Autumn is famed for its vibrant dashes of colour, so I headed out into my garden this week to see how the season's palette is progressing.

We think of spring as a prime time for yellows, but flower borders in autumn can still cling on to summer's blooms right into October or early November, so it wasn't hard to find yellows, such as this Rudbeckia lacinata, great for bees)...

...and Californian Poppies…

A few weeks ago I praised... (take a deep breath)...dandelions.

Today, is the turn of another native plant that is not especially loved, the Common Hogweed, that familiar upright white flower of road verges and hedgerows

Before I go any further, I need to be clear that I am not talking the Invasive Non-native Species called Giant Hogweed, which should be avoided at all costs. Growing to 3 metres tall and incredibly…

You know you like a little bit of a teaser, so here's today's game: spot the wildlife in the Ivy... There is something in there, I promise.

Hopefully you found the Chiffchaff lurking in there. (If it eluded you, the answer is at the end of the blog).

Here he is out in the open, having a whale of a time among all the insects that are attracted now the Ivy is in flower.

Much of the insect life he isn't interested…

After a very busy week, please excuse me doing a very visual blog.

You see, my RSPB day-job got kind of hectic this week with the news that the planning application had been withdrawn which would have plonked 5,000 houses all over the best site in the UK for the threatened Nightingale (cheer!). But a new application is apparently threatened (boo!). You can see my thoughts about that here.

The week was made even busier…