Seeds, Berries and Rosehips

Autumn turns to chill winter and the nights draw in. Getting up in the dark and returning from work in the dark can be brightened by some red berries or golden-orange rosehips in the garden catching the light from the kitchen or lounge window. They cheer us, and they also supply our local wildlife population with sustenance for migratory birds as well as stores and calories for our overwintering mammals.

Birds in particular are adapted to different types of food sources. Goldfinches have the right size and shape beak to extract seeds from thistles and teasels. Woodpeckers and nuthatches have the ability to mine through nut casings. Ground feeders such as blackbirds and thrushes are opportunistic picking low hanging fruit, apples and crab apples that have fallen to the ground. Waxwings are winter migrants and they enjoy winter berries such as hawthorn. They are not widespread and are mainly found on the east coast of the UK. Siskins and crossbills are adapted to feed on conifer seeds.

As you can see there are quite a range of plants which you can use to attract wildlife to your garden.

Seeds

Leaving seedheads in your garden and delaying cutting back until the end of winter will not only give architectural interest in the garden highlighting the shapes of the plant when etched with winter frosts. Beloved by finches, especially goldfinches, sparrows and long-tailed tits seed heads provide a protein rich diet to see them through the cold dark days of winter when foraging for food is harder in the short daylight days.

If you haven’t already, then a few plants of the following species will help provide seeds for a variety of garden birds, small mammals etc.

Sunflowers  for goldfinches and blackbirds

Thistles and teasels - liked by goldfinches

Daisy family such as asters, echinacea and rudbeckias

Cornflowers, marigolds and goldenrod

Grasses such as quaking grass 

Berries

Berries provide juicy treats for blackbirds and thrushes, badgers etc. They start in the summer with soft fruits such as raspberries and currant bushes, amelanchier in later summer and continue into autumn and winter with the following brightly coloured berries:

Cotoneaster - songbirds such as blackbirds, thrushes, fieldfares, redwings

Viburnum bodnantense is a scented winter flowering tree

Honeysuckle

Pyracantha

Mahonia - lovely bright yellow flowers from early winter followed by berries that blackbirds will gorge on.

Amelanchier - a good all rounder for the smaller garden with spring and autumn colours and berries.

Ivy - althought not brightly coloured it flowers about October providing a late autumn source of nectar and goes on to produce many dark berries. 

Many berries can provide a rich source of nutrients for migrating birds and for those that overwinter in the UK.

Tree Fruits

Trees provide both soft fleshed and hard shelled fruits. My mother would leave some apples on the trees ‘for the birds’ when we were harvesting. I’m not sure whether that was because they were hard to reach or to ‘feed the birds’. In winter she would put out apples that were past their best for the blackbirds as a way of providing moisture when the ground was hard.

Yew has red poisonous berries

Crab apple - retains its fruits later than apples and pears.

Blackthorn - autumn fruiting wild hedgerow bush or tree.

Rowan provides prolific berries for early winter.

Holly As well as berries its spiny leaves provide good protection.

Hawthorn - as well as berries it is good for habitat for moth larvae and winter and nesting protection for birds

Nuts

Some birds and many mammals enjoy these as part of their diets such as nuthatches, squirrels and once on the ground mice and badgers.

Hazel nuts, Beech mast and oaks for acorns. Hazel is more suitable for a small to medium garden.

Rosehips

These provide a snack later in the winter as they stay on the bush. All roses produce rosehips but those that are pruned to further flowering may not produce as many.  Larger hips are produced on the wild rose types such as Rosa canina and Rosa rugosa. Climbing and rambling roses can also be prolific as we do not dead head them in the same way.

When choosing a tree or bush, think about your soil, climate and aspect. Do you want to provide spring and or autumn colour, blossom, scent, wildlife habitats for nesting birds, winter shelter and shelter from predators or have deep leaf mould for overwintering mice and toads?