Continuing on from my last post about attracting birds into the garden, I can now tell you that after two weeks of work around the garden, I have almost instant success. We have had a few trees removed after being damaged in the strong winds, and have pruned back some others allowing for more bird friendly plants.
I have planted ten red-hot pokers that were just starting to flower, around the garden, some of them very close to the window that I photograph the birds through. I didn’t know if the birds would come that close while I was sitting on the other side of the glass, but they are braver than I thought! Within a couple of days of planting, we had a tui jump around the garden hoping from one plant to the next checking them out.
Today it was even better as I managed to photograph the tui feeding on the red-hot poker flowers, and if that wasn’t enough it also had a taste of the pink clematis that is growing on the side of the house. Doing the planting while the kowhai trees are in flower was a smart move because the tui were already visiting the garden and were able to see the new plants very quickly. Hopefully the tree fuchsias will grow fast enough that they will be next year’s treat for the birds.