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.
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| One of my wildlife boards amongst the grass |
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| 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.
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| Adult bank vole |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| Juvenile bank vole emerging from nest in builders sand bag |
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| 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.
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| Juvenile grass snake basking on top the builders sand bag |
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| 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)
