7 Days Not Very Wild – Day 3 – 3 July 2015

7 Days not very Wild – Trying to do something wild each day
My idea is that sometimes even if we look for that great wild thing in nature, it can be hard to find because of all sorts of reasons mainly to do with humans destroying the world.

Having celebrated the nature we can find for 30 days, I wanted to highlight the nature I couldn’t find for 7 days, sort of as a warning that things aren’t just hunky-dory.

Day 3 – A dead Common Toad

A dead Common Toad, Compton Martin, Bristol
Photograph taken by Young birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

During my 30 Days Wild, I wrote about a dead toad I had found in the road outside my house. Although it is wildlife, the issues go much deeper than that.

It is really important that we all do what we can to help frogs and toads survive. It is estimated that only 5 in every 1000 frog eggs survive to adulthood. It is a terrible statistic.

As amphibians live in the water and land, they are a good indicator of the health of both habitats. Their decline has raised concerns about habitats around the world.

All we have to do is make some changes to our gardens to encourage them back. We need to add ponds and compost heaps to create a dragon garden.

Ponds need to be in a sunny position away from overhanging trees, include a shallow area, a section at least 60 cm deep, no paving slabs around it, use water from a water butt to fill and use only native plants which are floating, submerges and marginals.

Introduce a wild rockery, a log pile and vegetation of differing heights and weights for the amphibians to come to you. Check long grass before you cut it.

Join the Amphibian and Reptiles Groups of the UK (ARG UK) www.arguk.org, take part in recording and maybe even a Toad on the Roads scheme, like the one at Chew Valley Lake every spring.