Jul 17, 20204 min read

Looking out for Wildlife this summer

Living in the south of France, it definitely gets hot during the summer holidays. This might be a good thing for your sunbathing, but it can be dangerous for the wildlife living in your garden. Here are a few things you could do to help look after the wildlife in your garden this summer.

Birds

Put out a couple of bird baths to give the birds somewhere to drink, or if you already have one, make sure to keep it filled up.

Buy a bird feeder, or make your own using an old plastic bottle or yogurt pot. Make sure to put it somewhere high, like hanging from a tree, so that the birds can get to it easily and they are out of reach of any animals - such as cats - that might be interested in eating them. Seeds are good to give to birds (sunflower seeds), oats, raisins (be careful, these are toxic to dogs), and different types of bird food bought from a shop. You might have fed bread to ducks before, but this isn't the best food for any type of bird (ducks included). While it isn't toxic to birds, it doesn't contain the proteins that birds need to stay healthy, so the bread is an 'empty-filler'; they eat a large quantity of bread, and then eat less of more nutritional food like insects and seeds. A small amount of bread is okay, but try to give them a balanced diet.

Bees

When it comes to looking out for bees, planting flowers in your garden or letting wildflowers grow is always a good place to start but it isn't the only way to help them in the summer heat. Bees need to drink, but in summer it can sometimes be hard to find water. Put a shallow dish or birdbath out in your garden and fill it with water and small pebbles; the pebbles give the bees a place to land so that they can drink without drowning.

Insects

A fun project is to create a hotel for insects. There are many different ways to do this.

The easiest way is to buy one from a shop. You can get them from quite a few different places, but garden centers are almost certain to have them.
Take a cardboard box and open it up, then roll it up and fasten the roll with string. Insects will make a home between the layers.
Have a look around your garden and your shed for old empty plant pots, tiles, sticks and anything like that. Once you've gathered a supply, find a small area and pile or stack them up in different ways. You can also use cardboard boxes and the cardboard from toilet rolls.
This is similar to the one I just explained, but instead of piling them up, you build a simple frame and fill it with sticks, straw, bamboo, pine cones, ....
Or, if building a frame sounds like a bit too much work, you could use an empty plastic bottle. While its better not to buy plastic bottles, it can be hard to avoid them, especially during the summer holidays when you might be travelling a lot. There are a few different ways to do it. One is to cut circles into the bottle and fill it with moss and grass. This can be put on the ground, or suspended from a tree. Another way (this is better with larger bottles) is to cut a bottle in half and use it as the frame for the insect hotel. You can also cut the top and bottom off, and fill the middle with twigs and bamboo, then hang it up from a tree. If you're making one of these, just be careful not to hurt yourself with scissors or sharp pieces of plastic.

Hedgehogs

Put a small bowl of fresh water out. You might not get any hedgehogs using it, but it's there if they need it, and it can also be used by other animals like cats and dogs.

You could put a plate of wet cat or dog food out for them, as during a heatwave there are less insects for them to eat. I'd only recommend this if you are certain you have hedgehogs in your garden, and there is also the risk of attracting your neighbour's cats.

If you have an in-ground swimming pool, it might be worth considering buying or making a ramp for hedgehogs, because sadly they sometimes try to drink from swimming pools, or just wander to close to the edge, and fall in and can't get back out.

General tips

When you're cutting your grass, think about leaving an area of it to grow. The tall grass and wildflowers in this area would provide food and shelter for all sorts of insects, including butterflies and bees.

Bigger Project

A great animal habitat to have in your garden is a pond. These are popular with many different animals, including fish, frogs and dragonflies; even hedgehogs use them, for swimming as well as drinking - just make sure that there is a ramp or a gently sloping edge that they can use to get in and out.

As well as being good for wildlife, ponds can also be a pretty water feature to liven up your garden. However, creating and maintaining one of these does take quite a bit of work, and you might want to make sure you have permission from an adult before digging a hole in your garden. If you might be interested, have a look at these websites:

The Wildlife Trusts for simple step by step instructions.
Fresh Water Habitats for more detailed instructions, and advice on how to make it suitable for wildlife.
Water Garden