Home Grown Wildlife

Up until a few years ago I had always looked at overgrown areas of my garden as a bad thing, and that they needed maintaining like a lawn. 

It suddenly occurred to me one day that there wasn’t much insect life. In fact there wasn’t much life in general. It was time for change! Since then, I have been letting areas of my garden grow naturally. As another attempt at creating a home for wildlife, I placed wooden boards throughout the garden, which mammals and hopefully reptiles would utilise.

One of my wildlife boards amongst the grass

Juvenile bank voles in a nest under one of the boards

My results were astonishing. Within one week of placing down the boards I had mice, voles, shrews, toads and frogs living underneath them.

Within a few more weeks I had nesting voles under every board, even multiple nests under some. It was amazing to know that I had created an environment whereby creatures such as these voles, could see it as a home. 

Bank voles become sexually mature at just five weeks old. Female bank voles can produce up to four or five litters a year which explains the numbers found within my garden.

Adult bank vole

Juvenile bank vole

I think that until people can actually see how diverse wildlife in their gardens can be, things will not change for the greater good. Seeing is believing, so hopefully this blog post will excite you to let your garden grow. It’s really as simple as that. It doesn’t cost anything. Just sit back and watch your garden grow. The long grass provides shelter and protection from the elements for many creatures.

Since starting the study of my garden I have wanted to photograph a shrew with my field studio. Unlike the other mammals in my garden the common shrew is very elusive. I was once fortunate enough to come across a nest containing a litter of common shrews, but these types of situations are best left undisturbed.

I found this shrew (pictured below) under one of the boards that I placed down in the paddock. The image does not show size but I can tell you it was only around 5cm long (body only), so very small. It's long pointed nose and tiny eyes make the shrew stand out from other mammals such as voles and mice. Their short life-span means that it is uncommon for them to live for more than 12 months. Their diet consists of mainly insects but they will also eat slugs, snails and earthworms. The common shrew can be found widespread throughout Britain and comes in at second place in being the most numerous Mammal in Britain.

Common shrew

The wood mouse is one of the most common rodents found here in the UK. This one in particular lives under the stone slabs outside our kitchen. Every day I watch as they harvest up the spilt bird seed from the feeder that hangs above. Where there is food you will most likely find mice, or at least evidence of their nocturnal activities. In our conservatory there isn’t a seed packet that hasn’t been opened or bulbs that haven’t been nibbled.

From a photographic point of view, they are one of the hardest subjects to photograph using my field studio, due to their athletic ability and lighting fast reactions. So getting these shots was rewarding and a welcome change of subject.

Wood mouse

For the first time ever I came across a hedgehog in the garden. I’m still amazed at how bizarre they are with their spine-covered bodies and with their ability to curl up into tight ball. These amazing creatures are one to look out for as their numbers are in decline.

Hedgehog in defensive position (left) and non defensive (right)

Sometimes the places you least expect can become occupied by nature. This bag of builders sand was left over from some work we had done on the house. After several months the bag and it's contents had become a home for a whole host of wildlife.

This bank vole had built a nest in the sand bag. The nest has been built with dried grass. When I took this picture the voles had very recently collected some fresh grass to bulk it out. Nothing like a bit of home improvement!

Juvenile bank vole emerging from nest in builders sand bag

This toad is a full time resident in the bag.

   

This year had been an exciting one. Three out of the five boards I put down had multiple grass snakes underneath them. Being only juveniles it meant that I had breeding grass snakes in the vicinity, which was great to know.

Juvenile grass snake basking on top the builders sand bag   

Juvenile grass snake profile

I have very recently made use of this old children’s playhouse. Rather than dispose of it I cut the roof off it to make it into a grass cuttings box. I intend to attach a tarpaulin over the top. This should hopefully warm up in the sun and together with the warmth, produced by the decaying grass, should create a haven for grass snakes.

It's worth seeing what you have in your garden that could be made into a home for wildlife. Even if it’s an old bucket, you could upturn it, creating a dry home for some creature in need. Give it a go, you may be pleasantly surprised.

If you'd like to find out more about the mammals residing on the RSPB Sandwell Valley reserve (maybe even meet a few!) and more about how you can encourage them to visit your own garden, why not join us for our Marvellous Mammals event on Sunday 25th October?? Find out more about it here... https://www.facebook.com/events/1686105998287474/

Tim Hunt (RSPB Sandwell Valley volunteer)