How to attract woodpeckers to your garden
Want to attract woodpeckers to your garden? All you need is the excess fat from a roast says Vicky Wilkes
If you’ve always struggled to think of what to do with excess fat from cooking, here’s a way to put it to good use. Why not make your garden an inviting haven for the more discerning birds, such as the Woodpecker.
Top tips for attracting Woodpeckers
1. Use cooking fat such as lard or dripping left over from the roast or from grilling, and melt on the hob.
2. Add sunflower hearts, dried fruit and ordinary bird feed.
3. Once mixed, pour into either half a coconut shell or other container which can be suspended from a tree or bush.
4. Leave to set and suspend from a suitable branch.
Alternatively you can find a branch or use a piece of hollow bamboo.
Sign up for the Country Life Newsletter
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
1. Drill a number of holes spread out along the branch.
2. Having made the holes, pour liquid fat mix in. Leave to set.
3. Once set find a suitable tree or bush and hang on the branch.
You can set up your fat in a quiet area of your garden or close to your house so that you can enjoy watching them from the warmth of your home as the weather begins to change.
If you have trees which already have holes or rough bark, why not try filling the holes with fat or acorns.
It may take a little bit of time but your patience could well be rewarded by the company of woodpeckers and other fat loving birds. Good luck.
-
If the future of Ferrari is electric vehicles, then it is our future too
It's widely believed that Ferrari will unveil its first electric car this year. It's the signal that the internal combustion era is coming to an end.
By James Fisher Published
-
Gaze over Cap Ferrat in this four-bedroom French villa
Ignore the wind and the rain. Imagine yourself in this hillside home with some of the best views the Mediterranean can offer.
By James Fisher Published