'Beak-kind’ event in Wellingborough calls on Northants community to step in and help our feathered friends

To celebrate RSPB’s Big Garden Bird Watch, Glenvale Park - a new development in Wellingborough – is sharing its top tips on how families across Northants can help our feathered friends thrive over winter.

According to RSPB, winter is the time of the year our garden birds need us most – with more species on the lookout for shelter and food in colder months.

The charity’s Big Garden Bird Watch event is one of the world’s largest wildlife surveys and encourages people of all ages to play a vital role in monitoring bird populations in their back gardens.

With avian flu hitting birds particularly hard this year, Glenvale Park’s development director, Mark Best, has brought together some top tips for how to support wildlife in our back gardens this month:

- Installing a bird box in your back garden is a great way to care for garden birds in the winter months, as they give visiting birds a place to eat and snuggle together for warmth away from the cold air

- Birds need a reliable supply of supplementary food to get through the difficult winter months, so try to ensure you offer them a regular delivery service; refill feeders promptly, and twice daily if required when the weather is bad. Stick to a regular feeding time, as the birds will get used to the most rewarding time to come into your garden

- Be wary of cats. Cats can be a real threat to garden birds so check your garden feeders are positioned as far as possible away from places where local cats can easily prey on garden bird visitors. Consider attaching a bell to the family cat’s collar to alert birds to its presence

- Check the location of your feeding station. If you already have a bird feeding station in the garden, consider moving it to a different suitable location occasionally, to avoid the risk of mess building up and predatory birds getting to know the location too well. Make sure the new spot won’t expose the birds to excessive wind or rain, as that will put them off visiting you

- Aim to provide a variety of different bird seeds, nuts, grains, and fats to satisfy the needs of as wide a range of different species as you can. You can also have a baking day with the family and create a batch of suet cakes studded with the seeds they like – these will get snapped up, just like the high-energy bars we sometimes eat for a booster

There are thousands of gardens across Northants, and if each of us were to install just a small box, collectively it would make a big difference

When the weather improves later this year, Glenvale Park will be hosting its Beak Kind at Glenvale Park for the community to install a bird box of their own across the 200 acres of green space on the development.

Keep an eye out on Glenvale Park’s social channels in the coming months for more details.

The developers behind Glenvale Park are committed to giving back to the community of Wellingborough, through community engagement initiatives, events and a dedicated social value programme.

For more information on Glenvale Park, visit https://glenvalepark.co.uk/.