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Wasn't the weekend glorious? Saturday was the first day this year I was able to get outdoors and tart-up my garden. I cut the grass, forked over borders, gathered up fallen leaves, cleared old growth, sowed some seeds and enjoyed coming across some of the things that share this space. There was...

Dig out the bunting and buy the ingredients for a celebratory cake, it may soon be time to party. Thank you to everyone who contributed to our 2012 house sparrow survey , updating one completed in 2002. We asked you to tell us where sparrows live in London so we could compare the findings...

Have you ever stared at the side profile of City Hall? For years now I've wanted to stick a sparrow's head on it's teardrop shape, as it it would make a wonderful giant sparrow. A monumental nod to the cockney sparra's brave and chirpy character and its similarity to the London...

Autumn has fallen. Not with the gentle floating of a golden-brown leaf settling gently on the ground, but the subtlety of a lead pipe delivered by a cold-blooded thug. With a resounding thwump, leaves have carpeted the ground overnight, falling only slightly faster than the temperature. Not that I'm...

The unbridled joy of witnessing night after night of national pride, the full frontal exposure to the best of humanity, has left me wanting more. As a confirmed curmudgeon I do not normally indulge my tribal side, but I was lifted-up and carried along on the shoulders of giants as the Olympics and...

I'm in danger of sounding like a doom-monger, but the fact is, London's blackbirds are vanishing. Yet another common garden bird to add to the list of species no longer thriving in the Capital. The difference with blackbirds is that your sightings (reported via our Make Your Nature Count survey...

Role reversal is something we should play with. This week, in my family's eyes, I have been the evil developer laying waste to nature, spluttering a defence of: "Honest, it's for the best, you'll understand once I've finished this development..." The words sounded hollow...

This year's Big Schools' Birdwatch is underway and students across Greater London and the rest of the UK will be peering through their dusty classroom windows to see what birds they can spot enjoying the weak winter sunshine. It's certainly very different from this time last year, when...

A blazing start to October will this week turn to a more traditional autumnal month , with forecasters predicting snow in the UK before Christmas - yes it's just a couple of months away! So, it's time to put away the shorts and crop-tops and dig out the woolies and hats with ear-flaps. If...

A study of bird numbers, used to reflect the health of our environment, has revealed a north and south divide; with birds doing better in the north than they are in the south. It's a huge generalisation, but it does paint a fairly desperate picture, and that's where we are. Politicians and...

George Osborne obviously sees the countryside as feminine and cities as masculine, as he's delivered a sugar and spice budget for farmers and and a snips, snails and puppy dogs tails budget for wildlife loving Londoners. After much campaigning and lobbying by the RSPB and others, he halted the...

We're careering towards Feed the Birds Day at an alarming rate. This haste seems to have been maintained throughout 2010 and frankly, I'm looking forward to the Christmas holidays, which are... just eleven weeks away (sound of alarm bells and cash-tills )! A partridge in a pear tree is possible...

For a change, London is NOT the centre of gun crime... as far as Birds of Prey [BoP] are concerned. Our magnificent falcons and hawks can continue to visit, safe in the knowledge that they're unlikely to become victims of prejudice. The RSPB's 20th annual Birdcrime report recorded 384 cases...

Rural Britain is devoid of colour as traditional hay meadows vanish. A new report claims 97% of rural Britain's fields of buttercups, sorrel and clover with a variety of grasses have gone... and you know, I'm in full agreement. Consumer demand and mechanisation of farming gave us the ability...

Leaving Hackney Town Hall after talking about improving protection for the borough's special places and species I happened to look-up as I cycled towards the traffic lights. In the sky, visible between the bulk of the Hackney Empire and an old bank building on the other side of the street, were...

I've had an influx of ladybirds and an enormous wasp exploring our house this week. In the garden, the daffs have unfurled their petals and leaves are forming on the trees. Spring has arrived. That means lazy days in the sunshine can't be far behind and to help inspire you, what better place...

They say it's not over until the fat lady sings.. well in nature, it will be all over if the fat lady [ robin ] doesn't sing. Feed the Birds weekend has passed but it's not a one off activity, the weekend's a reminder to continue to put out food for garden birds all through the winter...

My Aunty Joyce is forever linked with goldcrests in my mind now. On Monday I joined relatives to bid her farewell at Birmingham's Robin Hood Cemetery. Afterwards we gathered in a nearby hotel and there in the late October sunshine, two of these gorgeous little birds played hide-and-seek in the top...