After moving to the relative country (well... the outskirts of Dartford, if that counts. One direction, is really towny, but there are fields in the other direction and a river and a bunch of lakes not far away) I was disapponted in the actual lack of wildlife
Near my old place I used to see foxes regularly, and a variety of birds, and squirrels were regular visitors to the garden.
Foxes are about here, (I've heard them) but I've only seen them a mile or so away. We do have a lot of robins though. I think my dad might have seen a squirrel a while ago, but I had to wander in the woods nearby before I saw one, and that was a way into the walk.
I soon changed my mind concerning the lack of wildlife when a toad and a grass snake turned up recently. I never saw snakes in Bromley! (I held the toad, by the way. It's skin is actually dry! I thought it was a slightly unusual frog to start with, but then it walked... They hop too, but they tend to just stroll most of the time. I didn't try to hold the snake, just in case it turned out to be an adder.**)
We have a pond (hence the attraction of the toad and the snake* I guess.) which we inherited from the previous owners. It's full of fish. They're nice to view (when I can see them in that murky water), but I'm not sure they quality as wildlife. When we cleared out the pond recently, there were an abundance of frogs too. (They were a lot of fun to relocate to/from the paddling pool. Hint: curve your fingers around in front of them so they can't use your palm as a launch pad. We had family friend's kids around too, that day. Imagine the squeals...)
*I saw the snake in the pond. Apparently grass snakes like to hang out in water areas. Kinda like anacondas, I guess except much much much much much smaller. Their prey tends to be frogs rather than peccaries and crocodiles.
**Unlikely, but why stress it? I mainly picked up the toad as I wanted to relocate it off the patio where the sun could fry it, or it might get stepped on.
