Resources and surveys on wildlife gardening
Natural England has produced a fantastic set of comprehensive, informative and practical booklets on wildlife gardening. These are available as downloads but are now being reprinted as paper copies. Visit www.english-nature.org.uk/nature_in_the_garden/
Gardening with wildlife in mind is a CD Rom produced by Natural England. It features 500 wildlife-friendly plants and 300 of the many “creatures” – from bees and butterflies to birds and small mammals – that can be attracted into your garden. It is available free from the Natural England Enquiry Service, Northminster House, Peterborough, PE1 1UA. Tel: 0845 600 3078, email: enquiries@naturalengland.org.uk
You can also watch this on line at www.plantpress.com/wildlife/home.php
The Wildlife Trusts have joined forces with the Royal Horticultural Society to start a ‘Wild About Gardens’ project to bring the worlds of gardening and nature conservation closer together. Visit their website at www.wildaboutgardens.org/ for the latest wildlife gardening news, books, discussion blogs and top tips.
Survey your garden pond. Gardens ponds can be very important for wildlife. If you have a pond take part in the Northeast Pond survey that is sponsored to Northumbria Water.
The RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch is a simple survey that you can take part in. The Big Garden Birdwatch is the world’s biggest bird survey. Thanks to its simplicity and the small amount of time it takes to do, the Big Garden Birdwatch has always had great support It provides us with a vital snapshot of the UK’s birds each winter. In 2007, over 400,000 people took part in the survey by counting the birds in their garden for an hour. Together they spotted 6 million birds across 236,000 gardens, helping to reveal the winners and losers in the garden bird world. Visit their website to find out how to take part or to look at the results from previous years www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/
