Whose bright idea was this?
I don't know who first had the idea that Titchwell should make the tallest bird feeder in the world. Somebody went and told the people at the Lodge we were going to claim the record, and so we were committed even before we had the faintest idea as to what the record was or how we were going to make achieve it!
After several searches on the Internet and phone calls, it appeared the record was a paltry six metres. No problem, we'd make one that was nine! We even informed the Guinness book of records of our ambition!
Our chosen location was the area around the existing bird feeders but it soon became apparent that there were no trees tall enough from which to suspend the feeder. We had one or two ideas about how to make it but no hard and fast design, and boy oh boy was nine metres tall! Challenging!
Ken Bayliss, came to the rescue with one or two ideas for making it and together we popped down to our local Ridgeons in Snettisham to take some more advice and look at materials.
We soon decided on several lengths of drainpipe joined together and capped off at either end, with some holes up and down the pipe from which the birds could feed.
Ridgeons donated the drainpipe free and we had a box full of feeder ports from the Lodge at no cost as well.Ken (and his wife, Carol) spent an entire weekend making the feeder. All we needed now was somebody to put it up the tree! Ralph Loughlin from Berney Marshes, was the man to do this and we are forever in Ralph's debt for all his hard work and head for heights!
So we now had what we believe to be the world's tallest bird feeder at 7.14 metres tall, all that we needed to do now was tell the world about it!
Ciaran Nelson put his talents into gear and by the end of FTBD week we had been in the local press and radio and on local and even national TV.
On Feed the Birds Day itself, you (Local Group) came up trumps again when you set yourselves up outside the visitor centre and showed a never ending stream of children and visitors how to make bird cakes and apple feeders; and explained why it was so important to feed our garden birds during the winter. Jim Walker even managed to recruit two new members to the RSPB.
As I write, hundreds of people have been to see the feeder, not to mention hundreds of birds. 'Feed the birds day' at Titchwell Marsh RSPB was a great success, thanks largely to the help we got from you guys at the Local Group. I think you all had fun helping as well! Thank you!
Dave Hawkins, Visitor officer, Titchwell Marsh RSPB.