Marshalls Feeding Station

I had a site meeting today on the Marshalls Lowfields office site. I met up with Dave and Neil from Marshalls and Gavin from the Green Business Network. We are discussing various aspects of the gardens, but at the moment nothing to report on this project. However we did discuss the feeding station and how best to run it as well as improvements to the equipment & feeders we are using. Whilst we stood around I spotted plenty of bird activity in the new shrubbery near the feeders. We had Blue & Great Tits, Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Goldfinch and some Siskins feeding on the Alder saplings they had planted. We also had a solitary Pied Wagtail mooching around hoping we would bugger off so it could get back to the ground table for some grub. After spending hours at CB this winter and only getting fleeting glimpses of Siskins in the tree tops its was nice to watch them feeding about 6 feet way in an 8 foot sapling ! As I left the garden to cycle home I spotted that both the Siskins and Goldfinches were feeding on the Nyger seed feeders.

I hope we can persuade other companies on Lowfields and elsewhere in Calderdale to follow the Marshals lead in setting up a feeding station. As I have commented before on the blog, Lowfields Business Park carries a huge population of finches and other birds. If we can only encourage others to follow Marshals lead and put up nest boxes and feeders I really do think we can have a large influence on building up sizable bird populations in what are usually deemed to be unsuitable areas for wildlife. The Green Business Network and Calder Futures seem to be heavily involved in this as they have spotted the potential for access to a funding source for conservation that the council has seemingly never tapped into. Dave Berry at Marshalls is very keen on wildlife and what his company can do to help local wildlife, there must be dozens of equally keen people in other local businesses who would do the same if contacted.

I would just like to stress the views in this post are my own and I am not speaking on behalf of any other person or organisation mentioned.