Blogs

Taken through the lounge window one morning. The sparrowhawk took an hour or so to do away with the jackdaw.

Inside the walled garden at Saltholme RSPB

I hope you enjoyed reading ‘Urban Birder’ David Lindo’s latest piece for Birds magazine on his encounters with bullfinches. If you haven’t read it yet, do turn to page 77 of the Spring 2012 issue. We asked you to let us know about your own experiences with these chunky finches...

Blogger: Aggie Rothon, Communications Officer Apparently we as a nation put on, on average, five pounds over Christmas. That’s quite impressive, even taking in to account the super size me tins of Quality Street sold everywhere pre-Christmas. The BBC seems to have taken this bit of information...

Hi Dye This sounds like a really interesting project and it would be great if you could share some pictures of the site with us so we can see what it looks like. Doggie has given a couple of good links there for planting advice and ponds, a water feature has great benefits to various wildlife and...

I take great pleasure in feeding the wild birds, having about 8 feeders of various sorts also some old metal dog cages for ground feeders. In the last week all the birds seem to have vanished, food remains in the feeders and no sightings. Not seen any ill like we did last year, no little bodies found...

Blogger: Rachael Murray, Media Officer Staff and residents of Bupa care homes across Hertfordshire will be keeping an eye out for creatures that croak, flap, cheep and snuffle for Bupa’s Wildlife Week (26 September – 2 October), a new initiative which aims to encourage more wildlife into...

I started by turning my troublesome veg patch into a wildlife area, i planted a Buddleia, teasels, wild basil, wild marjoram, some red clover, Hawk bits. lesser knapweeds and some different types of scabious. I then inter sowed the area with wildflower seeds, but these mostly grew up into a type of...

At a loose end this summer? Or even got a spare ten minutes? Then read on to find out how you can Step Up for Nature this month. Campaign: CAP reform e-action - The EU will fail to get anywhere near its recently adopted biodiversity target without sufficient funds for farmers and land managers to...

Blogger: Mary Gamblin, Eastern England Regional Office Volunteer Waking on a sunny morning is always a joy but especially now as I look out at my glorious bird cherry tree in full blossom - without even leaving my bed! It's tall and slender, growing between a wild cherry and a whitebeam and now...

The old swimming pool is a fantastic place to watch dragonflies and damselflies (plus moorhens, the fishing crows and even a kingfisher if you've very lucky!)

We secretly hoped it would and now Big Garden Birdwatch has obliged by exceeding all our previous expectations, with initial participation numbers going through the roof! Hooray! Less than a week after the nation spent an hour counting the birds in their gardens, over a quarter of a million people...

Today’s Daily Telegraph told the story of a couple accused of causing a rat infestation by feeding birds in their garden. This comes as worrying news on the eve of Feed the Birds Day – but fear not, this is a very rare occurrence among the two thirds of population who regularly leave...

Hi gardening fans. My name’s Mark and I work in the RSPB’s web team. I normally write on the ‘ Notes on Nature’ blog, but our gardening guru Adrian has asked me to put in a guest appearance to tell you what I’ve been up to in my garden lately. I’m representing the...

I love to make the most of the weekend. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy working for the RSPB, but you can't beat that feeling of coming in to work on a Monday morning knowing that I got out and about at the weekend, - preferably having been somewhere fabulous and seen something to keep me smiling...

There are loads of insects - hoverflies, butterflies, bees and beetles - in the flowerbeds

We saw this beast on one of the buddleia bushes at The Lodge. It's cool isn't it?

The gardens look great right through the year at The Lodge. Here's a view of the back of the 19th century main house

As a girl of about 12years I was having a picnic with my parents in Kew Gardens. It was Summer and I had kicked off my sandals. As I sat on the grass, a robin came and perched on my big toe. I felt so privileged and thrilled.