| Good morning. |
| Today I'd like to present the findings of our Year 2 project on wildlife found in gardens throughout our city. |
| I'll start by saying something about the background to the project, |
| then talk a little bit about our research techniques, |
| and then indicate some of our interim findings. |
| First of all, how did we choose our topic? |
| Well, there are four of us in the group and one day while we were discussing a possible focus, |
| two of the group mentioned that they had seen yet more sparrow-hawks - one of Britain's most interesting birds of prey - |
| in their own city centre gardens |
| and wondered why they were turning up in these gardens in great numbers. |
| We were all very engaged by the idea of why wild animals would choose to inhabit a city garden. |
| Why is it so popular with wildlife when the countryside itself is becoming less so? |
| The first thing we did was to establish what proportion of the urban land is taken up by private gardens. |
| We estimated that it was about 1/5, |
| and this was endorsed by looking at large-scale usage maps in the town land survey office - |
| 24% to be precise. |
| Our own informal discussions with neighbours and friends led us to believe that |
| many garden owners had interesting experiences to relate regarding wild animal sightings |
| so we decided to survey garden owners from different areas of the city. |
| Just over 100 of them completed a survey once every two weeks for twelve months - |
| ticking off species they had seen from a pro forma list - |
| and adding the names of any rarer ones. |
| Meanwhile, we were doing our own observations in selected gardens throughout the city. |
| We deliberately chose smaller ones because they were by far the most typical in the city. |
| The whole point of the project was to look at the norm not the exception. |
| Alongside this primary research on urban gardens, |
| we were studying a lot of books about the decline of wild animals in the countryside |
| and thinking of possible causes for this. |
| So what did we find? |
| Well, so much that I just won't have time to tell you about here. |
| If you're interested in reading our more comprehensive findings, |
| we've produced detailed graphic representations on the college website |
| and of course any of the group would be happy to talk to you about them. |
| Just email us. |
| What we've decided to present today is information about just three species - |
| because we felt these gave a good indication of the processes at work |
| in rural and urban settings as a whole. |
| The first species to generate a lot of interesting information was frogs. |
| And there was a clear pattern here - |
| they proliferate where there is suitable water. |
| Garden ponds are on the increase, |
| rural ponds are disappearing, |
| leading to massive migration to the towns. |
| Hedgehogs are also finding it easier to live in urban areas - |
| this time because their predators are not finding it quite so attractive to leave their rural environment, |
| so hedgehogs have a better survival rate in cities. |
| We had lots of sightings, |
| so all in all, we had no difficulties with our efforts to count their numbers precisely. |
| Our final species is the finest of bird singers, the song thrush. |
| On the decline in the countryside, |
| they are experiencing a resurgence in urban gardens |
| because these days gardeners are buying lots of different plants |
| which means there's an extensive range of seeds around, |
| which is what they feed on. |
| Another factor is the provision of nesting places - |
| which is actually better in gardens than the countryside. |
| Hard to believe it, but it's true. |
| Incidentally, we discovered that a massive new survey on song thrushes is about to be launched, |
| so you should keep an eye open for that. |
| Now, I'd be happy to answer... |