Big Garden, Small Garden or a Field You CAN Create a Wildlife Habitat

 People often say that they own land or have a large garden and would like to turn it into a wildlife area but "It's too daunting trying to work out what to do". I can tell you that it is not difficult. 

Mind you I have been doing this since the 1970s.

What do you want to attract is the question. Just bees and butterflies? Birds -and please remember that if you attract small birds then you must (as unpleasant as it may seem) expect to attract hawks. It is the Prey-Predator balance that you find in nature. 

I have read comments by two people on wildlife groups that they called in "magpie catchers" as magpies had raided a bird nest for chicks. "Magpie catcher" is not an occupation and it's simply someone willing to trap/kill magpies. If that is your solution then concrete over your garden as you get counted amongst the "only the wildlife I want".  All I can say is shame on those people. 

The same applies to people who go chasing off hawks after they have made a kill. Firstly, hawks have young and also need to eat. The fact that you chase a hawk off a kill does two things: firstly, that bird died for nothing and the hawk will now need to kill a second bird as, secondly, it needs to eat and live.

I have had pigeons and collared doves killed right outside my window. Nothing I can do and I feel sad for the bird killed.

So, if you never want to have that happen in your garden do not feed birds and I have tried many things over the decades and nothing stopped the prey-predator scenario.

Do you just want insects and butterflies/bees?  Easy enough. Buy wild flower seeds and even better buy some buddleja bushes (aka "Butterfly bushes"). There are a number of varieties and you will find some noted in my old posts -cones of tiny flowers of various colours or even ball shaped flowers -mini oranges that all attract bees and butterflies.

If you want you could turn a whole garden over to insect friendly plants and bushes.

But do you want a garden for wildlife where everything is allowed to get on with its own life while helping the environment?

The above map is a little basic but it can be applied to a large garden, a field or a larger area if you have it. First start off with a pond and some plants. There are various types of pond and people even use old baths, sinks or other watertight containers place in the ground. You can also use old plastic bin lids or even (new) cat litter trays -again, best to bury to just under the rim. You would be surprised at how fast life gets to a pond/pondlet.

Do you have enough room for a couple or even one fast growing conifer -if in a terraced garden one you can maintain at a height of 8ft or so just so neighbours do not get annoyed! Willow wands you can buy and you simply stick them in the ground, water regularly and they do grow quite fast. Maybe the odd smaller tree or some fruit trees? 

Wild grasses are also well worth getting and some can get ornamental flowers so a plus. 

Next some wildlife friendly plants. Wildlife can self medicate -most people have seen how pet cats and dogs will eat grass and in the wild foxes and other animals will look for plants that they instinctively know will help a health problem. I'm currently looking at a list of such plants.

The pond, I ought to point out, needs to be in a central spot. The reason for this is the predator problem. Wildlife from mammals to birds like to see all around them and shrubs, etc too close to a pond could hold a predator or attacker -it's why I once had to move water bowls to an open area as cats kept creeping up on foxes!

For people living in tower blocks with a balcony a mini garden can be created -I once had a mini fish pond, various flowers and mini bushes on one that attracted far more birds, insects and butterflies than I expected.

You make use of the space you have so look at the diagram above and see how you can adapt it. We can all do our bit for the environment.

Vale Wildlife Group (1994)

 

The Vale Wildlife Group (covering specifically Ashton Vale in the BS3 area) was set up in 1994 after I discovered that Avon wildlife trust had declared it a "wildlife deprivation area".

On my first night I was face-to-face with the largest hedgehog I had ever seen and while watching it two barn owls flew so low overhead I could see all the face and feather details. Returning into the house I looked out to see a pair of foxes strolling up the road. There were so many butterflies, moths and beetles and other insects that I lost count and when I saw the woodpecker as well as all the other local birds including sparrow hawks and buzzards I said to myself "This is the kind of wildlife deprivation area I can live with"!

Remember this was all within a day of moving in. I kept local records and found frogs, toads, newts wall lizards and much much more. Avon Wildlife told me that as I was not a member my records were of no interest (it was that blunt). Oh, bats of course and otters not to mention deer and badgers.

I was called in to remove an adder (they are still in the area) from a garden and various other things. The biggest problem was that locals were decidedly anti wildlife. I just could not understand it and a few efforts to re-invigorate wildlife were damaged by local residents.

 When Yanley Quarry was going to be turned into a park area for locals I was asked to set up a wildlife area complete with pond and received a copy of the wildlife survey team report to help me work things out.

