Make Your Home a Nature Reserve

Donna Mullen has worked as an ecologist for over thirty years and is a founding member of Bat Conservation Ireland and the Irish Environmental Network. She met her husband at a bat group meeting, and together they bought a farm in Meath and turned it into Golashane Nature Reserve. The reserve, home to several people and hundreds of plants, birds, mammals, insects and amphibians, has won several awards, including an EU Rural Inspiration award. Every week someone arrives at the door to ask how to create a nature reserve in their own home.Eoin O’Brien is a songwriter and musician, a writer and illustrator. He enjoys nothing more than a good old singsong around a kitchen table or a bonfire. He lives in beautiful Finglas in north Dublin, and has two fantastic children.

Nothing says spring like finding new ways to embrace the natural creatures we see around us. From insects to birds, foxes and shrews, these are just some who need somewhere to live as their own natural habitats become more endangered. In Donna Mullens gorgeous Make Your Home a Nature Reserve, you’ll learn how to make your space - from a window box to a suburban garden to a farm inviting to nature

• INTRODUCTION WHAT LIES BENEATH Earthworms Springtails Dung beetles Building healthy soil LARGER MAMMALS Badgers Foxes Rabbits and hares Stoats Pine martens Hedgehogs SMALLER MAMMALS Bats Shrews Rats and mice Squirrels SMALLER BIRDS Blue tits House sparrows Starlings Dunnocks Robins Wrens Finches BIGGER BIRDS Jackdaws Magpies Rooks Pigeons Buzzards Sparrowhawks Kestrels FLYING INSECTS Carder bees Butterflies and moths THE BIG PICTURE – AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT BUILD YOUR OWN PONDFrogs MAKE YOUR COMMUNITY A NATURE RESERVEUSING THE LAWFAMILY QUIZ YEAR PLANNERANIMAL OF THE YEAR PLAN