Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2011/January 2012 | Page 83

COUNTRY LIFE

By Natalie Rogers

Encourage birds to nest and feed in
your garden
Our gardens are extremely important
for birds, often providing suitable

Your local
Wildlife
Trust
The Hampshire and Isle of Wight
Wildlife Trust works to create
a better future for wildlife and
wild places in Hampshire and the
Island. As the leading local wildlife
conservation charity, it looks after
57 wildlife reserves, has 28,000
members and 1,000 volunteers.
The Trust manages its own land
and advises other landowners how
to manage their land with wildlife
in mind. Staff and volunteers also
carry out surveys and gather data
to monitor how our local wildlife is
doing. Find out more on our website.
Beechcroft House, Vicarage Lane,
Curdridge, Hampshire SO32 2DP
Tel: [phone]

www.hwt.org.uk

nesting sites and food throughout
the winter months. The first step
to attracting birds to your garden is
to provide the three basic resources;
shelter, food and water.
Putting up a nest box is a simple
way of encouraging wildlife into
your garden. Natural nest sites
such as hollow trees or cavities of
old buildings are fast disappearing.
Hanging bird feeders and providing
bird seed and suet balls is a common
way to encourage birds to your garden.
However, adding some interesting
plants to your garden can also
provide natural food sources for birds
including berries, seeds or insects
which will be attracted to the plants.

News

Plants such as spindle, fruit trees,
holly and bramble are good sources
for berries, clematis, sunflower and
teasel are good for seeds, and buddleia,
honeysuckle and herbs will attract
insects which the birds will feed on.
As well as drinking the water, birds
need to bathe to keep their feathers
clean and in good condition. By
putting in a bird bath or creating a
pond you will be providing a body of
water that the birds can use for these
purposes.
If you have any wildlife gardening
queries, please contact us Wildline@
hwt.org.uk, 01489 774406, and
for more information please see our
website www.hwt.org.uk

A chance to buy
Sandown Meadows

Earlier this year the Wildlife Trust
launched an urgent appeal to raise
funds to help create four large
scale conservation areas, or Living
Landscapes, across Hampshire and
the Isle of Wight. The Island’s Living
Landscape area is centred around
Alverstone Marshes on the doorstep of
Sandown. The marshes at Alverstone
are, in fact, all that remains of a much
larger wetland landscape that forms
the Trust’s Upper Eastern Yar Living
Landscape.
The opportunity has now arisen for
the Trust to actually buy Sandown
Meadows. Establishing Sandown
Meadows as a Trust Reserve will
conserve forever a crucial part of our
Living Landscapes area so that we
can ensure it will remain an ideal
habitat for kingfishers as well as other
important species including snipe,
water voles, orchids and otters. But
our plans don’t stop there. We want to
use this nature reserve as a springboard
to a dramatic transformation of the
entire landscape. Working with the
Wight Nature Fund, Gift to Nature,
neighbouring land-owners and
other partners, we aim to eradicate
non-native plants, introduce grazing,
create ponds, and reconnect the

ditches and river with the wet
meadows creating a wildlife haven
for species, including kingfishers, for
generations to come.
The support that the project has
received so far has already enabled
us to make significant progress. We
have already raised over £9,000 which
we can put towards the purchase of
Sandown Meadows this winter and we
also have funds from a wonderfully
generous legacy. But we need to raise
more.
If you would like to help, please see
our website www.hwt.org.uk for the
ways that you can make a donation.
To find out more about Hampshire
& Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust see
www.hwt.org.uk

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www.visitislandlife.com

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