In my garden we have a bird table with seed and other goodies for the visiting blue tits and robins etc. There is also a very successful bird bath where at peak times queuing can be observed. We can see this from our kitchen window. Our garden is a thoroughly artificial place with mowed lawns, a rockery, cultivated borders and a useful vegetable patch so we think it's only fair to offer a small space for the birds even though I sometimes feel like murdering the wood pigeons who eat my brassicas. All fairly small scale stuff. I don't expect to see this being done on a large scale in places I visit that are meant to be wild. But that's what is happening here on Blacka. The water feature below is new this year having been dug to attract waders. It's part of the policy that also aims to attract Black Grouse and Nightjars to the Cowsick area. I'm uneasy about this 'bird gardening' here in a place which for many years was left to evolve naturally. Sheep and cattle are part of this artificial engineering of the habitat. The justification for their presence is usually put in terms of the species of birds that may be attracted to the site.
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