The Shelter Wildlife Together Project

When we started building a new, bigger pond in the Severn Hospice gardens at Apley earlier this year, little did we realise how much joy it was going to bring. We set up the trailcam and recorded at least 15 different species of bird visiting the pond to drink, bathe and simply gather for a chinwag and the odd fight. We have watched small mammals walking by, some stopping to drink and forage. We have seen frogs and toads availing themselves of the amenities and dragonflies darting around the iris and water hawthorn, some landing on the rockery stones at the pool's edge. We have laughed, held our breath in anticipation and sat with mouths agape at that "wow" moment. The pond has taught us so much about wildlife, its behaviour, the habitat it prefers and has provided talking points over many a coffee break. Never underestimate the value of a wildlife pond. It will reward you in ways that you never imagined. Here's some footage that provided us with our first "wow" moment, just a few weeks after the pond was finished - a sparrowhawk bathing in the shallows.

Sparrowhawk bathing in pond 6 Aug 2021

Great customer service from CJ Wildlife when we lost a removable port from one of our seed feeders at Severn Hospice Replacement part sent out same day, free of charge. Thank you CJ's.

The new, bigger pond is still a work in progress at the Severn Hospice in Apley, but the ducks just can't wait! 🦆🦆🦆

All our bug boxes are back up in the gardens at the Severn Hospice in Apley. They are removed every autumn, brought into the dry and cleaned up before going back out again in the spring. Not only are they beneficial to invertebrates such as solitary bees, they also help to raise the spirits of patients and visitors whilst walking around the gardens. All the boxes were made from scrap wood donated by local businesses such as Ricoh, Lyreco UK & Ireland and Reviive. The white boxes were decorated by the patients on the day unit, the character boxes were built by volunteers using the wood and materials that were left over. Roger Rabbit, our newest addition, was built by a very talented patient. A real team effort! Thank you to everyone who has contributed.

We've been busy helping the fairies move in at the Severn Hospice gardens in Apley this week! The houses have been made by garden volunteers from recycled materials and we hope they will bring a smile to the faces of patients, visitors and staff when venturing down William's Walk. What do you think? 🤔

Our bug boxes, made by volunteers from scrap wood in 2017 and decorated by patients, are gradually coming out of lockdown in the Severn Hospice gardens in Apley. More re-vamped boxes will be appearing in the gardens over the coming weeks along with some new features to provide shelters for wildlife and help raise the spirits of patients and visitors.

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Wildlife needs all the help it can get and we have been working really hard to make the gardens at the Severn Hospice as wildlife friendly as possible. Here are some top tips.

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Cleaning out the bird boxes at Severn Hospice Apley yesterday we found that 14 out of our 18 boxes contained nests. Four of the 14 contained unhatched eggs. This nest won the award for the prettiest.