UK Nature and Environment

In a bold conservation first, WWT has turned to one of Britain’s most common birds, the Eurasian blue tit, in a new trial that could help save its rarest of cousins, the British willow tit – now Britain’s fastest declining resident bird species.

Under licence from Natural England, eggs from blue tit nest boxes have been artificially incubated and hatched, with the chicks' hand-reared at WWT Slimbridge’s Conservation Breeding Unit (CBU).

The chicks were closely monitored, fed between dawn and dusk and socialised before being released into the nature reserve at WWT Slimbridge at the end of June.

Regular sightings of otters on a river are a sign of a healthy local ecosystem, a charity has said.

The Wear Rivers Trust said evidence of the mammals living on the River Deerness in County Durham showed the area was home to a diverse range of wildlife.

A local resident spotted otters 38 times on his trail camera last year, while environmental groups regularly find otter droppings - known as spraints - in the area.

In a remarkable first for Cornish waters, two orcas from the Iberian population were spotted near the Isles of Scilly, confirming their northernmost sighting to date. The rare encounter was made by skipper Joe Pender during a seabird survey near St Agnes earlier this month.

The orcas, later identified as members of the elusive Iberian C pod, were seen near Pol Bank southwest of Bishop Rock. Pender, who operates Scilly Pelagics tours, initially noticed unusually large dorsal fins before realising he was looking at orcas - not common dolphins. "Everyone on board was ecstatic," he said. "I've only seen one before, about 25 years ago."

Rebecca Allen of the Cornwall Wildlife Trust confirmed it was the first recorded sighting of Iberian orcas in the region. These orcas typically inhabit the Straits of Gibraltar during winter, making their presence in Cornwall highly unusual.

England’s farmers to get new payments for cleaning up waterways

Environment secretary says Defra will be launching changes to post-Brexit scheme for sustainable farming Helena Horton Environment reporter Mon 28 Jul 2025 18.24 BST

Farmers in England will get new payments for cleaning up the waterways near their land, the environment secretary has said.

Agricultural pollution affects 40% of Britain’s lakes and rivers, as fertiliser and animal waste washes off the land into waterways.

Speaking at the National Farmers’ Union water summit at Beeston Hall farm in West Yorkshire, Steve Reed said his department would be launching changes to the sustainable farming incentive (SFI) scheme that replaced EU subsidies. The SFI, which pays farmers to look after the environment, was frozen this year in a surprise move. The scheme is expected to reopen next year.

The mysterious nightjar is among the species being tracked as part of the largest survey of heathland birds for more than 20 years.

The study, organised by the British Trust for Ornithology, will also focus on woodlarks and Dartford warblers.

The nightjar, which is surrounded by myth and folklore, journeys to the UK to breed, before flying back to the Democratic Republic of Congo at the end of the summer.

THE Dee Estuary covers 14,000 hectares and is home to more than 120,000 waders and waterfowl, as well as a variety of coastal habitats and a dedicated community.

The area, which straddles England and Wales, has been at the centre of a three-year pioneering project, bringing together partners across borders to deliver lasting change through community-led conservation.

Our Dee Estuary has been funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, with contributions from local authorities, charities, statutory bodies and renewable energy companies, and 130 volunteers have given up more than 4,000 hours of their time to practical conservation works, surveying, events, research and writing.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust has revealed its first bittern breeding success at its North Cave Wetlands nature reserve, near Hull, where a juvenile bittern was spotted earlier this month.

Another breeding success at the reserve in recent weeks has included the emergence of a clutch of common pochard chicks – which are on the IUCN red list of threatened species.

It is thought are only around 80 pairs breeding in Yorkshire, the males of which have a bright reddish-brown head, a black breast and tail and a pale grey body.

An experiment to make woodland more resilient has seen hairy wood ant nests relocated across forests.

Forestry England moved six colonies with thousands of ants from Cropton Forest in North Yorkshire to Ennerdale in Cumbria, in a bid to bring back lost wildlife species and support ecosystems.

Rachel Gardner, from Forestry England said the project in the Lake District would help "rebuild complex forest communities" that can better deal with extreme weather, climate change and diseases.

Beavers “are being employed” to help prevent flooding in the Forest of Dean. Civic chiefs considered a report last week which looked at the lessons learnt from the flooding caused during Storm Bert in Lydney during November 2024.

Around 50 homes were flooded after the River Lyd burst its banks as the Severnside town received a month’s worth of rain in two days. Forest of Dean District Council discussed the learning from the multi-agency emergency response to Storm Bert at the overview and scrutiny committee meeting on July 17.

Councillors were told of the efforts being made to naturally slow the water flow upstream from Lydney. And it was revealed the semiaquatic rodents are playing their part in the flood prevention plans.

Wet wipe producers should be charged to remove their pollution from England’s waterways, the author of a government review into reforming the sector has said.

Sewage has been a critical factor in the devastating pollution of our waterways, but other sources of pollution include microplastics, consumer products such as wet wipes, and the byproducts of modern manufacturing, such asPfas (“forever chemicals”), as well as fertiliser and pesticides from farming. Many of these have been linked to harmful effects on human health and the natural environment.

The fairest way to deal with this, Sir Jon Cunliffe, a former Bank of England deputy governor, said, could be to apply the “polluter pays” principle, whereby the company behind the pollution contributes towards its removal. “The alternative is for everyone to pay for it through their bills, and the question is, should we spread that among everybody, or should we go through a polluter pays route? So I think, really, we should look at those routes,” he said.

Tony Juniper, chair of Natural England, has voiced his support for reintroducing Eurasian Lynx to the British countryside.

Juniper said he would be "absolutely delighted" if a trial could proceed during his current term, but acknowledged that public opinion remains divided and called for more community engagement before any reintroduction goes ahead.

