Last year was horrific for our local wildlife. I found 2 dead hedgehogs on the schoolrun, and one more that was alive but died shortly after being taken to a rescue centre.
There were also loads of dead birds (avian flu? or water shortages?)
I've never seen a dead hedgehog in my life, I live in a city not the countryside so even live animals are a rare treat to see. But 3 in one year on just one route. (no car running them over, this was the street or front gardens)
The hedgehog rescue said they had loads of dehydrated hedgehogs, way more than other years (this was around the few days of 40° but we had very little rainfall for the whole summer)
They said the best we can do is put out bowls of water, tell our friends and family to do the same. We also made posters and leaflets, the water needed to be topped up a couple of times a day because it'd just fucking evaporate in mere hours. No wonder they died, poor things.
Anyway, I had a little look online and apparently insect lava was drying up due to heat, so we started spraying the wildlife section (aka overgrown boarders) with water (bath/shower water) and hoped for the best but ehat else can you do? My children started bringing water guns to the park to spray the millions of bushes but obviously its a drop in the ocean.
It's very worrying. So if anybody can spare a couple of minutes a day to take shallow bowls of water out, or if you have a big basin spare, one of those with wood or stones that act as a ramp so no little creatures fall in and drown, that'd be wonderful. Also a small stick or something that Bees and insects can sit on instead of drowning also.
Also if there's anyway to add a small section of flowers/ or just let the weeds grow.
It's become very apparent that we as humans are stripping wildlife of habbitat. in my small area alone we have had several of our parks and naybe 4 green spaces bulldozed and concreted over. This has actually lead to some minor but still disruptive flooding in the area (water pools and runs but can't sink into concrete)
Loads of houses have had drives or fake grass put in, where are the animals going to go?
We have looked around at local tree planting schemes (which helps with anxiety more than anything) but there's still loads to be done.
We have an allotment and water butts and so it was easy enough to 'measure' the lack of rainfall, we had a terrible year and water was really something to treasure. something I'd never really had to think about before but it brought home how fucking lucky we are to be able to get a drink from a tap and not worry ever about dying of dehydration. I just wish I could win the lottery and buy all the land and fix everything.
Poor sods.
Anyway. I just wanted to get ahead of the game because I only found out that animals need human intervention in cities in the middle of summer last year after spotting my third hedgehog. I honestly just thought animals would be OK. but they weren't and they probably won't be again this year and I know mumsnet is full to the brim of lovely people who will make me feel better.