The days are colder, the nights are longer, and there’s an instinct to stay cosy, eat comforting food, and sleep a lot more. It’s not just people who feel this way in winter, many of our native British animals also change their habits in response to the chilly, darker season.

Where do the wild species that share our towns and cities go in the winter? And how can we help urban wildlife survive until the warmth and light of spring returns?

Hedgehogs are sometimes spotted in late autumn, wandering around on the milder days in search of food so that they can fatten up for their long sleep. Leave out shop-bought cat or hedgehog food as well as clean drinking water to help them build their fat reserves. Check bonfire piles before lighting them because hedgehogs might have chosen the heap of leaves and wood to hibernate in for the winter. They’ll be seeking a quiet, sheltered sleeping-spot in your garden, so it’s a great idea to install a hedgehog house under a hedge or behind the shed. If you see a hedgehog in winter, especially in the daytime, it’s a sign that it needs help. Contact your nearest wildlife rescue centre, and in the meantime place the hedgehog in a cardboard box in a warm, quiet place with some meaty dog or cat food and fresh water it can help itself to.

Bats are another hibernating resident of urban areas and often choose our roof spaces as a place to go into torpor (lowering body temperature and metabolic rate to conserve energy). We can help bats survive the winter by sharing our spaces with them or installing bat boxes on trees and buildings around our homes. Besides the fact it is illegal to damage, disturb or block access to a bat roost in the roof, it’s worth remembering that bats cause minimal damage to properties. They don’t gnaw on wood or through wires, nor do they build untidy nests. In fact, the few droppings they produce can be swept up and used as a high-quality garden fertiliser!

The frogs, toads and newts we might see around our garden ponds also hide away in the winter, when their invertebrate food is scarce and the low temperatures are lethal. Amphibians and reptiles (such as slow worms) benefit from large wood piles and compost heaps in the garden.  These sheltered places protect them from hungry predators and the cold. We can also create ‘hibernacula’ for these coldblooded critters by filling a well-drained hole with logs and bricks for nooks and crannies and covering it with soil and leaves to insulate it. By leaving a horizontal tube such as an old drainpipe leading into the jumble of wood and stone, the amphibians can make their way in and out easily.

Birds such as swifts, swallows and martins will have left the UK long before the winter comes but will return to the same nest each year in spring. If you have a roof cavity where swifts lay their eggs, or a familiar mud-cup nest made by the swallows or martins under the eaves, be sure to leave them be over the winter. It saves the birds lots of time and energy if they don’t have to make a whole new nest!

Other birds actually visit the UK in winter to escape the freezing climes of Scandinavia and Russia. Thrush-like redwings and fieldfares are joined by waxwings and migrant blackbirds from Europe, and all four species come to feed on our winter berries such as ivy, holly, and rowan. We can help these birds find more of this food by growing fruiting trees and shrubs in our gardens.

By looking after hedgehogs, bats, amphibians and birds in our gardens this winter, we’re doing more than offering a helping hand to the creatures that share our streets and greenspaces. 

Small actions in ordinary gardens quietly add up, creating little pockets of habitat that support nature through its toughest months. This kind of everyday care is exactly what Derbyshire Wildlife Trust’s Wilder By Nature strategy encourages — more connected spaces for wildlife and more people playing a part, right where they live. So keep an eye on your garden this winter, shelter and feed the creatures that seek refuge there, and know that these simple acts all help to make Derbyshire a little wilder.  

Find out more about Wilder Chesterfield here