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and her immature colony. Similar starts and flounderings are happening throughout the insect world, in similar warmth-loving creatures, from bugs to butterflies, with the hatching of vulnerable eggs into vulnerable larvae at exactly this time. A good year

on your fat balls.(If you hear swifts screaming above you in the evening, the RSPB would love to hear about it.)Gardeners aren't traditionally fans of insects, except pretty ones, like butterflies and bees. They're not made welcome in areas of intensively

at the edge of the water in total darkness with bats swirling around me.Like so much of our wildlife, bats are having a hard time. This is mostly due to the widespread use of pesticides in agriculture. British bats feed exclusively on insects, so spraying

in the waste below.It's remarkable how much life a compost bin can attract. Books will tell you that a compost heap is one of the best garden features to attract wildlife but, somehow, this 'life' inside the bin can go unnoticed.We gardeners normally only

.Only one butterfly graces us today, but what a beast it is; the red admiral is a truly regal creature, with its inky black splashed with red and white insignia. Even its mottled and camouflaged undersides are beautifully marked and always remind me of cut

yellow in another local park. But I saw this as a telling remark, that even he was more interested in the pretty but ultimately trivial observation of a fleetingly migrant butterfly, than the eco-genocide of a colony of nearly-top predators.

Within days, two scientific reports on Britain’s wildlife have made national news headlines because of their dire prognoses. The State of the UK’s Birds 2012, produced by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, British Trust for Ornithology

This week, the RSPB and other wildlife organisations published a report identifying the declines of our native wildlife. Called ‘State of Nature’, it’s a breakthrough in British conservation. For the first time, experts have worked together

, froghoppers, moths, butterflies and bees. (The frogs I rescued and brought in.) I’m determined to make sure my garden provides the perfect home for wildlife over winter, and if I have to compromise a little on aesthetics, so be it. I've already made

are continually on the move. I hope the BTO is able to keep an eye of all five of them over winter and track their return journeys to the UK in spring.In the meantime, we gardeners can take a few steps to ensure this autumn's hibernating butterflies, moths