On 28/10/04 12:10, in article , "Kay"
wrote:

In article , Sacha
writes

It's funny you say that about leylandii (and I'm not being sarcastic) but I
had a long and high hedge of it at one house and rarely saw birds on it or
in it.

But that hedge was along the road, wasn't it? In a rural area where
there were plenty of quieter alternatives

But the road wasn't a busy one - more of a lane - in the house you visited.
I once timed the traffic out of 'rush hour' and two cars went past in ten
minutes! It's hardly a busy highway. I found the same thing with another
leylandii hedge in another, earlier house but the hedge was not as long or
as high. At the Tithe Barn, birds came onto the walnut trees right next
door, which were on the lane, my pear trees, lilac and cotoneasters and the
garden wasn't so large that one could say distance from the road was an
issue.
Here, we have as much or possibly more traffic going past this house but
it's still on a lane. However, the bird numbers in the plants around the
edges of the property are much higher. I have no idea why but can only say
that my experience of leylandii was not that it was popular with birds. I
am puzzled by this, I admit, because it's so dense that you'd think it would
be a sort of avian high-rise. Our mixed holly/yew hedge outside the tea
room is alive with sparrows and has people constantly walking up and down
the path beside it, so I'd query that traffic, whether human or motorised,
has much effect on birds that have become accustomed to it.

The Leylandii hedge next door is at least a perching post for quite a
number of birds, and the goldcrests nest in it.

Perching occasionally, yes but nesting, no. I don't think we have
goldcrests around here, or not that I've seen. What sort of habitat and
food do they prefer?
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)