This weekend’s cold snap is tough on wildlife - here are 25 ways you can help
- Hazel Sillver
Published: Friday, 2 January 2026 at 4:30 pm
Wildlife is in crisis when the mercury dips low, so here's how you can help them survive freezing nights
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1. Give them fatty treats
Make fat balls with suet and a good seed mix and yoghurt pot, or buy them in the shops
When the ground is too frozen for birds to find food and winter seedheads are in short supply, we can help them survive. The British Trust for Ornithology says that small birds must eat more during a cold snap because they can't store fat as we do.
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Use high-energy, fatty foods, such as suet balls, sunflower hearts and quality unsalted peanuts (labelled as aflatoxin-free and from a reputable supplier) in a proper feeder. Avoid salty fat.
2. Grow flowers with winter nectar
Heather provides nectar when other plants won't. Paul Debois
As our climate warms, buff-tailed bumblebees are increasingly seen foraging in winter, rather than hibernating.
The Bumblebee Conservation Trust has observed the plants bees prefer for winter food, and three of them are easy to grow: heather (Erica carnea) in sun-baked pots of ericaceous compost; fragrant mahonia in part shade; and winter honeysuckle (Lonicera x purpusii) in sun.
3. Build a log pile
A log pile provides lots of habitat options
This easy trick takes ten minutes and provides habitat for lots of wildlife, from insects to frogs.
Stack a heap of logs in a wild, shady part of the garden. To attract stag beetles, begin by digging a trench, place a few old logs in it, and partially cover with soil, then stack the visible log pile on top.
4. Leave seedheads be
Fat rosehips are a favourite with thrushes, blackbirds and finches
As well as looking beautiful, dusted with frost and hung with spiders' webs, the spent seedheads of flowers provide habitat for insects, which birds feed on as well as the seeds.
Grasses (such as miscanthus), teasel, phlomis, stonecrop and sea holly look superb in skeletal form. Rosehips are also particularly useful to many birds, so leave rose pruning until January or even February if possible.
5. Grow the holly and the ivy
Holly is a win-win for nature, providing both berries and winter shelter. Jason Ingram
These festive evergreens provide a wealth of benefits for wildlife over winter. Holly's prickly leaves provide birds with useful cover against predators, and the berries serve as a food source for them. Ivy provides nectar-rich flowers for pollinators, nutritious berries for birds, and its dense, leafy growth is excellent shelter.
6. Don’t forget bats
A bat box makes for an easy DIY project, using offcuts of wood. Jason Ingram
Bats are the popular branded yeast extract spread of the animal world: we either love or fear them. Bat appreciators can help them by increasing the garden's insect population – for instance, by installing a pond and avoiding the use of pesticides.
To provide roosting sites, purchase bat boxes and secure them to buildings, walls or trees that face south or west, in quiet areas.
7. Let leaves lie
Leave leaves to rot on borders as they provide lots of winter cover and protect your soil, but rake them up when they're on the lawn. Tim Sandall
Leave the leaves in borders because they act as a mulch and harbour lots of insects for birds to eat all year round. If they are on your lawn, either bag them to make leaf mould or collect them the easy way, conveniently shredded, by running over them with a lawnmower fitted with a grassbox.
Although some leaves rot down more quickly than others, in general, it’s best to get leaves off your lawn if they are there in large numbers, as they could cause fungal problems and inhibit spring growth.
8. Don't be a neat freak
Dry globe artichoke heads look wonderful through winter and offer lots of wildlife benefits. Leave them as late as possible. Jason Ingram
Letting the garden get a little overgrown in places helps wildlife. Don't cut things back as much until spring, and leave one or two areas of long grass and nettles.
9. Build a toad hall
Use old slates, tiles or terracotta pots to keep toads cosy through winter
A dark, empty terracotta pot, or a slate laid down over a comfy void, is the equivalent of a detached dream house for a toad, and they will thank you by eating slugs later in the year.
Install your own Toad Hall in a damp, quiet corner, atop moss or leaves. Either use a pot with a section broken off at the top (which makes a doorway when turned upside down) or sit one side of your upturned pot on a stone to allow access. Alternatively, use discarded tiles or slats, as above.
10. Be berry nice
Not all hollies are prickly, but they all provide cover and female varieties will bear berries. Jason Ingram, with thanks to RHS Garden Rosemoor
Trees and large shrubs dramatically boost biodiversity in general, and if they have berries in winter, they’ll help birds, too.
Hollies morph into a larder for birds during autumn and winter when they're covered in berries, and some crab apples carry fruit over a particularly long period into winter, including 'Comtesse de Paris' and Jelly King. Plant them as bare roots in winter, but not when the ground is either sodden or frozen solid.
11. Make a stumpery
Stack old logs either in a corner or as a feature in the border. Either approach will have benefits for wildlife. Jason Ingram
Enchanting and easy to build, a stumpery is a garden area where plants grow over old tree stumps (easily available from your local friendly tree surgeon), and they support a huge range of wildlife. Stumperies are traditionally placed in shade, with ferns and shade-loving flowers (such as foxgloves) growing on and around the stumps.
12. Give them your windfalls
Blackbirds are particular fans of your windfall apples. Getty
Don't collect all the apples on the ground, as they feed wildlife, from song thrushes to winter-foraging red admiral butterflies.
13. Build a wonder wildlife wall
A low dry-stone wall is a feature in its own right, but also has numerous wildlife benefits. Paul Debois
Dry-stone walling is superb habitat for lizards, slow worms, toads, newts, voles and insects. The easiest way to do this is with a simple, low wall to divide garden areas. Dig a trench; place large stones along either side and small stones in the centre; continue this way to a height of 50-90cm. Have a wider base, then taper to the top; cap with wide, flat stones.