The Lynx UK Trust has submitted a draft application for a trial release of Eurasian Lynx in Kielder Forest, Northumberland, using animals rescued from culls in Sweden. The species, which has been extinct in Britain since the Middle Ages, has successfully been reintroduced in several European countries and now numbers around 18,000 individuals across the continent.

A herd of water buffalo introduced to a wetland two years ago is having a positive effect on wildlife, a charity has said.

Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust said the animals, based in Wivenhoe in Essex, had been returned to Thorley Wash Nature Reserve for a third year to graze ditches, waterlogged marshy areas and wet grassland.

Reserves officer Kathryn Dunnett said biodiversity had improved, with vegetation turning greener and more wildflowers appearing.

One of the world’s rarest sharks has been filmed off the Welsh coast, offering a fleeting glimpse into the life of a species teetering on the brink of extinction.

Underwater footage shows a critically endangered angel shark swimming through the waters of Cardigan Bay – the first time it has been recorded on film in the area since 2021.

The shark was captured by cameras deployed by the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales (WTSWW), designed to monitor biodiversity as part of a project investigating marine life in the region, many of which are under threat from human activities.

A PhD student at Bournemouth University is developing an AI model to help with the conservation of barn owls in Dorset.

Kavisha Jayathunge is working with Brian Cresswell, a biologist-turned-electronics engineer who uses technology to support ornithological research, especially barn owls and nightjars.

“We're using AI to count baby barn owls by sound instead of disturbing them in their nests with video cameras,” Kavisha said. “This helps reduce stress on the birds and could give us data from natural nest sites, which are often inaccessible for monitoring, not just the artificial nestboxes where most of the data we currently have comes from,” he added.

Precious ravine woodlands across the Peak District are being brought back to life through the largest restoration project of its kind, with 84,000 native trees now planted to replace those lost to ash dieback disease.

The 5 year LIFE in the Ravines project has successfully restored up to 25% of the region’s most severely damaged woodlands. It creates resilient habitats that will protect this rare ecosystem for future generations.

Natural England’s partnership project has focused on the Peak District Dales Special Area of Conservation, where ash dieback has devastated ancient woodlands. Teams have replanted a diverse mix of species, including the foundation species large-leaved lime, small-leaved lime, and wych elm trees that historically thrived in these unique limestone ravines.

Certain insects - including ladybirds, butterflies and wasps - are thriving after the warmest and sunniest spring on record across the UK.

Aphid numbers, the main food source of ladybirds, boomed according to the Royal Horticultural Society after a warm start to the summer.

But the relative lack of rain this spring and summer could lead to lower insect and amphibian numbers next year since eggs may not be laid and wetland areas are drying up.

Conservationists have celebrated breeding one of England's rarest insects in captivity for the first time.

The Species Recovery Trust led the project to successfully breed the endangered heath tiger beetle, external at a special artificial habitat at Sparsholt College, near Winchester.

The trust and college hope to eventually reintroduce the insects back into their heathland homes.

The divers emerged from the water smiling with satisfaction. They had found what they were looking for in the undersea meadows off the south coast of England.

“Seahorses are tricky to spot,” said Mark Fox. “The seagrass sways and they blend into it pretty well. It helps if it’s sunny and not too choppy but you have to get your eye in. When you see them, it’s brilliant.”

Fox is one of a band of volunteers (he is a semi-retired painter and decorator) helping survey the creatures that live in Studland Bay.

This year, we’re not just launching a survey — we’re launching a nationwide rescue mission, and we need everyone to get involved.

Last summer, Britain’s butterflies sent an urgent SOS through Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count.

The wildlife charity declared a Butterfly Emergency after results revealed a marked and deeply concerning decline in butterfly numbers, which were the lowest in the Count’s history.

An open letter from industry leaders and environmental charities is published today urging the UK Government to get Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) back on track across England.

The letter (1) follows recent proposals to remove small and medium-sized developments from Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) commitments, a move The Wildlife Trusts has warned represents a weakening of the policy.

Addressed to the Prime Minister, the letter, which has been co-signed by Knight Frank, Schroders Wealth Management and Triodos Bank among others, says: “Our collective voice sends a clear message: weakening BNG would come at a high cost, setting back this fast-developing economy and more widely threatening business confidence in nature policy.”

A lucky fisherman spotted more than 30 dolphins off the Cumbrian coast.

Aaron Jones was fishing off Walney when he observed dolphins for more than an hour.

He described seeing the pod as a "once in a lifetime experience".

Sarah Neill, a marine biologist at Kendal College, said dolphin sightings become more common in the summer months.

An MP said he feared a river could be toxic to fish after carrying out water quality testing himself.

Labour's Peter Prinsley, who represents Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, says he carried out tests on the River Lark - finding dangerous levels of ammonia.

Prinsley said: "This kind (of pollution) is often linked to agricultural runoff or sewage discharge."

Eighty percent of people agree that marine wildlife should be treated with the same care as land-based wildlife, a new survey has found.

The independent research was conducted by Savanta for The Wildlife Trusts, ahead of National Marine Week (26th July to 10th August), which is the Trusts’ annual celebration of the seas.

Plus, when told about bottom trawling, which is an industrialised form of fishing during which nets are dragged along the seabed, 57% of people said they were now more likely to buy sustainably caught fish.

Five hen harrier chicks have fledged "against the odds" after four breeding males disappeared, the RSPB said.

Staff at the conservation charity said the disappearance of two of the rare birds from RSPB Geltsdale Nature Reserve in Cumbria, and a further two from the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire, pointed to their illegal killing.

RSPB staff and volunteers intervened to provide their paired females with emergency food in an effort to save their chicks.