The Quarry company  had nothing but negativity from locals (to create a park and wildlife area??) and I endured three years of harassment and more just for being involved (unpaid I might add).

When I sought permission to "re-wild" the old coal-pit area in South Liberty Lane the word spread -as did local anger.  Willow wands were planted to create a small wooded area but these were pulled up by locals and some were thrown into my garden -a warning I suppose?

Thankfully those people either moved on or passed away and I would hope that the younger, newer locals would be far more happy to re-wild the area or at least encourage more wildlife and help educate youngsters -they are after all going to be the ones looking after our environment in the future.

For 2023 if I can get council cooperation, I want to carry out a survey of the old coal yard and see whether a plan to plant willows and some fast growing conifers can be formulated -but that really requires local help.

Badger Cull

 

What Can YOU Do To Help Protect and Conserve OUR Environment?

 Do you know what I hate? Politics and politicians. I was raised by my grandparents in St Werburgh's which was then a working class area and politics involved Labour. These days findingf a Labour MP who will keep their word about the environment and not squirm out of any promises is like looking for gold in the River Avon. My 'local' MP is such a rare sight in her constituency that there is the belief she is only ever seen when Halley's Comet makes and appearance every 75 years.

I also grew up for some time in Germany where even cities and towns were very green and spotting a house without a window garden or garden was hard. Of course the German Green Party is nothing like the one we have in the UK which seems more interested in making sure "the right sort" of person is in the party and unlike the real Greens, pushes the idea of more building and investments in business. The environment...well, no money in that so although (like every other politician and party) they say it is vital that we tackle the environmental catastrophe currently happening.. we are still in an environmental catastrophe.

I will cite Bristol although the example can probably be used for other towns and cities. One thing you'll note is that hanging baskets in public places are always maintained and these are just to give the appearance that Bristol as a City and County is a very green place. It's for the tourists rather than citizens.

Some examples: back in the early 2000s I was keeping watch on the mature hedgerow that ran alongside the park on Winterstoke Road. There was a blackbird nest, a robin nest and even a wren nest. I was trying to have the hedgerow designated as a local, established bird breeding area and one day I came back from a day out and found that the entire hedgerow had been cut down. Nests and all just smashed up. I had to laugh when Bristol City Council who I had been in touch with over the nesting area stated that the cutback had "nothing to do with us" -there were still council contractors there when I saw the damage.

Troopers Hill -currently the focus of a lot of community work

At the end of South Liberty Lane, where the indoor bowling centre stands is an area used by dog walkers and five-a-side football. Around 2005 I saw the high trees there, where I knew there were nesting crows, being cut back to the trunk. I walked over and asked who had authorised the cut back when there were clearly nests in place. I was told to "**** off, trouble maker" now I kept asking who was in charge and eventually the work boss identified himself and I pointed out that nests were being destroyed. He replied "Well you can look amongst the branches we've cut down if you want" and just chuckled. "They'll find somewhere else to nest" I was told. A call to Bristol City Council was made and I was told "Our contractors comply strictly with all regulations and would not remove nests without a permission to do so by our environment department" So I explained the reaction I got from the contractors and that I had photos of the nests prior to cutting: "That wouldn't prove the nests were there when cut back" I( was told and there was some comment about public safety and the call ended.

In the late 1990s I informed the City Council that I was intending to sow wild flower seeds as well as plant willow wands on areas that were just waste in the Ashton Vale area. No problem as "it helps the look and local environment".  When the flowers popped up and willows started to leaf it looked promising..then council workers came in and cut everything back and even turned over the soil which they had never done before. I spoke to the Council and was told "You can't just go planting seeds without permission" so I pointed out that I had gotten permission and who from. "Yeah, they left. Have you got permission in writing? It doesn't matter if you have because we can overturn that" End of conversation.

The Western Slopes -a great deal of local campaigning and work is still continuing to preserve it.

Not just the Council of course. Back in the late 1990s I was asked to be wildlife consultant to what would be Yanley Park -a waste tip being returned to nature with a pond, wildlife habitat and even park with benches for locals. The locals were not having that (you work that one out) and I had sustained harassment, threats, damage to my own garden and much more until the idea was dropped. By now it would have been a real quality nature reserve and I still have the plans somewhere.  During all of this I found City Council officers siding with locals which, again, made no sense. Harassment from the Council was documented (our local MP simply was far too 'busy') and on the day I had two people come to hand me an award for my wildlife/country garden which had taken a lot of money and years of work to build up  -a council official barged into our little group and declared my garden had been complained about and it "needed sorting" -the two visitors were somewhat astonished. 

