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through the fresh blanket sniffing for whatever it is in our garden that foxes sniff for. The squirrel did not see the fox, snow in its eye perhaps, but the fox saw his quarry immediately. He lowered his profile and spread his weight, tensing his back

that there are so many UK travellers roaring over the continent. And it is no surprise to discover ‘new’ European mainland insects arriving back with them into Britain.The rosemary leaf beetle, Chrysolina americana, was first found in the UK in a Kitchen in Disley

20 seconds worrying what the neighbours would think, and then relaxed, happy with our new arrival.My bumblebees (RIP) were rescued from friends who were landscaping their garden; some of my frogs were rescued from a kitchen drain and the rest I picked

and inquisitive children, eager to find out all about the wildlife they have found and held in their own hands. Their eyesight is so good, and they're all immensely proud of the often tiny specks of protoplasm which would be passed over in a blink by their parents

. It was on one such former orchard that my hosts had put their house. I spent many happy hours between pre-wedding social engagements, mooching about outside. The 'garden' was little more than a cleared paddock, roughly mown by tractor-drawn brush cutter a few

(gardeners insert your own reasons here), and, I'm afraid, to bemoan the fact that not enough funding or political clout is given to insect study and education.I'm one of a number of 'international entomologists' who has been invited to blog about their daily

the wiser.I only get pigeons regularly visiting my garden. Last winter I made efforts to entice smaller, hungrier birds, and managed to attract a desperate pair of wagtails, a blackbird, a robin and a blue tit. They disappeared as soon as the ice thawed

To Soicherons, Villars-Dompierre, in the Cote d'Or region of France for two weeks and the wildlife here is subtly different to that in East Dulwich. For one thing we are surrounded by large flowery meadows, hedges dripping with Mirabelle plums