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.It's so easy to disturb hibernating insects during winter tidying. The thing to remember is not to rouse them before their time, or they'll surely perish. If they cannot be replaced back in the same place, move them to a similar sheltered, but cool spot

It was blisteringly cold on Sunday, and the water butts were frozen over, but it was not a deep frost. So repairing and replacing the raised beds up at the allotment was relatively easy. The old scaffold planks we put in four or five years ago have

There is a delicate balance between wanting to see nature in the garden, and suffering the consequences of its visits. I am decidedly at the easy end of the spectrum, and all I have to worry about are a few dollops of fox faeces in return for close

strong background yellow reduced to only the faintest whisper. This species is well known to vary tremendously in size and colour. It's nice to know that I can still be challenged by even the relatively 'easy' hoverflies.There was no mistaking the next

Living in a city, one of the country things I really miss is the easy search for dung beetles. Growing up at the foot of the South Downs I could quite happily spend an entire day out dunging. Cows, sheep and horses grazed the rolling hills around my

tail chopped off and then grew a new one. It was easy to spot with its delicate pink newly grown tail contrasting with the old dark purple body. We looked at it thoughtfully for a while, and let it go. I decided not to launch into a lecture on worm

- is an apt descriptor here), but I've also seen 'hairy-footed bee' and 'flower bee'.Only the males have the feathery feet - the middle pair - but I've never been able to find out what they use them for. The sexes are easy to tell apart without having

stercoraria. It's scientific name means, rather unsurprisingly 'dung-eating dung-inhabiter' and it's one of those insects that is very easy to overlook in the garden. In a grazing meadow they are obvious and multitudinous insects, speckling the fresh cow pats

much rather take easy pickings.It is an oft-forgotten rule, but the answer to the question 'what do carnivores eat?' is not 'meat' or 'other animal', but 'whatever they can get'. But this does not mean they are constantly on the ferocious hunt for prey

of the annual migration back to their birth ponds. I’m fairly lucky in that, although my back garden is not ever so large, it is part of a large block of gardens where hedges and fences are tatty enough to allow these beasts fairly easy passage.We have a pond