As you will know I have spent some time over the past few days in Garden Centres. What amazes me most is the section on ‘Bird Care’, looking after the birds that fly around outside.


When and why did this become an industry? There is shelf after shelf of bird food, bird food holders, bird food balls, etc. even, believe it or not, something called 'The Bill Oddie Songbird Crumble'containing dried insects. Particularly good for baby birds I’m told.
You can get organic food even vegetarian food but how do you know if your birds are vegetarian or if organic is healthier, you can’t know unless you can identify each bird to see if it keeps coming back.


It doesn’t stop there. You can buy a bigger range of houses for the birds than Barratt's supply for people. There are simple wooden ones, some with thatched roofs even some with slate roofs. In fact, they come in all shapes and sizes and of course different costs. This of course makes me wonder, because I’m retired and have nothing better to do, if there is a property ladder for birds, which birds get the house with the slate roof and who gets the wood one and if you’re a wood house bird how do you upgrade to slate. It’s not easy for the birds, I can see how some poorer ones would be very envious of the better off ones.


Christine of course is not surprised by the selection of items, she has been putting out bird food for years, so once again it's me that out of sinc and not everyone else.


But there is a very serious side to the issue of feeding the birds. I don’t know anything about birds or their feeding habits but I have never let the lack of facts spoil a story so let me give you my view. With all the feeding going on the birds are getting fatter. I cannot remember seeing a thin bird on my garden fence. They used to be in our wooden bird house but the extra weight caused it to collapse.





Here's one that just happens to be passing as I write this.


This is my theory. The added weight of the birds will obviously inhibit their 'take off' speed which leaves them at the mercy of the passing tom cat. So the bird population suffers. But it doesn’t stop there because the cats then become fatter and are caught by the dogs, so the cat population suffers and what becomes of the dogs, they spend so much time chasing cats that playing 'fetch' with their owners becomes a little boring


So by over feeding the birds we are putting at risk not only the birds but also the cats as well as helping to destroy the bond between man and his 'best friend'.



The real point is that in ‘the good old days’ the caring people chucked out the odd stale crust of bread and the birds were grateful. I have nothing against feeding birds but I wonder where this industry will end. As long as we keep buying I am sure they will find new things to sell. Is it me?