Logs tend to get all the headlines when it comes to giving nature a home with deadwood, but I’m here to shout out for the humble stick. On its own, it may not be much, but with a load of its friends, it can make a great habitat.

What a stick pile can do is provide a tangled maze into which cats, Magpies and other large predators can’t go. That makes it a perfect hideaway for birds such as Blackbirds, Robins,…

Every day I have up to fifteen Blackbirds on my lawn, and for one reason only - to peck at my Bramleys.

I stored a load of windfalls in the autumn, wrapping them individually in newspaper. Now, every day, five more apples get put out, and down come the Blackbirds.

It takes quite a stab, a stretch and jab, to actually skewer out bits of the soft flesh, but it is clearly very acceptable fare.

I admit that I would quite…

Following my 'Sparrowhawk Snap' posting last week, I realised that thing I hadn't shown you was a rear view of a Sparrowhawk.

Come to think about it, it's not very often that you see photos of wildlife - or humans for that matter - taken from behind. We always want to be able to see into the eyes to feel that we've had a proper encounter, that we've indeed been face to face.

But I did want to…

I'm sure that many of you will have indulged in a bit of game-playing over Christmas, from Scrabble to Monopoly, but here's a new game for 2017 - Sparrowhawk Snap.

The game arises from the fact that my new garden pond, with its shallow margins, has become a magnet for all sorts of bathing birds, and none more so than a Sparrowhawk, which visits almost daily.

Now in many years of being obsessed with wildlife…

There was a time when having a wildlife-friendly garden was considered, well, a bit odd! I'm pleased to say that we're now at the point where it is becoming seen as standard; expected, even.

Part of that step forward is thanks to people showcasing their wildlife-friendly gardens to the public, so I was delighted this week to get an email from one of my RSPB colleagues, Susan Sutton, to say that her garden in…

One of my RSPB projects at the moment is working with Barratt Homes on their largest development in the UK which is at Kingsbrook, Aylesbury. Construction of the houses started in July, and they are incorporating all manner of wildlife-friendly features so that nature has a home at the same time that the new residents have a home, to the benefit of all.

One of the key things that Barratt are installing, to their immense…

I've got a steady stream of House Sparrows, Great Tits and Goldfinches now visiting my feeders, but I've got up to 25 bird species each week visiting the garden and for many my supplementary food isn't what they are after.

So what is the garden offering the rest of them?

It's one of those dificult questions of wildlife gardening, for getting a detailed understanding of what the Dunnocks, Robins and Wrens…

The activity we'd love everyone to think of doing in their gardens this winter is to plant a tree. It's one of the best things anyone can ever do for nature.

Now I know that some of you will have as many trees as your garden can reasonably support. But if you do have space and your reason not for planting is either to do with the cost or you are worried that it sounds difficult, on both counts I'd love to show…

On Wednesday, I had what I think will probably be the last dragonfly of the year at my pond.

It was a male Common Darter, with his blood-red body and red flash near the tip of each wing (that marking is called a 'pterostigma' which, if my Latin is correct, just means wing mark!).

He was clearly feeling a little bit chilly - with only a low November sun to warm him, his engines weren't fired up for much in…

I've said it before and there's a good chance I'll say it again - gardens are AMAZING places for learning about wildlife...and life!

My latest discovery was today in a part of my garden that is due to eventually be a Bee Border. However, this year it has just had a covering of wood chippings from last winter's tree work. And it is through these, prompted by the recent rain, that a little green army has risen…

I always say that keeping Grey Squirrels off your bird food is a battle of wits, and a battle which you will sometimes lose. Over many years I have tried all sorts of ways of ensuring that I'm not just pouring an endless supply of expensive sunflower hearts and peanuts into squirrel bellies.

I often use 'guardian cages', the ones that slip over the top of a feeder, allowing birds in through the wire mesh gaps but…

It has been an incredibly dry autumn in many parts of the country, as a 'blocking high' (as the meteorologists say) has held the usual Atlantic gales at bay.

As a result, I've been having to water my pot plants and new lawn when I was expecting nature to do the job for me, and my pond remains resolutely three-quarters full when I was expecting to see it lapping the margins.

The conditions seem to have made…

I'm sat at my desk with a view out into the garden, and every few seconds a golden leaf detaches itself from my Cornus kousa tree and flutters wistfully down to the ground beneath. I love autumn!

