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I think we have foxes living under our garden shed. I first noticed the scratching in the soil a week or so ago. It didn't look like very much excavation had occured and the hole didn't appear to go very far. But now we have more earth-moving going

tasty had somehow got wedged in it. I've cleared out plenty of chicken bones from our gutters over the years, dropped there, I think, by crows who have raided gardens where titbits have been left out for cats or foxes.Then it was the jays, three of them

- but a shaft of sunlight through the scattered pondweed shows the dancing hordes of water fleas. The water is clear and clean so I'm expecting great things in coming months.I spent a lot of time in the garden on Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday. Why

in the garden there.It is the larva of the birch sawfly, Cimbex femoratus. At over 35mm long and a good 6mm in diameter, it rivals many a plump and handsome moth caterpillar in its size. Unlike lepidopteron larvae, though, the Cimbex grub has only the six 'true

Since having to wear reading glasses (my squinting started about 4 years ago), I do that 'double take' thing of having to square my face to something then back off a few inches to get it into focus. I did this a few days ago in the garden

There was magic going on in the garden today. About 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the sun had started to slope down and was giving everything that rich warm autumn glow. Looking out of the top bedroom window, I was admiring the reds, yellows and golds

It’s always fascinating, and stimulating, when people ask me to identify insects they’ve found in their gardens. On Monday I was stopped by one of the teachers at six-year-old’s school and shown an image of a brightly coloured moth on his phone. I

A bit of garden clearance in the rain is always therapeutic. Working off a good lunch and feeling the drip of water down my neck, I feel my endeavours are all the more noble. Actually all I'm doing is ripping the vine out of the apple tree it's been

of about 20 white eggs. Each egg is beautiful under the microscope, squat, almost spherical with 25 to 30 fluted grooves running top to bottom.And shortly before posting this, I've just walked into the front garden to find a male meadow brown butterfly

in the long grass and herbage (away from flowers) for moth caterpillars in which to lay its eggs. This is the first time I've seen it in the garden. It sunned itself for a few seconds, then it was off.