Any parents will know that mealtimes can be a trauma. You can never pick a menu that everyone likes, one child will have eaten too much chocolate and not be hungry while another will have been too busy playing and suddenly realise they are hungry enough to eat their own arm. Not to mention the MESS when you do all sit down for the family dinner-time.
But spare a thought for some birds who have massive broods to feed this summer, such as this busy little long-tailed tit pictured feeding her 11 young at the RSPB’s Fairburn Ings nature reserve. She has become something of a celebrity this week with the image being featured in the Telegraph, the Guardian and the Express.
Amazingly, despite the enormous amount of hungry mouths to feed, she appears to achieved what many parents strive for – an orderly queue, no squabbling and no mess! Quite what her secret is we’ll never know but surely she must be in the category of super-mum?!
The domestic scene was pictured by RSPB volunteer Gary Shilton, who works at Fairburn Ings two or three times a week. This long-tailed tit has her work cut out and the opportune snap proves just how helpful any additional food we provide could be.
Many people feed their garden birds religiously over the winter months and wrongly believe that it’s not as important in summer. It’s true that it’s important for different reasons – in winter its physically impossible for birds to find natural food because its iced over or covered in snow.
But in summer, whilst berries and insects are more abundant, adult birds are constantly on the hunt for food to sustain themselves and their young – and in some cases these could reach double figures as we’ve seen here! It’s an exhausting business so don’t forget to keep up the good work with your feeding. We might have stopped having Christmas cake and roast potatoes so much in the warmer but more refreshing leftover treats like fruit, the pasta you had with your summer salad and the biscuits you had with your cheeseboard would be ideal!