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While the growling frogs in my mum's shallow pond have gone quiet (“and who can blame them, the pond completely froze over last week”, observed my mother), a pair of robins has been busy in the garden of my mother-in-law. Despite the bad weather

to be a robin or a blackbird - both may sing at night and have similar songs.I'm reasonably good at identifying birdsong - I can tell a robin apart from a blackbird, a blue tit from a great tit, and identify more distinct calls such as that of the chiff

skips for more wood and was experimenting with designs for robins, wrens and starlings. In the wild, birds nest in a variety of situations such as holes in trees and hedgerows, which tend not to be that abundant in gardens. A snug box with an appropriate

Last winter, when I went to great trouble to feed the birds in my garden, my offerings were largely ignored. This winter, I'm trying again, leaving seeds, chopped apples and suet pellets for ground-feeding birds such as robins, blackbirds

This time last year I was bemoaning the lack of birds in my garden. There was little point in taking part in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch, as the only feathered visitors to my plot were pigeons (although a robin, blackbird and a pair of grey

). But I feel it's only a matter of time before they find it. The only birds visiting my garden at the moment are a blackbird, robin and several pigeons. Blackbirds and robins are ground feeders, so I leave food on the ground for them. I put it out first

noticed, except the butterflies, of course, and the blackbirds and the robin and the frogs.I can see the benefits of having an artificial lawn, a lawn that stays green and lush under trees and in between goal posts, that you don't have to get up to mow

woodpeckers, witnessed blackbirds and robins fighting over territory, and sat a little too close to a wasps' nest.It's generally a very good habitat for wildlife: there's a mass of ivy to provide food and shelter for all manner of creatures, and something

imported topsoil, then tried (and failed) to sow a lawn from seed.I watched the evolution of the plot from courtyard to garden as more and more creatures visited it - blue tits and great tits, a robin, blackbird, bumblebees, butterflies, moths, slugs

will be reduced, while caterpillar food plants could die through lack of water, taking the caterpillars (and therefore butterflies) with them. The dry, hard ground will make life hard for robins and blackbirds looking for worms to feed themselves and their young