Bird feeding confusion: I've got a suggestion for Queen Elizabeth about her swans – Hayley Matthews

As a wee girl I loved to go and feed bread to the swans at the weekend. However, with recent confusion about bread being not so good for them, people have stopped feeding them all together.

But a statement from the Queen’s Swan Marker pleads with people to not let them go hungry: “Swans have been fed bread for many hundreds of years without causing any ill effects. While bread may not be the best dietary option for swans compared to their natural food such as river weed, it has become a very important source of energy for them, supplementing their natural diet and helping them to survive the cold winter months when vegetation is very scarce.”

So, I've spent the last few days cooking huge bags of 45p rice, savers peas and shredding up some limp lettuce.

Our feathered friends at the Figgate and their cousins at Holyrood have been feasting on my culinary delights.

I know I say to feed the birds a lot but after putting a post up on Facebook, there were a lot of comments on how confused people are about feeding the birds.

So, I have a suggestion for Her Majesty so we're not poisoning the birds with mouldy loafs (mouldy bread is a big no no): get some feeding stations near the pond for your birds with suitable feed.

I'm sure most would gladly pay 50p for some proper feed to thrown in the water.

If Gorgie Farm can provide them for the animals then why can't you do it for the birds?

I'm thinking about getting a bird seed station out there myself. "Hayley's Seed Shack" has a great ring to it.

For more details on feeding birds, here’s advice from the RSPB

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