The birds and the bees

I had suggested some time ago to Lee that we could put a bird feeder in the back garden, for the good of the birds and for our enjoyment She had not been keen initially. We re-visited the topic during our cocooning and both decided it would be fun and a justifiable expense. We ordered a bird feeding station special offer from the RSPB, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. This was a kind of starter kit with a bird feeder stand, some bird feeders, and some bird food. We discovered later that bird food is available more economically elsewhere,, as are better quality bird feeders, but our RSPB kit was a great introduction. 

In case you were wondering about the title of this post, we also decided to buy a butterfly and bee nectar feeding station. We were very sceptical about this, wondering why such creatures would choose to use such an artificial device. 

We learned that we could use diluted sugar or honey solutions in place of nectar. I had actually made some dandelion honey and that was what we first used in our butterfly and bee resort. The first adopters were not the bees and butterflies. Butterflies were still very scarce in April, though there were plenty of solitary bees around at the time. The first visitors, and as usual they came in great numbers, were ants.

Bees did soon find their way to the facility and seemed very keen on it. We often saw them jostling for position. I formed the opinion that we may have created a small group of bees addicted to our various honey solutions.