My Garden Wildlife Blog by Amy, aged 9

My family has a small terraced garden in Warwickshire, From March to September I spent a lot of time in my back garden due to the COVID 19 pandemic and I started to notice that there were lots of bees and other insects feeding on the flowers.

I have been encouraging wildlife into my garden during lockdown and doing a garden wildlife study for my Blue Peter Green badge.

We already had a bird feeder and insect-friendly flowers in the garden, but to encourage more wildlife I made a bee bar from a plastic lid and filled it with sugar water, a small pond from an old ice cream container and a log pile. I decided to keep a log of the wildlife that I saw. I took photos (this was tricky sometimes as the bugs were so small so my mum helped me) and then I tried to identify those I didn’t know by using identification sheets and the internet.

I loved going out each day bug hunting. I didn’t know that there were so many types of ladybird! My favourite animal was the hedgehog who visited for several days and a Dock bug which I always found on the same plant for several weeks. I was amazed that over 5 months I saw 60 different creatures in my small garden! I am looking forward to seeing how many more animals I can spot during autumn and winter.