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While many plants have been late to flourish this year, I’m pleased to report that the blue and great tits that forage in my garden every spring are bang on schedule.Regular readers of this blog will know that every year my tiny courtyard garden is host to a pair of blue tits and...

I have to admit, I do have some slightly unusual behavioural traits. I enjoy clattering down the pavement on my daughter’s old chrome microscooter, although only my 8-year-old son will be seen with me, and only if he is riding his bike. I like bow-ties, but only in discrete burgu...

A friend of mine recently found a juvenile hedgehog. It was curled in a ball in the middle of the road, with cars whizzing past. Had my friend not been in the right place at the right time, this young hoglet would almost certainly have met a sticky end.In addition to dicing with ...

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

Find out how to identify the six species of bumblebee likely to visit gardens, by using our easy-to-follow guide.In recent years, bumblebeeshave suffered massive declines, leaving two of the UK's 27 native species extinct. Loss of habitat is to blame, with wild areas of farmland ...

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 ...

, such as lavender and viper’s bugloss. Then there are the trees and shrubs that have been too big to consider until now. And perhaps I’ll have room for a hedge or mini meadow (who am I kidding?).And then there’s the wildlife. Which species can I lure into my garden

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...

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 ...

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, in Bethnal Green. Cars, buses ...