ATTRACT GARDEN SUBJECTS

Turn your home and garden into a wildlife studio and help conservation at the same time

1 BIRD FEEDERS Put feeders out for the birds and you will greatly increase the opportunities for photography. to avoid a feeder setting, strategically placed branches and perches will soon be used and even flight shots of hovering birds are possible.

2 FLOWERS FOR BUTTERFLIES Do your research and be sure to plant the right species – some do not produce nectar, or the flower shape may make it inaccessible for feeding.

3 MAKE A POND Drinking birds, breeding frogs and toads, and emerging dragonflies are among the attractions. Avoid introducing fish: they will deplete amphibian and invertebrate life.

4 STOP CUTTING THE GRASS An ideal approach for the lazy gardener is to only cut the grass once a year in late summer. the caterpillars of certain butterfly species feed only on grasses.

5 FOODPLANTS FOR INSECTS Do some research and grow, or tolerate, plants that insects feed on. For example, hazel and hawthorn are food for a wide range of moth caterpillars and make good hedging species; leave a patch of common nettle and the leaves will be eaten by various butterfly caterpillars.

6 COMPOST HEAPS Recycle your compostable vegetable matter and garden cuttings in a compost heap and you will attract all manner of unusual creatures. invertebrate life abounds and, heated by decomposition, they are favoured incubation sites for grass snake eggs.

THE EXOTIC AT HOME if you have space, create an indoor wildlife studio where, for example, you can photograph insects under controlled conditions. set up an aquarium in a cool spot and you can create a pond in miniature, or provide temporary...