Search - Articles

I've been building, not so much a garden pond, as a playground pond. And the first problem with playgrounds is that they are all-over tarmac. The obvious site for Ivydale Primary School's new pond was a sunny, but extremely bleak corner next

of the building, a rapid series of hollow rattles, quickly answered by another tapping on the other side of the room as if in mocking echo, it's no wonder they became associated with the ticking away of life itself.But there is nothing so dark in their night

the bathroom light on each night.The notion of bug boxes came back to me recently when I had a quick look through the 'my garden' section of the RSPB's Homes for Wildlife web pages. Under 'homes for insects' it suggests installing or building one. Well, I

and they then point it out to some of their friends. They gain a modicum of kudos from knowing a 'hawk' when they see one.Then it drifts away over the buildings and is gone. Well I never. I know it's a common bird, but I usually associate it with roadsides rather than

some previous owner has thoughtfully laid a path or hidden some building debris. If I get through the crushed brick, a further 10 cm down I meet solid London clay. With a frozen crust, I thought I'd have a task before me.The ground was not as hard as I

spiders of hollow tree trunks, logs, root cavities, rock piles, caves and other small sheltered voids. Here they build a silken funnel that expands out into a tatty hammock, a bit like a threadbare handkerchief. The spider sits patiently in the funnel

a tight-pruned lime and a small cypress. Nevertheless, the city is splashed all over with natural colour as sills, walls, yards and railings are covered with pots and window boxes.Some buildings in the rickety 'old quarter' are so bedecked they look

and inquisitive children, eager to find out all about the wildlife they have found and held in their own hands. Their eyesight is so good, and they're all immensely proud of the often tiny specks of protoplasm which would be passed over in a blink by their parents

of wildlife down there. The Rye is a tad bigger than my back garden, so I can usually find something different.The first thing we see is a fox, loitering about the 'cat house'. As we reach the impenetrable front garden I can hear it walking about in the deep

'm not sure if I have any pictures of the momentous day itself, but I have plenty of images of insects taken near the house during the build-up.In the early 1990s land was cheap in central Florida, after severe frosts killed thousands of acres of orange groves