An easy way to shelter wildlife in your garden is to turn rocks and woody debris into microhabitats. A variety of animals will appreciate these handy hiding places. They will enable small birds and mammals to flee for cover. Reptiles and mammals may even make nests or dens in these hide-outs.
Cover
It is necessary to provide cover for the various wildlife passing through or living in your garden. Native trees, shrubs, grasses and flowering plants provide cover for wildlife. So do rock and brush piles, as well as cavities in trees and birdhouses. Wildlife use these forms of cover as places to rest or sleep. They also use cover to protect themselves from the elements and hide from predators. Depending on the season and their life-stage, wildlife may use the cover in your garden as places to nest and rear their young.
Shrubs and trees provide cover for nesting birds and their young. However, snags and log piles as well as brush piles also provide cover for wildlife. Log piles need not appear 'untidy'. In fact, properly created, log piles can be focal points in your garden. These easy-to-build shelters attract a wide variety of wildlife such as turtles, lizards, butterflies and other insects. Providing dense, heavy and secure shelter close to the ground can attract many animals that may not feel comfortable in even the most colorful butterfly garden or thoroughly landscaped yard. The National Wildlife Federation provides simple instructions on how to create a log pile habitats here, the BBC does so here as well. The Washington State Department of Natural Resources provides an informative sheet on snags here.
Perhaps the most common form of shelter found in habitat gardens are birdhouses. You can purchase birdhouses from your local garden centre but you can also build your own with inexpensive and easily accessible materials. The USGS provides instructions on how to buildbird houses here while the Birdhouse Network provides instructions here. Keep in mind that different bird species will require different types of homes (some might require homes with large entrances, while others only occupy homes with small entrances, for example). Carrickfergus in Bloom provides plans for a birdhouse specific to garden tits here. Regardless of what birdhouse design you choose, remember that it should be durable, rainproof, cool and readily accessible for cleaning.
If you have room in your garden and if you are feeling adventurous, perhaps you would consider building a bat house. Bats are tidy and harmless creatures who are necessary parts of the Irish ecosystem. Irish bats feed only on insects and therefore help maintain insect populations near their roosts. If you are bothered by an over abundance of gnats, perhaps having bats near your home would be of great benefit!