Time to stand and stare...

"What is life if, full of care, you have no time to stand and stare."

For me, a crucial part of wildlife-friendly gardening is taking time out to stop and observe which creatures are taking advantage of your hospitality.

So I was delighted to get an email from Katy Fielding telling me how she turned watching her garden's wildlife into what I'd call a party. ("Well, we stayed up into the early hours playing Scrabble, if that counts as a party," Katy said).

Katy lives on the edge of Pirbright village, near Guildford, and she invited her friends Laura Korhonen, Becca Bratt, Jonathan Pruskin and Chris Calow to take part in a 'garden bioblitz' over a weekend in August, which is where you try and find as many different types of animals and plants as you can. I'll let Katy take up the story:

"We used a range of relatively simple equipment: a camera trap, three small mammal traps, a footprint trap, moth trap, pitfall traps and butterfly net. We used bird feeders to attract birds and corrugated iron sheet to attract reptiles and invertebrates.

"Overall we identified over 200 species of wildlife which we were all really chuffed with! Some highlights were 14 species of butterfly, and around 40 species of moth over two nights in the moth trap, including a Poplar Hawkmoth. (The photo is of a Lesser Swallow Prominent moth in the team's collecting jar, with the amazing Lewington moth book behind).

"We caught a Yellow-necked Mouse in one of my small mammal traps and we got a Hedgehog through the footprints trap. We also had a very talented plant identifier who got well over 50 wild plants in the garden.

"We identified some interesting flies, beetles and spiders with over 100 invertebrate species but we all felt we barely scraped the surface of the invertebrates as none of us were particularly talented in this area but we gave it a good go! (Spot the Common Darter dragonfly in this photo).

"It was a great excuse to catch up with a group of friends I rarely get to see, doing something we're all passionate about and have the opportunity to learn from each other. It was wonderful proof that there is so much diversity in gardens and so much to get excited about right on your doorstep.

And was it exhausting?

"Well, we didn't get up early either day to record birds as the over-riding feeling was that this was supposed to be relaxed and we all work and needed a lie in (don't judge us!). We did a lot of counts from the picnic blankets!"  

Maybe, if you stand and stare, you'll find something exciting in your garden today. There's every chance that you will!