Grange Farm, in Kesgrave, near Ipswich, is a typical modern housing development, built in the early 1990s. As is usual, the developer builds at a high density, so gardens are small and green space is at a premium. Not surprisingly, this sort of thing is usually a wildlife desert, echoing to the sound of lawnmowers and barbecues in summer, rather than birdsong.
I don't know whether it was a conscious decision by the Council, but the site has one feature which seems to have worked for wildlife and people alike, and it has brought the estate alive to the sound of birdsong. The estate is bisected by a long cycle path and footpath, bounded on either side by a mixed hedge of hawthorn, miniature holly and other plants.
This path is on the route of an old track between the two farms on which the site was built, Grange farm and Jollys farm, which means that many of the old trees which formed the original track line are preserved, much older than the years the hedges have been there.
In the intervening years, the wildlife has moved in along this green corridor, and now the path is alive with birds and insects. It is a good place to raise a family of birds. This is just a path and cycle track, so unlike other roadside hedges there are no fast hazards. There are perhaps still too many cats about, but with many eyes on them the birds seem to hold their own.
I used to cycle to work along this path in the summer, and as I went I logged some sightings of birds as I noticed them. I appreciated them going about their business and they enhanced the journey to work. Unfortunately I didn't keep many of the logs, but this is one from 2006 that I did to test out Tom Carden's Google Maps GPX viewer Google keeps changing Google Maps, so old pages rot and becomes unserviceable with time, but the birds still tell a little story, and I remember them fondly.
The green points show where I heard sparrows, there was a lot in the press about our urban and suburban sparrows disappearing. You don't hear much about that now, but the chirping of sparrows is getting rarer in Ipswich.
a cycle path sparrow
this sort of long mixed hedge is fantastic wildlife habitat