We were blessed to have Nick Martin for our talk on Tuesday, 14 January, 2025. On his own admission, Nick was born a naturalist. As a child, he was fascinated with wildlife and after initially working for the RSPB he is now warden at the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust. A month spent photographing wildlife in gardens convinced him that exotic locations were not the way to convert others to the importance of preserving nature.
Living in Solihull he is fortunate to have many open spaces in the area and his garden, while modest in size, backs onto a meadowy green space with a small brook running through it. He did not claim to know about plants, but he started with a virtual blank canvas of a scrappy lawn, gigantic leyland conifer and neglected planting and by trial and error he slowly achieved all his aims for the garden. Suitable plants, hedging and eventually a pond created the backdrop for his camera. He was proud of his neatly mowed stripy lawn believing quite realistically that you do not need a wild neglected garden to create a haven for wildlife.
His ensuing amazing photographs provided evidence of the truth of this. He began with familiar birds like the robin, blue tit and blackbird pointing out that garden birds are unlikely to survive more than three years and many are migrants. Untreated lawns, whether mown or left longer, provide food for birds. Chafer grubs for starlings, crows and magpies. Red ants for the jay who wiggles its tail to spread their formic acid over its feathers. Earthworms for the blackbirds. Although magpies, crows and even woodpeckers are partial to taking eggs and baby birds for food, studies have shown that any reduction in bird numbers is due to a steep decline in the availability of insects.
He urged members to encourage birds into the garden by feeding them all year round. Sunflower seeds are a good all-purpose choice. Putting up bird boxes can help but nesting birds are not guaranteed to oblige. Indeed, the graphic timeline of a nest of robins was shot in the shelter of dense ivy close to an empty bird box!
There have been sightings of a wider variety of birds of prey in recent years, with buzzards and red kites quite common with even osprey and peregrine falcons sighted.
Planting valerian had resulted in a host of hoverflies and bumblebees along with the migratory Painted Lady to photograph. Superb pictures of the hummingbird hawkmoth and a woodpecker using his long retractable tongue to extract nectar from a red-hot poker proved the speaker’s advanced photographic skills. He had down-to-earth pictures of minibeasts like millipedes, centipedes and woodlouse and he even recommended snail racing as a pastime. Hedgehogs thrive on dry cat food with water to hand. His efforts at fostering hedgehogs from a local sanctuary ended when badgers showed up! Feeding them on peanuts made them quite tame and in time two expanded to seven.
He eventually achieved his hope of having a pond in his garden and almost immediately it was home to pond beetles, water boatmen and skaters. Damselflies soon appeared and even Britain’s largest dragonfly, the Southern Hawker, put in an appearance. Toads are a common sight in Nick’s garden but not so many frogs, perhaps because the newts in the pond eat any frogspawn.
The arrival of a kingfisher and mallards could have been due to the nearby brook. The unexpected appearance of an otter certainly was.
Nick Martin’s fabulous photographs documented the year-round activity in his relatively modest garden. They were a feast for the eyes and a seductive encouragement to entice more wildlife into our gardens. The same standard of photography is not guaranteed!
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