In October you might well spot a jay scouting around for somewhere to bury fallen acorns and hazelnuts. If you let seedheads form on flowers and weeds such as teasels and thistles you may well attract finches, perhaps even brightly coloured goldfinches.

Look out for starlings gather in large groups on treetops and telephone wires before joining up with other groups in large roosts. They like a good lawn as a feeding station - as they are great pest controllers on the leatherjacket front. To help this along avoid applying chemicals on the lawn and let it grow a little bit longer.

After making sure they've got sufficient food, the next thing to think about for your garden birds is shelter. It's now a known fact that there is simply not enough nesting holes and natural roosting spots for our birds to shelter over winter and to nest in during spring. This is the perfect time of year for hanging new nest boxes or relocating old ones that have been empty for a while.

If you have a nest box in your garden that has been unoccupied for a year or more, it;s probably not in an ideal location. The main things to remember when locating a nest box are: Face away from strong northerly or easterly winds but at the same time it must face away from direct sunlight. Our nest boxes come with full instructions to help site successfully.

One think is for sure you can never have enough nest boxes in your garden and if all located suitably, they'll all be occupied by next spring and you'll really be making a difference to the success rate of many of the UK's favourite breeds of birds.