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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

Birds not only use water to drink, but they also bathe in it, helping them fluff up their feathers to insulate themselves against the cold. Experts have also found that clean birds are more streamlined, so can escape from predators quickly. Our bird bath is elevated, which will o...

. Not that simple at all.In this case, the tree being felled was a massive cypress, a good 15 metres high and probably four metres across near the base; it was a great blemish of a tree, a dark hulk, a brooding monster. Whatever people’s attitudes to gardening might

of ants scaled this giant, slicing through branches with their machines.I was quite upset but, ever the optimist, I used the opportunity to collect some local, native logs to make a nice wildlife habitat in my mum’s garden. I was sure she wouldn’t mind

I hope you had a good Christmas and a break from your normal routine - maybe a little extra sleep and a lot of extra time in the garden or greenhouse. I’m enjoying the post-Christmas peace and quiet, and the chance to spot some winter birdlife

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 week, Butterfly Conservation published a report called The State of Britain's Larger Moths 2013. It makes a depressing read, demonstrating a marked decline in the number of our larger moths over the last 40 years. The survey, conducted

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Europe’s smallest bird. I would have expected such an occasion to take place in a pine forest or a large rural garden, but this chance encounter occurred on a scrubby piece of park just behind the Hackney Road

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

I’ve just come back from visiting my parents, who live in Newhaven, on the Sussex coast, between Brighton and Eastbourne; there were lots of gulls in their garden. As they live only about a mile from the pebble beaches of Seaford Bay, this is hardly