Who are we to judge wildlife in the garden?

Birds are still hungry at this time of year as they wait for buds to develop and the insect life to return with the warmer weather. So many birds make their way to bird tables and feeders. Here, they become more vulnerable to predation. Maybe you will witness a sparrowhawk catch its prey.

It always seems to stir up the emotions, often negative, when someone sees a sparrowhawk catch a smaller bird to eat. Of course, it's all about human value judgements; few of us care so much about a bird eating an insect.

This tells us something about our values towards wildlife more generally. We mostly value large animals over small ones (compare badgers versus woodlice), cute animals over ugly ones (squirrels vs. spiders), welcome ones over unwelcome ones (butterflies vs. slugs), and safe ones over unsafe ones (birds vs wasps).

Our challenge is to celebrate the diversity and respect all our garden wildlife equally.