When we hear officials from the Mayor and other Council officials that they are taking part in the war to improve our environment remember it's "all about the press" and what they get out of it.  They use second generation rodenticides that kill not just rats and mice (though they are becoming resistant to these) but causes death from secondary poisoning ('accidental' through consuming the poison or rodents killed by it) to domestic pets, hedgehogs, foxes, badgers as well as avian wildlife feeding on handy dead food.

Hengrove Mounds & Hawkfield Meadows again, like other areas in and around Bristol, a lot of work is going on to protect it

Bristol City Council is attempting to build on green sites while brown sites -old industrial and warehouse sites- go ignored. The green sites are, obviously, in far more scenic places and that attracts more investors' money -no need to landscape so it saves cash and therefore a bigger profit.

The campaigners to keep Bristol's open and green spaces as such do great work but always need to be vigilant because the City Council has a long history (Conservative or Labour) of making promises and then twisting out of them or even agreeing to things but carrying on with their plans.  Bristol Airport and its expansion, which no one locally wants, has just been approved a second time and that will have a big effect on wildlife and natural habitats.

So, in what is quite literally a war in which you lose a lot of battles and win a few what can you do?

Firstly, when it comes to local council elections you demand that the right candidate is chose by getting a written declaration about their stance on protecting the environment and green spaces and re-assessing the use of pesticides and rodenticides it uses. That commitment is made widely known and if and when the candidate attempts to squeeze out of it you hit them with as much negative press as you can. Their job is "an earner" for them and persons attracting negative publicity do not get as much intertest shown in them by businesses etc.

That is the single most important thing you can do: the right person who will do their best to fulfill their promises.

The second thing you can do (this is where I get accused of being an "environmental activist" again) is campaign. Kick up a stink about green spaces being targeted on local TV, radio and newspapers. Launch a letter/email campaign aimed at Bristol City Council to commit to keeping Green spaces safe and not selling off land to private developers unless locals have any such thing put to them to vote on (I swear I am NOT a communist!). Protests outside "City Hall" attract press and media and that is what you want and here is a lesson I learnt from past experience: you do not accept a promise or claimed change of direction and then think "we won!" and sit back. That is the mistake people keep making. You keep pushing until you see actual solid, real world actions fulfilling those promises.

Friends of the Western Slopes and other groups do a great deal and need far more local support; after all locals live there and it's no good saying "They're building right on the field -there goes the area!" if you did nothing to protest or make your views known.

We have the biggest urban fox population outside of London and we also have feral cats. Even big U.S. cities such as Boston, Baltimore, etc have stopped using rodenticides and encouraged feral cats and even moved them into high rat population areas. Foxes and even coyotes are moving back into urban areas ands rats are declining.  

We have very well established badger colonies (we try to keep secret) because as Bristol grew and took in villages it also built around those badger setts.  We have otters (another little well kept secret until they were publicised a few years back). 

There is not much we can do to protect these animals from cars and other vehicles that claim so many -or is there? In Europe, Canada and other countries road under and overpasses are built as standard or even put in place when there are too many animal deaths on certain roads.  "Leading the environmental challenge" one might assume that Bristol City Council would consider such wildlife corridors with hedgehogs, otters and badgers dying in numbers but for them these are great publicity points that 'they' are doing such a great job that we have these animals in our 'green' city but it is the work of others helping keep these animals safe and monitoring them -Bristol City council has wanted nothing to do with any of this work (dare I mention the use of rodenticides on certain council allotments that some tenants became concerned with and were given the Council runaround and then ignored?).

A lot of us have put a great deal into trying to attract wildlife -mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and insects- into our gardens and area.  "A Tree Per Child" sounds great -but not when other trees and green spaces are being eroded.  A City Council with Councillors who are serious about the environment and will actually do something about preserving it is what we need.

Sitting back and letting others do all the work when they really need YOUR support leads to more lost battles. Think of your children and grandchildren.

Soap Box being put away.

The Red Papers

 

 At the moment The Red Papers (vols. I and II) I have set a publication date of 1st March for.

This will make sure that those I promised advanced copies to will get them and that is going to cost me more than I think the books will ever make (the new Introduced Species paper is far cheaper and has to date sold zero copies).

So more updates next month.

Whose Poop?

 Wildlife  Trusts guide

The Squirrel

 Little Book of British Quadrupeds W. May  1845

British Quadrupeds Second edition Religious Tract Society 1848 illo