You may have put seeds and nuts out for the birds, but who can blame this grey squirrel for coming in for a feed?
Remember that your shop-bought bird food will attract in all kinds of other wild creatures such as this wood mouse.
This Castanea sativa (Sweet Chestnut) tree will provide food for mammals for a century or more.
Plant a grass like Miscanthus sinensis (Zebrinus) and you will be providing home and food for slugs, worms, mammals
Should I put food out?
SUPPLEMENTARY FEEDING
The rule of thumb here has got to be restraint and high quality or nothing at all. Hedgehogs might like drinking milk that you put out for them, and you could buy in worms, maggots, nuts or seeds, but each action on your part might have adverse effects.The seeds and nuts will have been shipped from foreign countries, the maggots will have been bred using fossil-fuel heat, and the super-abundance of nuts might encourage one bird or mammal to the detriment of another, and so on. You must be aware that, if you do decide to put out stale bread for pigeons, or scraps of meat for your friendly fox, you might be doing more harm than good.
For example, if you put out regular supplies of nuts for a certain animal, and that animal comes to depend on your handouts – perhaps even holds back on its hibernation plans, or does not put by a cache of food for the winter – what happens to that animal if you decide to go off on a long holiday? What if your handouts consist mainly of low-quality white bread that swells up to twice its size in the animal’s stomach?
The best advice is to restrict supplementary food to household food that would otherwise go to waste – scraps of fat, bread, cake, fruit and so on. Put all your potato peelings and outer leaves of vegetables on the compost heap. In this way, you will indirectly be giving supplementary food in the form of slugs, worms and all the beetles and bugs that live on, in or near the compost heap. Then direct all your efforts into creating a wildlife garden that is stuffed with super-food plants.
• Erinaceus europaea (Hedgehog) – Insects, beetles, bugs, slugs, snails and small mammals.
• Meles meles (Badger) – Roots, shoots, bulbs, worms and small mammals, plus any dead animals that it comes across.
• Microtus arvalis (Common Vole) – Roots, grasses and small seeds.
• Mus musculus (House Mouse) – Scraps and anything else that looks tasty – fat, soap, candles.
• Mustela nivalis (Weasel) – Small birds and mammals.
• Oryctolagus cuniculus (Rabbit) – Seeds, grass, garden vegetables, tree bark and orchard crops.
• Pipistrellus pipistrellus (Common Pipistrelle Bat) – Flies, moths and most flying insects.
• Rattus norvegicus (Brown Rat) – Roots, shoots and small mammals.
• Sciurus carolinensis (Grey Squirrel) – Insects, beetles, bugs, roots, shoots, seeds and nuts.
• Sciurus vulgaris (Red Squirrel) – Roots, shoots, seeds, nuts and chestnuts.
• Sorex araneus (Common Shrew) – Insects, beetles, bugs, grasshoppers, slugs and carrion.
• Sorex minutus (Pigmy Shrew) – Beetles, insects, grubs, bugs and almost any
animal material.
• Vulpes vulpes (Red Fox) – Insects, beetles, bugs, mice, rabbits or any small
mammal that it can catch, carrion and chickens.
The best advice is to restrict supplementary food to household food that would otherwise go to waste – scraps of fat, bread, cake, fruit and so on. Put all your potato peelings and outer leaves of vegetables on the compost heap. In this way, you will indirectly be giving supplementary food in the form of slugs, worms and all the beetles and bugs that live on, in or near the compost heap. Then direct all your efforts into creating a wildlife garden that is stuffed with super-food plants.
WHAT DO MAMMALS EAT?
• Clethrionomys glareolus (Bank Vole) – Small seeds, bulbs, shoots, roots, lowers and woody material.• Erinaceus europaea (Hedgehog) – Insects, beetles, bugs, slugs, snails and small mammals.
• Meles meles (Badger) – Roots, shoots, bulbs, worms and small mammals, plus any dead animals that it comes across.
• Microtus arvalis (Common Vole) – Roots, grasses and small seeds.
• Mus musculus (House Mouse) – Scraps and anything else that looks tasty – fat, soap, candles.
• Mustela nivalis (Weasel) – Small birds and mammals.
• Oryctolagus cuniculus (Rabbit) – Seeds, grass, garden vegetables, tree bark and orchard crops.
• Pipistrellus pipistrellus (Common Pipistrelle Bat) – Flies, moths and most flying insects.
• Rattus norvegicus (Brown Rat) – Roots, shoots and small mammals.
• Sciurus carolinensis (Grey Squirrel) – Insects, beetles, bugs, roots, shoots, seeds and nuts.
• Sciurus vulgaris (Red Squirrel) – Roots, shoots, seeds, nuts and chestnuts.
• Sorex araneus (Common Shrew) – Insects, beetles, bugs, grasshoppers, slugs and carrion.
• Sorex minutus (Pigmy Shrew) – Beetles, insects, grubs, bugs and almost any
animal material.
• Talpa europaea (Mole) – Beetles, bugs, insects and worms.
• Vulpes vulpes (Red Fox) – Insects, beetles, bugs, mice, rabbits or any small
mammal that it can catch, carrion and chickens.
NATURAL FOOD FOR MAMMALS AND REPTILES
The trick here is to make sure that your garden is a good breeding ground for beetles, bugs, worms, slugs and all the other creatures that will in turn feed mammals and reptiles.
You might not like the idea of giving a home to slugs, for example, but just think of all the slug-eating mammals and reptiles such as hedgehogs and badgers that will be attracted by your delicious slugs. (See pages 54–55 for planting suggestions.)
WHAT DO REPTILES EAT?
• Coronella austriaca (Smooth Snake) – Beetles, bugs, worms, small birds and small mammals.• Natrix natrix (Grass Snake) and Opheodrys vernalis (Green Grass Snake) –
Insects, frogs, slugs and small mammals.
• Vipera berus (Adder) – Insects, bugs, lizards, frogs, newts, birds and small
mammals.
• Zootoca vivipara (Common Lizard) – Insects, beetles, spiders, bugs and plants.
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