New House, Overgrown Garden ?

Hello, Im new to this community but have a dilemma and thought that i could gain some advice here.

I moved house 2 weeks ago, my previous house had a very small garden, and despite my best efforts, had very few birds. The garden in my new house however is very overgrown, and is fantastic for birds, with 20 or so different birds spotted in the past 2 weeks, these include Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Sparrow, Blue tit, Coal tit, Great tit, Redwing and, probably due to there being an Oak tree, a Jay. My dilemma is that due to the overgrowth of the garden, we can only access a 1/4 of it and at some point my husband is planning on getting an excavator in.

Does anyone have any tips on how we can clear the garden and not deter the birds or cause any harm by destroying their habitat ? i absolutely love watching them and would hate so see them go, but having a 1 year old and a 2 year old, we need the space.

Thanks, Laura

Hiya Laura welcome to the forum

I think you will get plenty of advice there are one or two very keen gardeners on the forum, while you wait for them to appear have a look at the greenfingers section www.rspb.org.uk/.../903.aspx

The birds won't mind a few hours of disturbance and will soon come back once the noisy work is finished.

Try to keep an area of fairly "wild" growth if you can and when planting try to put in bushes with berries, plants that have seeds and also attract insects. and in general don't be too tidy!! Your birds will still love the place and come to share it with you happily. The RSPB does have some leaflets and there are quite a few books on attracting birds into your garden now.

Put up feeders and nest boxes a bit away from where the kids play but encourage them to watch the birds and help you put out food. Later they will enjoy helping you to make things such as "Cheerios" threaded on string, half coconuts filled with fat and seeds and so on!

Jenni