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The foxes have been busy in my garden again. I haven’t seen them recently, but they leave their tell-tale signs. Occasionally I have cause to curse them, notably when I move the kids’ climbing frame to mow the lawn and find a putrescent latrine in the damp grass. Other times they...

Within days, two scientific reports on Britain’s wildlife have made national news headlines because of their dire prognoses. The State of the UK’s Birds 2012, produced by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, British Trust for Ornithology

No, it’s not quite time for hibernation yet. Just a bit of sun in the garden and all kinds of intriguing insects are out again. I thought maybe I’d seen the last of this year’s hoverflies, but a drowsy marmalade fly, Episyrphus balteatus, is twitching its wings on an ivy leaf. I ...

It’s been fascinating to follow the tweets of butterfly enthusiasts as they marked the arrival of warm weather during the last fortnight, by discoveries of green hairstreaks, Duke of Burgundy Fritillaries and even some large tortoiseshells in the Isle of Wight. I can’t match any ...

, and occasionally a frog will be sitting in it. As far as I know they have never bred there. But somewhere else, near at hand, hidden from my view, there must be other small garden ponds, more frog- and toad-friendly ponds, where successful spawning does take place

sitting in their centrally heated kitchens, but since it is part of the natural order, wildlife ought to be expected to cope with it each year. However, it is the false start, which is perhaps the most dangerous weather phenomenon. The biological clock

Sapphire Class at Ivydale Primary School are now experts on bumblebees. We did a workshop on climate change so I took in a tray of bumblebee specimens and we talked about the potential consequences for these well-known and much-loved insects.First we looked at a few basic aspects...

Although, yes, technically it is a spider, I’m almost positive that nobody could really be scared of the zebra spider, Salticus scenicus. It lacks all those sinister characteristics that can cause unease among some people — it isn’t black and hairy, it doesn’t have long legs, it ...

2007 will be remembered as a very good year for wasps. But before people start complaining about their vicious stings and bad tempers, I must point out that wasps are actually our friends. After birds and spiders, they are the most important insect

Visiting an old friend in West Dulwich last week I saw the first damselfly of the season. I wasn't quick enough to see which, but it was a male of either the common blue damsel (Enallagma cyanthigerum), pictured below, or the azure (Coenagrion