A fruity feast for our feathered friends

Birds are enjoying the feast of apples, plums and other fruits which provide a welcome and nutritious change to their summer diet. Leave some fruit on trees and the ground for them as well as small mammals such as mice and voles, wasps and invertebrates. The unseasonably warm weather of recent weeks has kept the insect population high, also providing food for birds, and perhaps giving bats reason to delay hibernation.

Nectar sources are diminishing at this time of year so insects congregate on the few remaining concentrations of nectar such as michaelmas daisy and ice plant. The flowers of ivies also provide late nectar for insects including butterflies, bees and moths. Ivy is an excellent wildlife plant because it also offers hibernation sites for butterflies later in the year, as well as food for holly blue butterfly caterpillars and nesting sites for birds next year.