Your monthly guide on how to encourage wildlife into your garden all year round.
WILD BIRDS & MAMMALS
June is the most important month for bird breeding activity
with all species trying to survive against the pressures of weather and predators.
Whilst water may be the most obvious scarcity in the heat, food can also be in shorter supply for wildlife. During hot and dry conditions invertebrates such as earth worms will tunnel deep into the soil, out of reach for the birds that feed on them. Hedgehogs can also suffer during this time, with slugs and snails emerging less during the heat. Putting out bird seed or mealworms for birds and cat biscuits for hedgehogs is a simple way to help!
BEES
In summer, all species of bees are building up their strength with nectar and pollen. Bees need flowers for sustenance, and flowers need bees for pollination. But it’s important the flowers you grow provide the food bees need. Try early-summer flowers like hardy geranium, potentilla and verbascum.
INSECTS
June 21st is the summer solstice when we have the longest day with the sun rising earliest and setting latest. For wildlife watchers this is when insect life is most abundant and the best time to get to know moths, dragonflies, crickets, grasshoppers, beetles and bugs.
