Places for Cover
Wildlife require places to hide in order to feel safe from people, predators, and inclement weather. They also need a sheltered place to raise their offspring.
The easiest way to provide cover for terrestrial wildlife is by using native vegetation, both dead and alive. Many shrubs, thickets, and brush piles provide great hiding places within their bushy leaves and thorns. Dead trees are home to lots of different animals, including some that provide food to woodpeckers and other species, and other wildlife that use tree cavities and branches for nesting and perching.
You can create hiding places for animals by using logs, brush or rocks, or by constructing a birdhouse made for the types of birds you would like to attract to your habitat. A roosting box for bats will give them a place to rest and/or raise their young in between their evening outings to catch insects.
Ponds provide cover for aquatic wildlife, including fish and amphibians. If you have a pond, you are already providing cover and places to raise young. A “toad abode” can be constructed to provide shelter for amphibians on land.
Many places for cover can double as locations where wildlife can raise their young, such as wildflower meadows and bushes where many butterflies and moths lay their eggs, or caves where bats roost and form colonies.
|
