The Five Mistakes Gardeners Make in Early Spring That Drive Birds Away

It is officially that time of year when the sun peeks out for five minutes, and every gardener in the UK rushes to the shed to get the garden ready. Early spring is the most sensitive time for British garden birds. They are establishing territories, engaging in courtship, and beginning to build nests. Ironically, the more we try to tidy our gardens for spring, the more we end up driving away the birds.

Here are the five most common mistakes to avoid this month to keep your garden a bird-friendly sanctuary.

We all have the urge to tidy up leggy hedges or overgrown ivy as soon as the weather turns. However, March is the official start of the nesting season. Dense shrubs, ivy-covered walls, and thick hedges are the prime real estate for robins, Blackbirds, and Wrens. In the UK, it’s actually an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to intentionally damage or destroy a wild bird’s nest while it is in use or being built. If you must prune, check the deep interior of the foliage first. If you see an activity or a half-finished nest, leave that area alone until August.

As the first green shoots of your hostas or roses appear, so do the slugs and aphids, and it’s tempting to scatter slug pellets or spray insecticide, but this is a disaster for birds for a number of reasons. Primary amongst these is toxicity. Birds like Song thrushes eat slugs and snails, so if those gastropods have ingested metaldehyde (found in many pellets), it can poison the bird. Garden birds also transition to an insect-heavy diet in spring in an effort to get the protein needed for egg-laying. By clearing your garden of insects, you are removing an important food source just when the birds need it. Some gardeners use copper tape, beer traps, or simply encourage more birds to help keep the pests in check.

Although it is fascinating to see a Blue tit checking out a nest box or a Blackbird carrying moss into its nest site, checking on them too often can cause them to abandon the nest entirely. Birds are highly sensitive to predator pressure, so if they see you paying their nest site too much attention, they may decide it’s too dangerous to raise a family there. Keep your distance and observe from a distance, using binoculars. Or why not invest in a nest box camera in time for next year’s nesting season?

In an effort to keep the garden tidy, we can often be accused of being too eager to remove fallen leaves, but for ground-feeders like Robins and Dunnocks, that leaf litter is a goldmine. It’s where they find the beetles, larvae, and worms they need. Rather than clear the entire garden, why not leave a wild corner or keep the mulch under your hedges? Not only does it feed the birds, but it also improves your soil quality as it breaks down.

This is a double-edged sword. Some gardeners stop feeding in spring, thinking “nature will provide.” Others keep feeding but forget that spring warmth makes feeders a breeding ground for bacteria like Trichomonosis. Early spring is actually when natural food is at its lowest point (winter berries are gone, and new insects haven’t fully emerged). So keep the feeders topped up with high-energy sunflower hearts or suet, but remember to clean them weekly.

The less you do, the more the birds can do, so a slightly unkept hedge and a pile of leaves might not result in you having the tidyest garden in the street, but it will certainly be appreciated by your local wildlife.