Helping Wildlife In Winter

After having a particularly bad spring our wildlife has seemed to struggle more than previous years. The increased rain and colder temperatures lasted further into April meaning it was more difficult for baby animals to survive.

With this in mind there are a few steps we can take to ensure our wildlife has a nice habitat that will give them that extra bit of help to get through the cold winter months.

Wildlife In Our Garden

Wildlife brings our gardens to life and there are many different types that need help during winter.

The obvious ones that we see in our gardens a lot are birds and hedgehogs but there are also other wildlife that needs a helping hand such as insects, toads and frogs, bats, bumblebees, and owls.

Without enough food and the correct place to hibernate these animals can suffer from dehydration, hunger and cold.

How To Help

Whether you have a simple yard or a large garden, here are a few easy steps to help the wildlife make it through the winter:

• Put out bird feeders with seeds and berries. This will help birds that are struggling to find food and also squirrels.
• If you have a pond melt a hole in the ice with warm water so animals can access it.
• Hedgehogs live on the ground so they find it harder to get food, give them some extra help by leaving out a dish of dog or cat food. DON’T feed hedgehog’s milk or bread as this will make them ill.
• Leave a pile of undisturbed leaves to allow animals such as hedgehogs and frogs to nest in. Alternatively just leaving a piece of wood lent against a wall would be an ideal place for a hedgehog to take shelter and keep warm.
• Leave a small dish of water on the ground for animals and birds to drink from.
• A great decoration for your garden is a bird bath, not only does it look nice but it also allows  birds to keep their feathers clean which is vital to keep them warm.
• Making dry piles out of bamboo or sunflower steams creates perfect nooks and crannies for insects to hibernate in, including bees, ladybirds and butterflies.
• Grow nectar rich plants to encourage other insects; this will also be helpful to bats as they need insects to feed on.

Following these easy steps can be the difference between wildlife surviving through the winter or not.

Hedgehogs find it particularly hard in winter and nearly half of baby hedgehogs don’t survive it. For more information on how you can help hedgehogs visit the British Hedgehogs website.

Published November 7th, 2013 by Jordan. Article ref 1432

Tags: garden, hedgehog, wildlife

« Gardener’s Diary – November 2013 | Autumn – The perfect season to enjoy local outdoor walks »