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Monday morning and a jay visited the kitchen window. I always think these are incredibly handsome birds and the small blue wing feathers still give me a childish thrill when I find one dropped. I can't resist picking it up to stick in my hat

trees in our garden, but a few days ago I was convinced I could hear one in the gardens a few doors down, which have sycamores, limes and Lombardy poplars. But no matter how hard I listened, I could not pinpoint exactly where the sound was coming from

. I was struck by its bright iridescent green body and red head against the drab colours of the autumn sward. Like many non-ornithologists before me I was confused by the considerable lack of wood for such a bird to peck, way up on the chalk hillsides

I was in Peckham Rye Park on Monday and saw a wagtail strutting about by the small stream that runs past. They're not rare birds, but I watched it for some time thinking I had not seen one in ages. Although maybe not really a suburban garden bird

the right sized holes in which the birds nest, but they're probably using them as vantage points. I first saw them in Beckenham, about 10 years ago, when a large gang of upwards of 20 were making a rowdy display near a children's playground. They

of the garden beds.We have a regular gang of these fantastic birds wheeling about in the sky far above us, but they never come down low into the garden, nor do they ever perch on the fences or even the clothes line. I can't really envisage even the most agile

I though the four-year-old and his friend were being noisy on the trampoline, but they were not the source of the shrill screaming last Friday. It was about 2.30 in the afternoon and the wild shouts suddenly stopped as a sparrowhawk screeched over

, there is still dense thatch in the clematis, ivy, and acacia—enough to shelter birds, insects and other wildlife.But things are already planned for 2009, starting on 24-25 January with the Big Garden Birdwatch.

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

It’s all looking rather still and damp in the garden now. Autumn, it seems, has come at last. Over the Guy Fawkes weekend, there were reports on iSpot and Flickr of red admirals and hoverflies visiting the sun-lit ivy, but, in my garden at least