Urban Environments
Though you don't often think of cities as having wild areas, in fact green spaces in urban areas can have a multitude of animal and plant life. Even a patch of weeds in an abandoned lot can have insects like butterflies, moths, ants, bees, beetles, and even cockroaches. Wild mammals like mice, rats, raccoons, skunks, squirrels, chipmunks, bats, and even deer are not unusual in urban settings. Songbirds, pigeons, hawks, peregrine falcons, ducks, and seagulls can also be common. Even reptiles and amphibians can be found in and near city park ponds.
Wildlife in urban areas have adapted to city life as if it were a wild habitat. Pigeons that once nested on cliffs and fed on wild seeds and worms now nest in urban structures and eat scraps on the street. Peregrine falcons, also naturally cliff-nesters, in turn live on skyscrapers and feed on the pigeons! City parks offer some of the same nesting possibilities for wild birds but often with fewer predators to raid their nests. Raccoons find foraging in urban areas very rewarding and are often twice the size of their counterparts living deep in the forest. Animals get used to the sounds of traffic and having people nearby. This can get them into trouble sometimes if they are caught raiding garbage cans or wander into traffic.
As urban areas take up more space and forests dwindle, more and more wild animals may become adapted to life in the city.
Plant an Urban Garden
Urban gardens are a great way to provide food and habitat to urban wildlife. Try these small gardens.
Take a fork and a packet of flower seeds called alyssum. They come in white or pink. Use the fork to loosen the soil between cracks in the sidewalk (a less-used sidewalk is better). Sprinkle the seeds in the loosened soil. Water. Check on it later. They will bloom all summer.
Place a pot of soil on your windowsill. Plant flower seeds that birds and butterflies will like. Choose daisies, zinnias, bee balm, and fuchsias.
Place any hardy potted plant out on your fire escape or front step. String it with berries, popcorn, or small seeds rolled into suet. Watch the birds come visit!
Attract birds to a tree outside your window the same way. String it with berries, popcorn, or small seeds rolled into suet.
City Critters
Take a pad and paper and go downtown to a city park. Sit on a bench and look around. What animals do you see? Birds? Squirrels? Write down everything you see. Take some time to really look and listen. Do you hear birds calling? Do you see insects of any kind around you? Bees? Butterflies? There are a lot more animals in urban habitats than you might have thought, right?
