Every one of us is living through an age of paradox , of discovery and desturction We have forced most life out of our formely green and pleasent land with an battery of chemicals , poor land use and destructive agricultral and forestry practice . Hedges grubbed out , ponds filled in and the whole place kept so horribly , so unaturaly tidy .
A budding sherlock holmes won't need his magnifiying glass to see why our wildlife is in crisis , you can see why from the car window . We have created a monocrome , a green desert where there used to be a network of small habitats linked together keeping things ecologicaly stable .
So what has happened to the animals , birds and insects that once inhabited these places ? Some have gone extincted , whether localy or nationaly , such as the greater mouse eared bat , large blue butterfly and red backed shrike . Others have been forced into the wild and remote corners of britain , such as golden eagles , polecats and pine martens . Yet others still have taken advantage of the fastest growing habitat in our small and crowded islands : suburbia . The concrete maze we live in is also the biggest collection of privately owned ''eastates '' in the whole of britain . The varitey of plant life is enough to rival the most ubsurdly hot tropical rainforest and the furry and feathered countryside regfugees have arrived in force .
Almost every species of non specialist bird has been spotted in gardens , and a good few raritys as well . Mammals ranging from long eared bats to badgers have all made appearences in the urban jungle and can often survive at far higher population density than anywhere in the countryside .
And with a bit of work with a spade or a saw , we can encourage almost anything onto our patch , however small or insigificant it may seem . You see , why bother feed the birds ? Apart from seeing birds up close , it really does make a difference , in ensuring that many of our species survive the winter and breed successfully . Why dig a pond ? It probably wont lure passing ospereys or save the water- rail , even if they are your favorite birds , neither will it be inhabited by great crested newts or brown trout , but it makes a difference to your area and that is what really matters . Anyway , frogs and pond skaters will love it .
As Chris Packam says in his book ''Back Garden Nature Reserve '' , we are all the wardens of our own pesonal nature reserves , so get out there and see what you can do .
This blog aims to show what I get up to and more importatly , what I see in my own garden in terms of wildlife .
I hope it brings interest to anybody who reads it and they might be fired up to do somthing in their own patch .
Setho