It brings to mind a neighbour I once had who liked nothing more than using a large kind of Ghostbuster suction machine to hoover his leaves up.

There's a good reason for doing so on lawns, for they can so shroud the turf…

Back in the summer, I presented the 'stick trick' - erect a stick in or near a pond in a sunny position and there is every chance that it will be commandeered by a dragonfly as a launch pad.

But I can't deny that in the back of my mind I had a vague hope - no, let's call it a dream - that one day something even more spectacular might use it.

Sometimes, you know, dreams come true.

Yes, I realised…

This week, my new pond has continued to be buzzed by up to six dragonflies at a time, including a couple of egg paying pairs.

Right now at the tail end of the season, they are all Common Darters, the little red or yellowish ones, and they are very fond of sunbathing on planks and benches, like this male:

The number of dragonfly and damselfly eggs that must have been laid in my pond this year must be in the thousands…

Even though the days are rapidly shortening and right now are no longer than in mid March, there's all that summer's heat still held in the ground and in the seas around our little island. It means that air temperatures are still on a par with May and soil temperatures even higher.

That has a big effect on gardens. It means that there are still plenty of insects on the wing, from hoverflies and bees to moths…

Every month, we focus on a particular Giving Nature a Home activity fit for the season, and my thoughts for October turned to snoozing. After all, there is a whole host of creatures that need to find a safe bed for the winter, and that includes our much loved amphibians: Frog, Toad and the three species of newt.

Most of you will have one or more of these living in your garden, so this is a great time to think about whether…

There are many aspects of wildlife-friendly gardening that can be done within the bounds of conventional gardening.

However, there are some areas where I feel we need to break the boundaries and challenge convention, where we redefine what is thought of as normal.

So I was delighted to receive an email from one of my RSPB colleagues up in Scotland, Toby Wilson, telling me what he has done with his front lawn which is…

"What is life if, full of care, you have no time to stand and stare."

For me, a crucial part of wildlife-friendly gardening is taking time out to stop and observe which creatures are taking advantage of your hospitality.

So I was delighted to get an email from Katy Fielding telling me how she turned watching her garden's wildlife into what I'd call a party. ("Well, we stayed up into the early hours playing…

How are you doing for butterflies in your garden this year?

I'm going to guess that you are seeing some Red Admirals, for they appear to be having an ok season. And I expect a few 'cabbage whites' are bobbing about, which in my garden are all three species - Large, Small and Green-veined, although identifying them in flight is often nigh-on impossible.

But the evidence so far across the country appears to…

With the summer holidays nearly over and the kids on the cusp of their return to school, you might be forgiven into thinking that summer is done. Not so in the wildlife-friendly garden.

I thought I'd raid my collection of photos-past to reveal how glorious September can be.

Blocks of pollinator-perfect, late-summer flowers - such as these Monarda and Helenium - present a thousand landing pads for bees of many species…

In many parts of the country, this year is shaping up to be one of the worst on record for butterflies. That's so sad, given that they bring so much joy to us all in gardens.

One reason for the poor season, the scientists think, is last December's astonishingly mild conditions, in which much of England was over 5 degrees Centigrade warmer than average and even Scotland was a couple of degrees above. This meant that…

Don't blame it on the sunshine, don't blame it on the moonlight, don't blame it on the good times...

Yes, now that the Olympic swimming pool has turned green, I think it's time to turn the spotlight on algae.

In fact, it is one of the questions I get asked about most frequently: How do you stop a pond going all scummy with the stuff?

The answer, I'm glad to say, is not what they're having to do at the…

I was wandering around the deep receeses of the garden this week and found that the leaves of some Red Maple saplings had been altered in shape by my little 'artists in residence'.

I'm sure many of you will recognise the tell-tale signs of the leafcutter bee. In fact, there are seven species of leaf-cutters in the UK, but only four of those are what you would call widespread.

In most of the species, the…

Hopefully by now, your garden is full of bouncing babies - chocolatey and speckled Blackbird youngsters, sandy-coloured Starlings, troupes of insistent House Sparrow chicks following their parents, plain-faced Goldfinches looking so different to their red-faced parents.

Maybe you'll even have red-capped Great Spotted Woodpeckers coming to your feeders. Here is a grabbed snapshot of mine at the birdbath this week taken…