It's currently Hedgehog Awareness Week (3rd - 9th May 2020), and if you're looking for ways to look after these spiny sweethearts, you're in the right place.

Hedgehogs are still a fairly common sight in the UK, but their numbers are thought to be declining. Life can be a bit dangerous for a garden hedgehog - every November, we're reminded to check for hedgehogs before lighting the Guy Fawkes Night bonfire, but why stop at that? There are plenty of other things you can do to make the world a friendlier place for these much-loved creatures.

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It's the breeding season for hedgehogs, and it's as important as ever to give these loveable creatures a helping hand where possible.

Although their natural habitat is woodland, our urban gardens are also favoured by them due to the plentiful supply of food and shelter. If they are very lucky, someone might have left hedgehog food out for them, too. 

Hedgehog Awareness Week is organised by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) between the 5th and 11th May to highlight the problems hedgehogs face and what we can do to help them. More...

We are all encouraged to host a wide variety of wildlife in the garden. Apart from garden birds you can encourage bees, bats, butterflies and lots more bugs etc. Here at Really Wild Bird Food, we have a wide range of wildlife products to help you make your garden more wildlife friendly. 

One way is to establish more wild flowers. At Really Wild Bird Food we have a wide range of wildflower seeds to transform your garden into a haven for the pollinating species! More...

There are bird friendly gardens and there are butterfly or even hedgehog friendly gardens. And now to help the dwindling population of bats there are many people who are encouraging bats to be their garden guests. More...

As we begin to see the end of winter and the beginning of spring it is time to check our gardens are good places for birds to thrive. First on the check list is to ensure there is a suitable place for birds to eat and drink, then there is the need to provide adequate nesting boxes.

To provide suitable places for birds to eat erect a bird feeding table and position it close to cover like a bush to provide cover in case birds feel exposed to danger of attack in open spaces. Obviously once you have a good bird feeding table you need to stock up with good bird feed that attracts the right birds.

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Sadly, the numbers of hedgehogs have dwindled over the years. This decline over almost a decade is mainly because of the fragmentation of their habitats and difficulty in finding food.

However, small steps on our part will surely make the life of these tiny creatures significantly easy. There are a number of things we can do to help these gardeners' friends - if you'd like to find out more about thing you can do to help your local hedgehogs, you're in the right place! More...

As the days turn cold, the threats that our feathered friends face increase. The food is scarce during the winter and sustenance during these times is a big issue for them. The birds need to struggle, not only for food but also for making it through the chilly season.

So where do we stand in helping our wild birds survive during these harsh conditions? Small measures by us can do their bit in helping the birds pull through the difficult times. These small measures by us can easily attract the birds to the gardens and help them to a great extent during the chilly days. But is your garden attractive enough to the wild birds?

As we know natural food is scarce during the wet and the cold days as the insect population is less. So it is important to try and create a garden which provides a rich supply of natural foods. The supplementary moist and high protein food will help the adults survive and subsequently sustain fledglings in the nest in the spring. Planting a range of native UK shrubs, trees and climbers will produce berries, seeds, fruits and nuts, nectar and pollen and will also serve as a shelter for the birds with nesting sites and nesting materials.

By simply leaving a few rotting log piles in a shady spot or an area of grass un-mown and messy will help a great deal in increasing the insect population in the garden. This tends to be a vital food source for garden birds which will help in attracting more birds into the garden.

During the freezing days it is important to supply clean fresh drinking water as the birds need to replenish their lost water. But obviously the use of salt, glycerine or anti-freeze should be avoided!

The more the variety of food, the more will be the variety of garden birds. So try offering a range of different bird food types in a variety of different types of bird seed feeders as the eating habits of different birds are different.

Apart from the early mornings, you will also need to restock food in the early afternoons to provide nourishment before dusk since birds need extra energy during the winters as they flap their wings in order to keep warm.

With these small yet vital measures of bird care, you can easily improve your chances of satisfying a variety of different species and enticing them back to your garden time after time!