We're lucky enough to have a 2 acre wooded garden which we've spent the last 13yrs turning it into a wildlife haven with log piles, brash, scrub areas, a developing meadow area, bird boxes, insect hotels, feeders, long and short grass, native hedgerows, a wild pond and untouched areas and have hedgehogs, foxes, shrew, moles, bank voles, toads, newts, frogs, visiting muntjac and roe deer and even once had a red deer! The wooded part is sadly the last remnant of a small wood that used to be here at least since the 1830's but has been cut down with only our little copse remaining. It has around 211 trees with a wide variety of trees mostly indigenous but some introduced specimens too all of which in turn attract a wide variety of species including over 400 different species of moth so far and at least 45 species of bird. Since 2020 I have been attempting to do a bioblitz on my garden and still have only scratched the surface. We have several mature English Oaks, Sycamore, Horse Chestnut, European Aspen, Hornbeam, Ash, Hazel, Hawthorn, Buckthorn, Silver Birch, Sweet Chestnut, Apple, Pear, Beech, Bird Cherry, Wild Cherry, Cherry Plum, Scot's Pine, Black Pine, Larch, Wild Service Tree (an ancient woodland indicator), Black Walnut, Elm, Field Maple, Norway Spruce, White Beam, White Poplar, Downy Birch, Tree of Heaven, Lawson & Leyland Cypress, Catalpa, Weeping Willow, White Willow, Cracked Willow, Ossier, Himalyan Birch, Dogwood, Blackthorn, Magnolia, Goat Willow, Grey Willow, Alder, Plum, Common Lime and Small-Leaved Lime. We have a mix of habitats - garden, woodland, wetland (with our large boggy pond, ditches and a brook) and we abut farmland so that is reflected in the mix of wildlife. We have wetland species like Grey Wagtail and all year round resident moorhens (since 2011) who breed up to 3 broods a year of between 4-9 chicks each time, visiting mallard and mandarin ducks in the summer and occasional visiting grey heron and the flash of blue along the brook from a kingfisher. We have woodland species such as green & great spotted woodpeckers who live and nest here, black caps, goldcrests, jays, chiff chaff, pheasants, long-tailed tits, nuthatches, song & mistle thrushes and visiting tawny owls and redwings. Garden species such as blue, coal and great tits, blackbirds, collared doves, woodpigeons, jackdaws, carrion crows, goldfinches, greenfinches, bullfinches, chaffinches, dunnocks, house sparrows, robins, wrens, pied wagtails, magpies and visiting ravens. We also have a pair of breeding common buzzards in the field behind our property who predate in our garden very regularly. Here are some of the photos I have taken in the last few years.