Bill Oddie’s How to Watch Wildlife. Stephen Moss
_ Plant plenty of native flowers and bushes, which will attract insects and provide seed.
_ Keep a corner that’s a bit scruffy, with rocks and logs where small creatures can hide.
The same applies to putting up a nestbox, but don’t expect instant results. The best time to put one up is before Christmas, and you’re unlikely to see any interest until early spring at least. But by doing so you are providing an opportunity for a pair of birds to bring young into the world – a chance they may have lost without your help.
Another essential is a bird bath as, just like us, birds need water for washing and drinking. Make sure you keep it regularly topped up with clean, fresh water.
Providing food, water and homes for garden birds is, not surprisingly, a growth industry. The cheapest and easiest way to buy products is in bulk through mail order. Check out the various catalogues as many provide useful advice on different products – with top-quality, high-energy foods such as sunflower hearts providing the best all-round meal for birds throughout the year.
Other garden wildlife
Birds may well be the easiest kind of wildlife to watch, but let’s not ignore the other creatures that can come into our gardens. For children, these can be even more of a delight. The truth is that you will be lucky to see a fox or a badger in your garden, even if you are a bit of an insomniac. There are parts of Britain, though, where foxes are very common, especially in urban and suburban areas. Badgers really do only come out at night, or occasionally at dusk, and you’ll need to be close to proper woodland to stand a chance of seeing one of these visitors.
Bill's top tips
_ Butterflies and other insects love wild flowers – especially native varieties.
_ Butterflies love buddleia, too, also known as the ‘butterfly bush’.
_ Birds love berries, such as holly, ivy and mistletoe.
_ Climbers such as honeysuckle and clematis are ideal places for birds to roost and nest.
Squirrels – well, they are not everyone’s favourite. But surely everyone is entertained by the sight of a squirrel defying all claims that bird feeders are squirrel-proof. Their ingenuity is extraordinary. We have to accept that if we put up bird feeders, with them will come squirrels.
Many of us remember Beatrix Potter’s Mrs Tiggywinkle, and hedgehogs live on as a favourite. But if you do have a visiting hedgehog, put out dog or cat food, as bread soaked in milk will be too filling for it to cope with.
Smaller creatures such as bees, beetles and bugs are often forgotten by us adults – rather unfairly perhaps. Bumblebees are in decline and butterflies, too, need a bit more encouragement, which you can do by planting flowers that attract the bees to collect pollen and feed on nectar.
Water creatures are also fascinating; not only larger ones such as frogs, toads and newts, but also pond insects such as water boatmen and dragonfly larvae. By creating a pond, you will attract all kinds of wild creatures to even the smallest garden, especially if you vary the depth and put in lots of suitable aquatic plants, which will attract other wildlife.
Remember that wildlife ponds are better without ornamental fish as they tend to crowd out any native water creatures. And if you have children under ten, then it can be guaranteed that looking at frogspawn and watching tadpoles will provide hours of fun and an opportunity to learn from nature.
One final thought – make the most of your garden. By taking a bit of effort and providing food, water, shelter and perhaps a garden pond, you’ll make a big difference. It’s the easiest place to enjoy wildlife and, if you’re good to your local wildlife, it will repay you with hours of entertainment.
Wildlife beyond the garden gate
If you’re a city dweller, you may not think there’s much to see where you live. It’s easy to assume you have to travel to the coast or Britain’s deepest countryside for the true wildlife experience. But that is not always the case.
The fact is that modern farming methods, and loss of habitat through development and road building, have hit our countryside wildlife pretty hard. But being adaptable creatures, much of our wildlife has been moving into towns and cities, helped by the ‘wildlife corridors’ such as rivers, railway lines and strips of woodland, which enable them to travel from one place to another.
There are all sorts of advantages to living in towns and cities. For a start they are much warmer than the surrounding countryside, thanks to the waste heat from buildings. There is also far more food: either provided deliberately or by our wasteful habits. That’s why in recent years birds like ‘seagulls’ (or plain ‘gulls’, as they should really be called) have moved into our urban areas, where they feed by scavenging on rubbish tips and roost during the night on reservoirs. They have also started to nest on the roofs of city buildings, where they can be heard even above the noise of the traffic.
So if you’re a townie, rejoice in the fact that British wildlife is making itself seen and heard in cities everywhere. A good place to start is your local park: a green space where the wildlife can find food and shelter. Canals and rivers are also excellent places to look, as are odd sites such as churchyards and cemeteries – anywhere with a small patch of green and some areas of rough vegetation where the creatures can hide. Wildlife watching in cities isn’t always the most scenic of experiences, but it’s certainly full of surprises.
Bill's top tip
_ Get a friend to take you round their local patch and show you what’s there and what to look out for. Next time, try visiting the place on your own – you’ll be amazed at what you can find. This can be a real boost to your confidence.
Getting a local patch
Whether you live in the town or the countryside, a suburb or a village, you should be able to find yourself what naturalists call a ‘local patch’ – a place you can visit on a regular basis throughout the seasons to get to know the resident wildlife.
Urban parks are ideal as they offer a self-contained area that you can walk round in an hour or so. Other good local patches are gravel pits, reservoirs, woods and perhaps your nearest nature reserve – anywhere you can see a good variety of wildlife at different times. Another advantage is that most places like this are already being watched by a regular visitor, who may be able to give you some tips on what you are likely to see.
By visiting a local patch once or twice a week – or even a couple of times a month – throughout the year, you’ll soon become aware of the seasonal changes, such as when birds begin to sing, or the comings and goings of migrants. Over time you’ll be amazed at how much you have actually picked up over a few months of visiting.
One way to find a local patch is to check your local Ordnance Survey map using either the 1:50,000 scale Landranger series or, better still, the larger-scale 1:25,000 Pathfinder. Look for patches of water and woodland, which are good base camps for wildlife. Or contact your regional wildlife trust or ask at your library for information on local societies or bird clubs. The library may even have an annual report on your area’s wildlife.
But before you visit, check out details of access: although many places are open to the public or have footpaths running through them, at some, a permit or permission from the owner is required to gain entry.
Visiting nature reserves
If you’re lucky enough to have a nature reserve in your area, here’s a bit of advice. Your first visit to a reserve can fall short of expectations. Perhaps with the memory of zoos and nature programmes from childhood, the very notion of