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with sunbathing beasts: shieldbugs, spiders, ladybirds, bees, and two cats nestled in at the bottom. The newts have returned to the pond too; four of them were swimming about in there. These are the regular denizens of my garden, but two unusual visitors were a

and dropped to the floor. And yesterday the cats brought in a huge black and grey moth - the old lady, Mormo maura - which fluttered around the kitchen ceiling until rescued.Wednesday also brought the first large cabbage white butterfly of the year. I don

and the odd really unfortunate one got into my mouth. Then they came indoors, having discovered open windows and open cat flap, and hung around the fruit bowl like miniature vultures or drowned in the chianti.They're all gone now...or so I thought. In fact

because he knew mankind would often be in its presence.Nowadays the only dung I ever get first-hand experience of (although it's usually first-foot experience) is dog, cat or fox, and none of them is renowned for its sweet scent. I have found the odd

A plaintive mewling took me to the end of the garden a couple of days ago. At first I thought a cat had caught a bird or had cornered a fledgling. As I got closer I realised it was coming from a tree and wondered if some strange seagull was lost

to prevent other suitors taking advantage until the eggs are laid. At present there are approximately no cow pats in my garden, but we have two well-fed cats, and the regular procession of foxes leave more than their fair share of strong-smelling faeces. Even

up and down the lawn where migratory herds appear to have trampled. As far as I can make out, these are the combined footprints of our two cats, that fox, and several squirrels. They must have made the journey dozens of times.The fox prints

during the one-off survey earlier in the year. House sparrows, blackbirds and starlings regularly hide in it and the foliage and flowers are dense enough to hide them from the prying cats. There are still two more weeks to run, but I've already had double

the garden, but our resident south London foxes liked to play with them and many have been damaged or gone missing. Those that remain are nailed to the shed and the flagpole. The sheep jawbone eventually also fell apart because of their meddling, but the cat

in some secluded bank or hedge and make her nest away from any more human interference.At home the cats were molesting something in the long grass around the pond. A small toad was marching up the garden. We sometimes find them hiding under the sandpit