Gardens and Parks. Nick Baker

      

Dedication

      For my niece Rowan and the many adventures we are yet to have.

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

Dedication

Your local patch

Handy stuff for exploring with

       Our feathered friends

It’s a two-way relationship

Nutty feeders

A bird in the hand . . .

Making a simple bird table

Make a deluxe bird bath

       Make a nest box

       Positioning your nest box

       Make a rain guage

       Fluff and stuff for nest building

       Homes and holes

       Make a bumblebee box

       The ‘embryo’ nest

       Nice pile for the wildlife

       Homes for the hairy

       Make a hedgehog happy

       Mammal observation box

       Who’s living at the end of your garden?

       Bugs and creepy crawlies

       Butterfly baiting

       Butterfly bar

       The shape shifters

       Little leaf lovers

       Suckers for the sweet stuff

       Beguiled by bulbs

       Plant bugs

       The ‘wig’ trap

       Rulers of the patio

       Handy stuff: bottle trap

       Worm world

       Webbed wonder

       Going further

       Index

       Author’s Acknowledgements

       Copyright

       Keep Reading

       About the Publisher

       Your local patch

      There is no place like home. You may not think of looking for adventure among the patio tubs, behind the woodpile or even in the potting shed or window box, but it is there in abundance. The trick is to change your perspective on life, look at things from a different place and in a new way.

      You may feel there is no interesting wildlife for hundreds of miles, but change your scale a bit and you can be running with predators every bit as ferocious as a lion or tiger. You can stalk creatures as exotic and alien in their appearance as any bird of paradise and witness phenomena that would boggle the mind of even the most world-weary scientist – all within a few metres of where you are sitting right now!

      You don’t believe me? Get out there and look. This book is about giving you wings to explore this seemingly familiar environment. Within these pages I give away little tips and tricks that make the natural world reveal itself in amazing ways. The pages are peppered with suggestions of things to look out for and – of course – some of the easier ways to interact with wildlife and make your own patch more attractive to the small creatures that live in your garden, window box or patio.

      The