The diaries about wildlife in my garden in Hampshire (England) began as I followed the nesting of Blue Tits and Robins in 2000. Since then they have continued annually with nesting diaries (with webcams), reports on the wildlife that lives here, or visits us, and the occasional holiday trip, including some underwater photography in 2008. 
 

2005 saw the garden featured in the BBC's Spring Watch television series, and in 2006 we were visited again by the BBC, this time for a Radio 4 program called Shared Earth.

Last year was a very mixed one, both for the garden and for me, with too many gaps in the diaries caused by my annoying weariness. Disappointing summer weather meant that it was also a bad year for insects here, with hardly a ladybird to be seen. In the Autumn I had the opportunity to monitor a rare species of barkfly for over a month and record behaviour unseen previously. Below there is a link to the notes that I made at the time. The 2009 nesting season saw new occupants in a couple of our nest boxes in the form of Swifts.  While they brought in nesting materials they didn't lay eggs. This year they did, and the whole nesting process has been followed by the webcam.

As the diary enters its second decade I hope that I can avoid the long gaps that plagued the 2009 diaries. One of the first jobs to be done in 2010 was the making of swift nest boxes for several of our neighbours - one has already been used by Starlings and Sparrows!