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I got up out of my sick bed to post this, I hope you know. Our brief dusting of snow may have gone, but it was too grim and grey to go exploring in the garden after hibernating ladybirds or flat-backed millipedes. Instead, I ventured upstairs

birds each year in the UK. I admitted that my two sometimes bring in mice, rats and birds, but the fact that I've seen kestrel and sparrowhawk in my garden and peregrine falcon in central London was, I hope, proof that there are enough birds to go round

It's Gardeners' World 'Grow Your Own' Week and I really am trying to grow my own, honest. Up at the allotment, everything's looking a bit bedraggled after the rain. The onions and garlics are looking just about OK; I'm hoping the strawberries

This weekend is the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch, the world's largest bird survey. In last year's Birdwatch, over 400,000 people sat for an hour and noted which species visited their gardens; six million birds were counted. The Big Garden Birdwatch

I thought my garden was already quite a haven for mammals, birds and insects, but there is always more you can do for them. With this in mind I've just registered to take part in the RSPB Homes for Wildlife scheme. After answering a few brief

the weather here in London.The garden is still looking remarkably green, even after we cut down the now wilting and blackened dahlias. In fact we already have a perfect bird-feeder growing out there - the apple tree. And the bird that best takes advantage

-tailed tits in my garden next year.It's no surprise that Britain's smallest bird should suffer in the cold. It's all to do with body mass and surface area ratios. I wonder whether I can get away with a bit of maths on this blog. Imagine a cubic bird — strange

(by weight) of the UK avian population; two UK sea ducks – the velvet scoter and long-tailed duck - are now threatened with global extinction.Not all is doom and gloom. In the chart of breeding bird trends, many familiar garden species are actually

, they are field birds. The RSPB website is on hand with the answer — they readily come into the suburbs to visit gardens when the weather is snowy. The white is gone from my garden now, and so too, apparently, are the fieldfares, gone back to the fields. But as I

Big news from the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch survey results just out: the long-tailed tit has made it, for the first time in the survey's 30-year history, into the top 10. I hardly ever saw these gregarious little birds until I moved to East Dulwich