This month see the first signs of spring, with your local wildlife starting to get busy and prepare for the breeding season.
Look out of your garden window and you’ll see sparrows, robins and blackbirds flying back and forth, diligently gathering materials for their nests. Help them out by putting up a nestbox or by leaving small bunches of twigs and dried moss near your feeders.
They will also be grateful if you can leave out things they can use to line their nest to make it cosy. Cat and dog hair will do the job nicely, as will bits of straw and hay.
While you are safely tucked up in bed frogs and toads will be waking up from hibernation and travelling long distances through the night in search of a suitable pond to breed in. Attracting frogs to your garden is easy even if you don’t have the luxury of a pond. Fill a plastic washing up bowl with water and sink it halfway into the ground in a quiet shady part of your garden. Make them feel at home by adding some large stones and aquatic plants.
Plant a mixture of flowering and non-flowering plants in your garden to provide a mixture of insects for our amphibian friends to feast on.
Another species emerging bleary eyed from hibernation is hedgehogs. At first they’ll be sleepy and very thirsty so will head straight for the nearest water for a drink. Then they’ll begin searching for food. They love tucking into slugs, worms and creepy crawlies but they will appreciate it you leave them out some wet dog food or unsalted nuts.
For more information about how you can give nature a home in your garden this spring, visit
www.rspb.org.uk/homes.
