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-escape balcony, over the block of back gardens, to see if I can spot any life anywhere. And with perfect timing, announced by a series of metallic ‘tsit tsit tsit’ notes, a small gang of titmice comes bobbing over the hedges and lands in next-door’s cherry tree

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

I parked in a side street in Forest Hill last week and walking down to the Horniman Museum I noticed something odd with a small Norway maple, Acer platanoides, growing in a rather untidy hedge. Some of the leaves were dappled with the pale blotches

We are being invaded. I had not seen many harlequin ladybirds in my garden this year, but a few weeks ago I noticed that the larvae were climbing over the hedge from next door, in droves. This south-facing fence is covered with ivy and a

, just a mile from where I am now. The reason, I'm sure, is that it truly lives up to its other English name - hedge brown. The gardens in East Dulwich are larger than those in Nunhead, and the fences are more likely to be overgrown by creepers

and brown males. And one of the large spotted Melecta species was resting, just out of clear sight, at the very top of the hedge. They seem to favour the higher leaves, leaving the lower ones for hoverflies and blow-flies. I’m wondering if there is a

It's ten to nine on a weekday morning and the start of the last week of school. It's only a short walk to school and there is always the opportunity of peering over fences and hedges to see what else is going on in other people's gardens

The last few days we’ve had a toad wandering about near the back door. It ambled out from under the guinea pig’s carpet off-cut weather cover when I rearranged the hutch, and although I released it in the hedge it reappeared in the same place

. Its preference for wild flowers (ladies’ smock, garlic mustard and hedge mustard) rather than cultivated brassicas means that it's less persecuted, but is also more easily overlooked.A few minutes later a holly blue, Celastrina argiolus, appeared

On holiday in northern France last week I was struck by the similarities in the landscape, but very subtle differences in the wildlife.With its gently rolling hills, hedges, grazing meadows, small woods, narrow lanes and winding streams, I could