Gardens and Parks. Nick Baker

of life include somewhere to live and preferably with the other essentials to fuel and nourish: namely food and water. Even if you live somewhere that seems like a concrete desert, get down and look into the cracks and crevices and here you will find all the essentials for life. You just might be surprised as to what is living close to your own home. Look at a crack in a patio; this is shelter for something very small as, in here, there will be moisture and warmth.

      You can also create homes and provide food and water to boost the number of species sharing your space; these ideas and more are explored within the pages of this book. Remember, though, this is not a comprehensive guide, so have fun, experiment and think about other ways you can encourage and study the wildlife around you.

       Home Sweet Home – you may be lucky enough to have swallows nesting under your eaves.

       All flowers lure insects; from bees and hoverflies to butterflies, they all add interest to your garden.

       Where you have flying insects, you will also start attracting those that feed on them – birds, bats and, of course, spiders.

       Handy stuff for exploring with

      What kit you will need to explore your garden or park with very much depends on what your patch is like. If you have a little back yard in the city with hardly enough space to swing a net, you will explore it differently to someone who has a mountain in theirs. Having said this, there is interest to be found in any garden from an estate to a window box, and so here are a few bits of kit that I would find useful when exploring.

      Binoculars These are always very useful, especially if you want to watch the details of the lives of birds and other insects without disturbing them. A pair of binoculars may be quite expensive to buy, but they are invaluable to a serious naturalist.

      Magnifying glass/pocket microscope Most things you can make or improvise with, but a hand lens is an essential bit of kit. It needn’t be expensive and you can pick one up for pocket money. If you want to turn greenfly into monsters, though, you may need a pocket microscope. This is a bit more expensive, but worth every penny and still a fraction of the price of a Playstation!

      Notebook and pen/pencil Another one of those naturalist’s staples, it’s always good to make notes, keep diaries and draw the things you notice. It is something all the great naturalists from Darwin to Bill Oddie have done. It is surprising just how much and quickly we forget details.

      Plastic pots and jars These are a staple of any naturalist anywhere; handy for storing specimens, rearing insects or simply holding onto something while you inspect it with a magnifying glass. Plastic bags can do a similar job and you can keep a handful in your pocket at any time. They are useful for storing botanical plants and, if you blow them up and tie the tops with string, you can make temporary containers from them.

      Sieves You may be surprised, but meshed scooping devices from sieves to tea strainers can make very handy little catching devices! They can be used like a net in water or modified into a pair of bug-catching tongs. Use larger sieves to sift through soil to find small creatures and moth pupae.

      Trowel I find this handy for investigating the soil, exhuming worms and, of course, for re-digging any footprints you might leave on your parents’ flower beds. It’s always a good idea not to upset those garden proud grown-ups.

      Take my advice

      * Because this book is about attracting things to your garden and providing homes and feeding stations, there is obviously plenty of creating to be done. This means there are sections and activities that involve hammers, nails, screws and even the odd drill and other power tools. These things can be a little tricky to use and can be dangerous.

      * So before you start any of the projects, let a grown-up know what you are up to and, if you are using specialist tools, ask for help.

       Our feathered friends

      Birds are everywhere, and because they are big, they are often the first creatures to catch our attention. They also show us how we can provide for nature in our own back yards. In fact, if it wasn’t for our feathered friends, we wouldn’t be seeing our gardens and parks as wildlife refuges at all. Birds invented wildlife-friendly gardening!

      In recent years, watching birds in gardens and being aware of who visits and in what numbers has given us a better understanding of just how bird populations are changing. It also shows how important the wildlife garden can be in supporting many species.

      There are many products, catalogues and shops dedicated to encouraging birds into your garden, and once you have gained their interest, the feeling of successfully helping them makes your heart glow. So why stop at birds, why not encourage butterflies and other insects, mammals and reptiles, and amphibians, too?

      There is more to encouraging birds into your garden than hanging out a bag of nuts or throwing out some crumbs or stale bacon rind when the generous mood takes you! Birds are feathered ambassadors for what we humans can do for wildlife. Just by nailing together a few planks of wood and providing a variety of food and a source of water, we can make their lives easier. They will return the favour by giving us a little glimpse into their often fascinating lives.

      Bird populations in the wild depend mainly on two things: first they need food, and second they need somewhere to live and nest. So if you are to make your local patch of interest to our feathered friends you need to bear these things in mind.

       Swallows love to nest on our homes and outhouses. It’s hard to imagine that they come all the way from central and southern Africa every summer just to stick mud together under our eaves!

       A house sparrow: these chirpy little birds are associated with our homes and buildings but, for some reason, their numbers are declining in their natural range in Europe. Here is a bird we can help by feeding them and providing nest sites.

       The European starling is a noisy city dweller that gathers in impressively huge flocks in the winter.

       The wren is the king of the singers; a small bird with a loud voice that loves a garden with untidy corners and dense shrubs.

       It’s a two-way relationship

      Feeding the birds is probably the single most popular way in which people interact with the natural world; from feeding pigeons on the park bench to the bird table in the garden. What you are doing is simply taking on the needs and requirements of the birds.

      The ways you can present