I'm well aware that cities are now teeming with life. Perhaps not the most attractive life sometimes (and no, I'm not talking about humans ) but wildlife none the less.

The problem is, where to find it? Whenever I'm in a city the only wildlife I see is a few pigeons and depending on the location, seagulls. I would love to read or write an urban wildlife blog, I think it would be fascinating to read as I really enjoyed the urban foxes section of spring/autumn watch.

Depends how 'urban' you mean. Gardens are fabulous places for wildlife, and a garden pond will attract all sorts. Bird feeders will bring plenty of small birds as well. If you don't have a garden then local parks will be good places to visit, especially at quieter times. Insects are also abundant if you don't mind crawling around.

I'm in a semi-urban area (outskirts of Brighton) and although I do get out the the South Downs regularly, the great majority of my photos are taken in the garden (we're particularly fortunate with foxes as it happens). Check out my blog (see signature) for mainly (semi)urban wildlife.

This post was last modified: 05-05-2008 08:51 AM by Words.

Bear in mind that a lot of urban and semi-urban wildlife will not be visible until after dark, too!

Kingfisher

Same for teenage wildlife

You need to be around at dusk to see some of the wildlife, esp foxes! Any woods, or small parks or even railway embankments are the best places to see foxes - also rats! With foxes you can usually smell them before you see them, as I did quite a lot of the time in SE London! A smell once smelt, never forgotten! lol

I definitely agree with words, your best bet is to try and get the wildlife to come to you by having a pond or bird feeder. Make sure you clear away the spilt bird food regularly though or you will get rats (unless that's what you want! ).

On the subject of garden wildlife has anyone set cameras to see what comes into their garden at night. We've lived in our current house for 4 years and know we have a fox who pays us a visit, having seen him fox on two occasions, but not recently. Neighbours say that muntjac have been spotted in gardens from time to time.

I had a browse on the internet this weekend to see what was available and whilst there is several sites which offer packages, I would prefer to take the diy approach and save myself a bit of money. Preference is to couple the camera to a laptop rather than a telly.

My advice - I had a garden that was just lawn. You need the following to attract wildlife to your garden if you can fit it in!

Pond
Compost heap
Hedges
trees and shrubs
A bit left messy bit!
Native flowers that produce nectar (not the sterile kind on offer in B & Q)
A log pile

Have a look at the website http://www.wigglywiglers.co.uk for more ideas!