14. Leave your compost heap till spring
Fight the urge to mess with your compost in winter – it will disturb wildlife
Many animals (including grass snakes and toads) spend winter cosseted by the warmth of a compost heap, so don’t disturb them when they need this shelter the most. Instead, wait until spring – most smaller heaps won’t be rotting down that fast in winter, anyway.
15. Feed birds at different heights
Birds of different species prefer to feed from high up in the trees, at head height, and on the ground. Offer a bit of everything. Getty Images
Birds feed in different ways, so offer food at various levels to help a wider range of them. Blue tits love hanging wire peanut feeders; woodpeckers enjoy suet-cake feeders on trees, while robins prefer bird tables.
Many birds – including blackbirds – feed on the ground, which can be as simple as suet pellets. Feed only in the morning (and clean up very regularly) to avoid problems with rats. Also, ensure that you’re not inadvertently creating a hunting haven for local cats.
16. Make a hedgehog house
A simple hedgehog home, either homemade or bought in, protects hedgehogs from predators and the worst of the cold. Sarah Cuttle
Give hedgehogs a cosy hideaway for their winter hibernation, and they will repay you by gobbling slugs later in the year. Leave a dense pile of leaves in a tucked-away corner throughout autumn and winter. Alternatively, build this simple hedgehog house and put it in a quiet place, such as under an evergreen shrub.
17. Remember that they’re thirsty, too
It's easy to make a bird bath from an old plant pot saucer. Paul Debois
It may not seem that way to us, but cold snaps can make it harder for wildlife to access drinking water, so provide fresh tap water at drinking stations and in the bird bath. Keep both very clean to avoid disease - clean at least once a week, following good hygiene practices.
Like bird feeders, water stations should be in a sheltered, quiet place. Position them so birds have a 360° view, with a tree or shrub not too far away – but not too close, otherwise it may make them vulnerable to predators.
18. Fashion a frog palace
A frog hibernaculum can be as simple as a shallow hole, lined with sand or gravel and topped with leaves and a few small logs. Sarah Cuttle
A fun weekend project, a hibernaculum is an underground hide that shields amphibians and reptiles from the cold.
Dig a hole 50cm deep and line it with sand or gravel, topped with leaves. Next, install a jumble of logs, air bricks, stones and sections of pipe (scratched on the inside for snakes to grip and not wide enough for rats) that reach the surface for air and entry; press everything in firmly, so it doesn't move; pack with leaves or straw. Finally, cover with long logs laid horizontally, topped with earth and leaves.
19. Plant evergreen shelter for birds
Scarlet firethorn (Pyrancantha coccinea) provides lots of berries and plenty of prickly shelter. Getty
As well as protecting them from harsh weather, evergreen plants provide birds with insects to eat and nesting sites. Pyracantha keeps predators out and is laden with berries in autumn, and evergreen cotoneasters carry berries well into winter.
20. Float a football (or anything that floats)
Stop ponds icing over by floating a ball or a piece of polystyrene on top. Sarah Cuttle
Frozen ponds look nice, but animals cannot drink from them, and the ice prevents aeration for creatures at the bottom of the pond, such as dragonfly larvae. You can stop the ice from forming completely, however, by floating a ball on the surface. In a big freeze, the ball trick doesn't always work, so melt a patch of pond ice daily with warm water.
21. Keep bird feeders clean
Bird feeders spread disease, so clean yours regularly, even if they look clean. Paul Debois
Feeding from dirty feeders can be worse than not feeding at all, because they’re a hotspot for the spreading of fatal avian diseases such as trichomonosis. Whilst they investigate this, the RSPB has even halted sales of its feeders.
To clean your feeders, wash them once a week in hot, soapy water, rinse thoroughly, spray with disinfectant, rinse again, then let them dry and follow good hygiene practices. Animal-safe disinfectant spray is available from the RSPB and pet shops.
22. Make a bee hotel
A bee hotel can consist of just a few lengths of bamboo secured in a simple wooden box. Jason Ingram
Solitary bees love to overwinter in the hollow stems of a bamboo hotel. Use strong secateurs to cut sections of bamboo cane and place these amongst a frame of bricks or pieces of wood (the latter should be screwed together). To help ladybirds and beetles, too, add pine cones and small logs.
23. Put up bird boxes
Roosting protects birds against the worst of the cold.
Roosting in nest boxes helps small birds survive winter. Place open-fronted boxes, no more than 2m above the ground, to attract robins and wrens. Boxes with a small entrance hole, 2 to 4m high, bring tits. Ensure boxes don’t face south into the sun.
24. Rethink bonfires
The RHS advises composting or recycling garden waste, but if you do burn it, build the fire just before lighting it. Getty
Hedgehogs and toads love the shelter of stacked dry wood in winter, but if you have plans to set fire to that wood, they could easily be harmed or killed. If you must have a fire, keep material to burn in covered skip sacks or burn clippings the day you've gathered them, rather than letting a pile build up over time. The RHS advises recycling or reusing garden waste (for instance, by composting) instead of burning it.
25. Plant a mixed hedge
The variety of a mixed hedge makes it better able to support a diverse range of animals and insects. Jason Ingram
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A hedge (Premuium) composed of different wildlife plants provides shelter, habitat, and food throughout the year. The best time to plant bare-root hedging (such as hawthorn, blackthorn, and dog rose) is between November and February.
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