There are many ways that you can help wild animals in your garden throughout the rest of the Winter. By helping wild animals in your garden, it makes the Winter season easier for wild animals.
It also helps them to survive the Winter - something that might not happen, if it was not for your help!
Many wild animals, especially birds, only survive through the Winter because of kind people leaving out food for them in their garden. Other people will also leave out food for other animals, such as: foxes, badgers and squirrels. Just doing this can make all the difference in an animals life. We all can make a positive difference in the lives of wild animals; especially through the Winter season.
How Can You Help Wild Animals?
If you want to help wild animals, there are several different things that you can do to help them. Here, we'll look at the most common ways that you can help wild animals through the rest of Winter.
Feeding Them
One of the best way to help wild animals to survive the Winter; is to feed them in your garden. The most common way that people feed animals in their garden, is to put out wild bird food for the birds to eat. One type of wild bird food which is particularly helpful at this time of the year for birds - is fat balls.
Here are some bird balls you can purchase:
Birds are one of the animals that you can feed, but they are not the only type of animals that you can feed in your garden.
Wild animal food has grown in popularity for many different animal species. These animal species include: Foxes, Badgers, Hedgehogs and Toads and Frogs. Below we'll give you a link to each!
Foxes and Badgers
Toads and Frogs
Having a garden pond can help both Toads and Frogs survive.
You can also provide homes for wild animals in your garden. One way to do that is by creating a pond in your garden. Ponds can be helpful for many different wild animals that come into your garden, and also act as a place where wild animals can drink from.
But, there are also other ways that you can create homes for wild animals in your garden, that can help many different species.
Birds
Putting up a few bird boxes in your garden gives homes to birds. There are garden bird boxes for small birds, such as the link above. However, you can also get garden birds boxes for birds such as Swifts, and even Owls - though these can be more challenging to put up - for example; a Swift bird box will need to be attached to the top of the house. However, small garden bird boxes can be put of a fence, or tree - trees can be another great way of giving birds, and other wild animals homes too.
Hedgehog Home
Hedgehog Home
Hedgehogs hibernate throughout the Winter, and are hibernating right now. However, soon our spiky garden friends will be waking up. Sadly, Hedgehogs have been drastically declining over recent years. Therefore, Hedgehogs could do with all of us helping them. One way to help them is to make your garden easily accessible to them. Another way to help them, is to provide food for them. And finally, you can also help Hedgehogs by providing them with a home - which you will find in the link above.
Frog and Toad Home
Another two animals which you can provide homes for in your garden, is Toads and Frogs. Toads and Frogs can often get overlooked when it comes to helping wildlife out in our garden. But they need, and deserve our help as much as all of the other animals. You can help Toads and Frogs by providing them with a home (which you will find in the link above), and by having a pond in your garden. Ponds in the garden can help these animals greatly.
Providing A Source Of Water
Providing a source of water greatly helps wildlife. One of the best ways to help wildlife by providing water - is to have a pond in your garden. If you do have a pond in your garden, make sure that your pond has ways that small animals such as Hedgehogs and mice can climb out of if they fall in the pond.
Ponds are not the only way to provide water for wildlife; you can provide water in other ways. Having a bird bath is a great way to helps birds - it gives them somewhere to drink and wash. You will have to renew the water in the Winter when it freezes over.
Bird baths are also excellent if you have cats.This is because bird baths are off the ground - it gives the birds a chance to escape from any predators such as cats - when they are on the ground, they are vulnerable to other animals like cats. If you have a cat, and are feeding the birds and providing them with water; put a collar on your cat with a bell - the bell noise helps birds to know cats are about.
Final Thoughts
You can be the difference as to whether an animal makes it through the Winter, or not. Just putting out some food and water, can literally be the difference of life or death for an animal.
They need your help.
If we all just done something to help wild animals throughout the Winter, such as providing them with food, water and shelter in our garden, then all of those contributions would add up and make a big difference - it would make a big difference for the animals.
If you are in the UK, there is one final way that you can help animals this Winter - by taking part in the Big Garden Birdwatch. The Big Garden Birdwatch is just a few days away. And by taking part, you can help the RSPB monitor wildlife populations throughout the UK.
Thank you for being the voice for animals!