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bird-feeding.For the last two years, I've been able to get really close to long-tailed tits, but this is nothing to do with my bird table, but my choice of holiday cottage. Two years running we rented a small cottage near Carisbrooke Castle, in the Isle

for food at this time of year, but robins really do get up close, and don't appear to be scared.You feel as if they would feed out of your hand, but perhaps that is hoping too much. Instead, any worms turned over during digging are picked out and thrown a

A recent Which? Gardening report revealed that many shop-bought wildlife homes are not worth buying. The trial included hedgehog homes, bug boxes and bumblebee nesters, and concluded that only solitary bee hotels proved successful, especially home

go through this behaviour in autumn, and only the fertilised queens (females) survive through winter. In the 'solitary' species, the bees develop in their mainly subterranean nests, and although the grubs may finish feeding on the stored stocks

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

was put up nearby, a few days before the demolition. Until then, I doubt many people had noticed the hornets going about their daily activity of bringing back dead insects to feed to their grubs.I don’t know whether it was panic from the public

startled in Dorset was probably a slow worm or grass snake (pictured above). These benign species often turn up in gardens, mostly in the south of England, and very rarely in the north. They bask in rockeries, feed in ponds and breed in compost heaps

attractive to butterflies and moths. If left to seed, it will naturalise all over the garden.Verbena bonariensisThis climbing evergreen provides a supply of nectar and pollen until late November. Holly blue caterpillars also feed on its leaves, while many

are unlikely to nest a busy location (for example if the box is too near a feeding station), or anywhere with strong sunlight or a prevailing wind. It’s generally advised to place the box in a north-easterly direction, but if shadows are provided by tall