NATURE lovers in Warrington are taking steps to help preserve wildlife such as frogs, bats, birds and hedgehogs in their gardens.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) Homes for Wildlife project, which offers free, tailored wildlife-gardening advice has proved popular in the town.
And in Cheshire more than 800 people have taken the organisation’s advice to help transform their homes and gardens into mini nature reserves.
Gardens in the scheme have done an average of 12 things each to help frogs, toads, bats, insects, hedgehogs and birds in the last year, says the RSPB.
Across the UK, 25,000 wildlife lovers are providing seed mixes, growing flowering nectar-rich plants and planting dense thorny bushes for wildlife in their gardens to help the project.
Society spokesman Matthew Capper said: “Wildlife is increasingly reliant on our gardens for food, water and shelter so it is fantastic people are so committed to making their homes and gardens wildlife friendly.”
“We’re trying to reverse the alarming declines of familiar birds such as house sparrows, starlings and song thrushes. Large numbers of these birds make their homes in our gardens.”
Those taking part in the project counted birds, bats, bees, butterflies and other bugs over the summer. In Cheshire the most sighted birds were house sparrow, with an average of six per garden.
Across Cheshire, four fifths of people also counted blackbirds’ nests and swifts were seen in over three quarters of gardens. Four fifths of Cheshire gardens surveyed had frogs, more than half had bats and nearly a third had toads.
