IF you have a garden – no matter how small – you have a chance to rescue nature.
That’s exactly what lifetime wildlife activist Geordie Hynes set out to do, and if the number of breeding birds in his garden this year are anything to go by, he has succeeded.
So many gardens today have tightly trimmed lawns, or even worse, a lawn of tarmac or plastic grass. But when Geordie moved into his home off the Lisburn Road six years ago, he knew he could make a mini-nature oasis that would be as wild in its own tiny way as the Belfast Hills or the Bog Meadows he had spent much of his life in.
He started by doing what so many of us do – he put up nestboxes. But his pièce de resistance is something so simple that it wouldn't have crossed Dúlra's mind – old teapots. He wedged two of them securely into the undergrowth at ground level, making sure to point the spout downwards so the inside would remain dry. He learned years ago that they make the perfect home for robins – and it wasn’t long until the birds spotted them and moved in. Dúlra's not sure if the birds brought their (tea) bags with them!
“Both were used this year by the same pair,” Geordie told Dúlra this week. “So while there were still chicks in one, the mother was incubating a new clutch of eggs in a nest she'd built in the second teapot, leaving the dad to feed the youngsters.”
THRIVING: Great tit chicks in one of Geordie's nest boxes
The robins were so happy with their surroundings that they were determined to capitalise on their good fortune and raise as many chicks as possible, even if it meant the first brood becoming a single-parent family.
Great tits have chicks in one nestbox while blue tits are this week incubating eggs in another. “They were delayed by the bad weather early in spring which meant the oak trees were slow to blossom, and they need insects from the oak for their young,” says Geordie.
The thick hedges conceal a blackbird’s nest – the mother is sitting on a second clutch of eggs after a magpie raided the first.
A pair of starlings nest under the roof after they commandeered a swift box. Starlings are a much-maligned bird but Geordie loves his, pointing out that they increasingly find it difficult to get good nesting spots in people’s homes. Dúlra was glad to hear that as he has two pairs nesting at home this year, incredibly the only starlings in the estate.
Of all the birds nesting in Geordie's garden, goldfinches are the rarest. But the fact that he was able to attract them to his tiny garden is evidence that turning your garden into a haven for nature is a gradual process and year after year it will improve.
Goldfinches – as their Irish name lasair coille or bright flame of the wood suggests – usually stick to forests or parks for nesting – but Geordie had a plan. He pruned his apple tree year after year to make it bushier at the extremes, where goldfinches like to nest, and this year they built a nest there for the first time.
Geordie attributes one thing above all others for helping transform his wee garden into a home for nature – the pond. He built it a couple of years ago and soon it was attracting all sorts of insects and even frogs.
“The pond has done more to change the garden than anything else. Having water there is like giving nature a supercharge. You’d be surprised what a difference it makes because it means you’ve created a whole new type of habitat.”
It’s an amazing achievement in just six years and we can all take lessons from Geordie.
Dúlra is already getting the pruners out in the hope he can attract breeding goldfinches.
• If you’ve seen or photographed anything interesting, or have any nature questions, you can text Dúlra on 07801 414804.
