Wildlife Hopes & Aspirations for 2012 ??????????

[MartinL]

What would you all like to spot visiting your garden this year?

Has anyone done something to encourage any particular Indigenous wildlife into their garden?

I'd like to see Dragonflies breeding in our pond, or maybe newts.

Also would be great to see bats using the boxes I'm about to put up.

Would also be nice if something nested in the bird-box that has a camera! Why do they only nest in the other ones?

[Kayleigh]

I would love to have dragonflies in our pond I get smooth newts toads and frogs so I cant complain.
I would love the blue tits to nest in one of the box's I put up but so far they only seem to roost over winter in them.

[Dorts]

Just below the house here in Snowdonia is a fine bog of about an acre, along with a small, fast-flowing river with trout, salmon, dippers, grey wagtails, herons etc; a large natural pond with frogs, toads dragonflies, newts etc, and a superb list of plant species including sundew, butterwort, ivy-leaved bellflower, cotton grass, bog asphodel, royal fern, flea sedge, star sedge and heath-spotted orchids.
But it does not have any Bog Orchids! That's what I would love to find, it would just about make my year to find a Bog Orchid in the 'garden'.
Dorts.

[Janec]

I would really love some parakeets (joke)
sorry, sometimes I just can't help myself.

No, I would love to have a stoat take up residence in the garden, there are lots of log and rock piles and plenty of food so here's hoping.

Hopefully we will get a new pond dug and I would like some butterbur near the pond.

We've also got bat boxes put up by a previous owner but as far as I know not used so we will have to check they are in the right place. We do get bats visiting the garden but I don't think they use the boxes. We've seen bird droppings on the gripping plate below the box so we assume the wrens use them for roosting.

[Deb London]

We only have a very small garden so my aspirations aren't great. I'dlike to see more Orange Tips. I seeded some Alliaria petiolata last year to encourage them and it's doing quite well. There always was some Lunaria annua but this is probably not that useful for breeding. I'm considering the ethics of introducing a few caterpillars too. There were hundreds of suitable plants when I looked, but there may be more to it than this.

[htcdude]

Anything other than Pigeons, Doves, Robins and Blue Tits would be nice, that's all we really get at the moment, and the latter two aren't regulars! But we're moving in a couple of months so hopefully ne garden will = some new birds

Nige

[rjmartinuk]

Nice idea for a thread!

I hope the Hedgehog returns, had one start visiting (for the first time ever) between June-October before he disappeared (hibernating presumably). I've bought a new house and installed a camera which I have lined with newspaper and installed feeding trays in - so fingers crossed!

Also would like the Wood Mice to slow down a bit, started off with a few on the bird feeders of a night which I didn't mind but towards the end of last year found there were getting more & more!

Would love either a Blackcap or Great Spotted Woodpecker to drop in (both would be new birds for my patch!)

[TabriyRicky]

I would rather prefer some colourful butterflies and bees in to my new established garden, because these two meant to make my garden 100% natural.

[AndyC]

I'm setting my hopes high!

What I hope to see. Some of these might have to be in the airspace overhead rather than actually sat on the bird feeders

White Tailed Eagle.
Golden Eagle.
Hen Harrier.
Short Eared Owl.
Peregrine.
Kestrel.
Buzzard.
Raven.
Rock Dove.
Red Deer.
NO hedgehogs.
I hope to see from the back gate.
Otter.
Seal.
Pilot Whale.


Andy