I have been interested in wildlife since childhood, when collecting one egg from bird nests was a favourite pastime. This has since been made illegal, but at the time it was a way to learn about different species and the habitat they lived in. I ultimately gave my collection to Testbourne Community School in Whitchurch, where it can hopefully inspire and teach other children about wildlife.

As an adult, I worked as a welding engineer. I was mostly self-employed, which gave me enough free time to follow my passion for the great outdoors. I developed a keen interest in the art of falconry and for a good number of years flew a team of peregrine falcons. I was one of the first to breed them in captivity and helped a university with a project to identify birds that had been stolen from the wild.

Part of flying these falcons involved hunting grey partridges on farmland, but when I noticed a huge drop in their numbers I stopped this and turned my attention to helping them recover. I persuaded the farm owner to let me plant wildflower strips on his land, which encouraged insects for the partridges to feed on.

This project saw its greatest success when some of the winter crops were undersown with grasses. This created breeding habitat not only for the partridges, but also for short-eared owls, skylarks, and harriers. That progress was sadly lost when the farm changed hands, but the experience taught me a valuable lesson: improving the environment can benefit many species if done in the right way.

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I am now retired and for the past 20 years have lived in Longparish. Around seven years ago, I happened to spot an otter in the stretch of the River Test that flows through my garden. I was building a treehouse with the aim of watching for future otter visits, when I noticed a female kingfisher roosting nearby. Knowing that these birds were seeking nest sites in the area, I decided to give them a hand.

I built two artificial breeding chambers in my riverbank at the end of January, and by March a pair of kingfishers had moved in - I couldn't believe it. They are now back for their seventh breeding season and usually manage two clutches each year. This gives me hope that this pair have boosted the local kingfisher population.

After the breeding chambers, my next project was a large garden pond which I filled with minnows and sticklebacks for the kingfishers to feed on. As it developed over the years, however, it also attracted a good assortment of damselflies and dragonflies, including the distinctive golden-ringed species.

Since then, I have put up bat and swift boxes around the garden with mixed results: great tits and blue tits nest every year, bees have settled in one of them, but no swifts have appeared so far. Last year a long-tailed tit made a nest in a climbing vine, although it was ultimately predated by a wood mouse.

I leave brambles and nettles alone, as their seeds help to sustain bullfinches in the late winter months. In the summer, nettles give various butterflies a place to lay their eggs, and later you can see caterpillars devouring the leaves. I was surprised to see a bank vole eating nettle seeds too - you learn something new every day!

There is nothing more satisfying than to see the results of one's efforts to encourage wildlife. My garden in late summer is now a paradise for me: the lawn is left to grow wild from April and many wild flowers give insects a feast. The sheer numbers of them flying around is a sight to behold.

One of the best surprises has been a muntjac deer giving birth in the brambles, after which we had the pleasure of seeing the fawn grow. I was careful not to approach the family, as I didn't want to scare them into the river or a road. This was later topped by the arrival of the first water vole since I moved in. It loves apples and carrots, and I feed it daily in the hope that it will have many young.

But my highlight was the young female otter that regularly came into my garden. Otters have a varied diet, and she was very interested in my pond. Tragically, she was run over on the busy road near my house, and several others have since met the same fate. I would love to build an otter holt, but don't want to put them in danger; I think fencing is needed to prevent more deaths.

An unexpected result of encounters like these has been my passion for wildlife photography. When the kingfishers had their first brood I wanted to record their success, and since then I have managed to take some stunning shots of these beautiful birds, as well as otters and water voles - all flagship species that reflect the health of the environment they live in.

The nature reserves along the Upper Anton in Andover have been particularly good for photographing otters, which are my favourite mammal. For three years I have tracked their movements up and down the stream, finding their favourite feeding and resting places. I have had many special moments with them and learned that if you give them space they will often come out of the water to eat.

For me, we are near to crisis point with the loss of wildlife habitat; I feel that humans on the whole are uncaring and do not appreciate the scale of the problem. The pace of development is relentless, with developers sometimes adding just a few trees or a small green space in exchange for permission to build.

New houses can also mean more pets around, so owners need to act responsibly. A simple bell can help stop cats from killing millions of smaller animals each year - some even hunt water voles. Keeping your dog on a lead in sensitive areas will prevent it from chasing or hunting the resident wildlife.

We also need to give our young people the chance to learn about nature. It is a travesty of my generation that we have done so little to secure habitats and wildlife for future ones. Failure to act now will lead to the extinction of many species that were commonplace in our youth. How many children have seen a greenfinch, heard a nightingale, or found newts, lizards, and slow worms?

If you have outdoor space then there is no better place to start. It probably sounds like I have a very large garden, but this is not the case - if you create a habitat, big or small, the wildlife will come. It only takes a few simple actions to gain the immense satisfaction and pleasure of seeing wildlife up close. Here are my top tips:

1. Have areas where things are just left to grow wild.
2. Keep a patch of nettles in the sun for butterflies.
3. Keep an area of bramble (this will need a little maintenance).
4. Leave the greater part of any lawn to flower and avoid cutting it late in the year.
5. Plant fruit trees to attract finches (which love the buds) and insects (which love the fruit in the autumn time). Honeysuckle is also a must for insects if you have a wall or trellis for it to climb.
6. Put up bat, bird, and dormouse boxes.
7. Put little pieces of tin down (roughly 300mm square) for slow worms and lizards to warm up underneath.
8. Create a pond; no matter how small, it will pay rich dividends, especially if you have a pumped water feature to stop it going stagnant.
9. Put feeders out in the winter to help the wildlife through a difficult time.
10. Try and leave any tidying up of the garden until late spring, but before the birds start to nest. A lot of birds (such as blackbirds, wrens, and song thrushes) forage for insects under rotting leaves and grasses.
11. Avoid using sprays or poisons to control slugs, insects, or rodents.

Cherishing our chalk streams

Thanks to Steve for sharing his amazing wildlife journey with us! If you're also keen to help nature, why not try his tips in your own outdoor space?

Steve is lucky enough to have one of our beautiful local chalk streams on his patch, but there are many ways to experience these habitats. Check out the Watercress and Winterbournes scheme for inspiration.

We're always looking for people like Steve who are kind enough to share their personal experiences of our local chalk streams. You can read more wonderful stories, or share your own, through our Tales from the Riverbank project.