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It's National Insect Week, so I'm obliged to mention insects at every opportunity. Organised by the Royal Entomological Society, its aim is to promote the study of insects, to encourage the wider world to understand why it is important to study them (gardeners insert your own rea...

as this pond that I made a while ago. There will be dragonflies, ducks, swans (if we're lucky), voles, birds, fish and all manner of amphibians. It never ceases to amaze me that if you plant things then wildlife appears almost by magic.If you have the chance

The Friday before last was hot and humid, and as the sun fell the evening crept in sultry and still. Sitting in the kitchen I was aware that there was an inordinate number of moths fluttering about outside. This wasn't much of a surprise, the last couple of weeks had been moth he...

The foxes of East Dulwich are particularly well fed. I can tell this for sure, because I have been able to examine, very closely, what comes out of the other end of the fox. Last week, we received two parcels of fox dung on the pavement outside the front garden; one to the left, ...

before it’s flowered, but I can’t help leaving a few around the edge to provide food for wildlife.I hate seeing bare earth in my garden. If I expose the soil I sow a few seeds of red clover on the surface, which germinate quickly and provide some ground

In January I blogged about 'winterkill', after letters, emails and blog comments flooded in from gardeners who'd found dead frogs in their ponds. One commenter, Wishful Thinker, suggested I blog about winterkill before winter, so people can take action to prevent it happening ag...

Yes, we have no waxwings. Strange as this may seem, they appear to be avoiding south-east London. They're everywhere else though, and I am wondering if I will be the last naturalist in Britain to see one.The Bohemian waxwing, Bombycilla garrulus, to give it its full name, is a be...

A recent study published in the Journal of Applied Ecology suggests that gardens make better habitats for bumblebees than the countryside. This isn't surprising, as field margins and hedgerows have become scarce over the years, so many species of bumblebee now have few nesting op...

After the wet and dismal weekend, I take a tentative stroll in the garden on a clear and bright Tuesday morning, and discover the first newt of the year sitting motionless at the bottom of the pond. I know it has been down there all winter, but the combination of dry day (getting...

A friend of mine is being kept awake at night by a 'bird'. It starts singing at about 4.30am and continues until he gets up. My friend is quite vexed by this bird and would rather it didn't exist. He doesn't know its identity, but it's likely to be a robin or a blackbird - both m...