I HAVE lived in Bosley Farm, Christchurch, for the last 52 years, and in those years I have studied the wildlife in my garden.

I have had voles that owls have come after, then for years I have had the pygmy shrew, only 30mm long.

A family of song thrushes came this year and rid my garden of snails. Don’t put pellets down – let the birds do it for you. Hedgehogs will eat the dead slugs and then it bursts their intestines.

I have man, blue, great, cole and long tailed tits and lots of other birds that live and visit – too many to list here. I have a hedgehog that lives here all year and a grass snake slides across my lawns, plus a fox that comes when I call it.

Some people look on them as vermin, but I have noticed when the foxes are around I get no rats. Some people say foxes attack cats; a university proved this wrong.

The worst visitors are the cats. They are gradually devastating the wildlife.

They have even attacked my 19-year-old dog in his garden.

Don’t get me wrong, I love cats. We had one that was white and wildlife could see him coming.

I would ask cat lovers, please put a bell or electronic devise on your cat to warn wildlife that it is about.


BARRY COLEMAN, River Way, Christchurch