they usually appear in a group and are really sweet little birds.
Robins they always make me laugh when chase other birds away.
Robin – It's just so beautiful and timid
I love the wrens. They are so tiny but have a lot of spirit
Blackbirds – they're so friendly
A Robin as reminds me of loved ones we've lost 🙂
I love the Nuthatches in my garden – they are so full of character.
i love my bluetits we have a large group that visit us
happy christmas
I love the little sparrows flitting here and there as if they were as light as air
I love blue tits i remember them when i was a child drinking the milk from our milk bottles
I have many favourites but at this time of year we have 3 robins around and they are so lovely and make me feel all Christmasy 😀
Robins, because of their lovely red chest and their cute round shape:)
blue tits,we have lots in our garden
Blackbirds – we have a family of them living in the garden and the babies are so hopeless we spend the Spring rescuing them from various scrapes and protecting them from teh neighbours cats!
I love the robin, because they are so friendly and sit and watch what we're doing – plus they are around in winter, when the other birds have deserted us for somewhere warmer 🙂
Can't decide between Robins and Blackbirds. I've had Robins come up really close to me and I think they are really lovely looking and cheerful birds, and at my old house I had a family of Blackbirds and used to love sitting my a window and watching them, almost everyday they'd come to the garden and I miss that little family since moving.
Robin…I have less and less birds visiting my garden due to a neighbourhood full of felines. Mr Robin is the only one brave enough to forage in my beds!
It has to be the Robin. We have 2 Robins that come into our garden every year. It is wonderful to watch them!
Robin – always seem so friendly
I love starlings as there are none for months then there are huge flocks
it's hard to pick a favourite I love all our bird visitors for different reasons, I think Starlings are the most entertaining though with their noisy squabbles over food and their mass bathing is always a joy to watch
Robins, always xxxx
Love the robins as they're just so cute and friendly.
Robin! So festive 🙂
wagtails love how thier wee tails bob up and down
Coal tits, as they come in a little family group, are small pretty
blackbirds, they remind me of my Grandma that passed away xx
Pheasants – they give my cat a run for his mony!
robin- very festive!
we have a great tit in our bird house he came back last week we love listening to the baby's chirp in the summer months
I love The Robin, We have a resident one in our garden and he is always about when im out gardening, watching me and listening to me as i chat to him lol
The robin, i love how they follow me around the garden
Robin – always friendly & Christmassy. Fabulous
I love the robin 🙂 festive 😀