UK Nature and Environment

Small patches of wildflowers sown in cities can be a good substitute for a natural meadow, according to a study which showed butterflies, bees and hoverflies like them just as much.

Councils are increasingly making space for wildflower meadows in cities in a bid to tackle insect decline, but their role in helping pollinating insects was unclear. Researchers working in the Polish city of Warsaw wanted to find out if these efforts were producing good results.

They found there was no difference in the diversity of species that visited sown wildflower meadows in cities compared with natural ones, according to the study published in the journal Ecological Entomology, and led by researchers from Warsaw University. The researchers said: “In inner-city areas, flower meadows can compensate insects for the lack of large natural meadows that are usually found in the countryside.”

A rarely seen sea creature has been spotted crawling its way along a Sussex beach.

Conservationists captured footage of the mysterious creature in a nature reserve, showing it moving slowly along the sands after high tide.

While some might think it looks like something out of a sci-fi film, the marine creature was identified as a Sea Mouse – a type of worm which can usually be found on the seabed.

After spotting the creature in Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, conservationists from Sussex Wildlife Trust returned the creature back to the sea.

As winter draws near and temperatures begin to drop, our feathered friends are facing some extra challenges to stay warm and well-fed.

With natural food sources becoming more difficult to find, they need a little extra help to make it through the cold months. Sean McMenemy, nature expert and founder of Ark Wildlife, shares his expert advice on which nutritious high-fat foods you can provide your avian companions with this winter.

A rare and protected fungus has been found at a nature reserve in Canterbury.

The Hericium erinaceus, or lion's mane fungus, has the highest level of legal protection in the UK due to its scarcity. Kent Wildlife Trust said it had been spotted by a visitor.

It is illegal in the UK to collect, uproot or destroy the fungus and anyone doing so could face six months in prison or a £5,000 fine.

Options to create an independent environment protection agency in Northern Ireland are to be considered by a panel of experts as part of a new Stormont review.

Environment Minister Andrew Muir has appointed three experts to carry out the review in a bid to strengthen environmental governance.

Muir had promised to address growing public concerns over the pollution of Northern Ireland's waterways.

It comes more than a year after the UK's biggest freshwater lake, Lough Neagh, turned green due to the growth of toxic blue-green algae.

England’s national parks face a 12% real-terms cut to their budget which would lead to mass redundancies of wardens and the closure of visitor centres and other facilities, park leaders have warned.

The chief executives told the Guardian that soon the spaces would become “paper parks” designated by a “brown sign on the motorway” and they will have to “turn the lights off, close the doors and put up closed signs” if the cuts go ahead.

The raising of employer’s national insurance by Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, in the budget will also deal the parks a devastating blow, the CEOs warned, costing them £1.3m which they say will “inevitably lead to redundancies”.

Beavers and turtle doves could be reintroduced to a North Yorkshire estate as part of a large-scale 30-year restoration and rewilding project.

The project will focus on restoring 440-acres of low-yielding, difficult to farm, agricultural land, situated in the Castle Howard Estate.

The site will form the Bog Hall Habitat Bank, providing high integrity Nature Shares for businesses to purchase and contribute to nature restoration.

People in Herefordshire are being invited to give their views on how best to protect and develop trees, hedgerows and woodlands in the county.

Ideas were needed to help inform a strategy setting out a vision facilitating better management of existing stock and "the expansion of tree cover and hedgerow networks," Herefordshire Council said.

It called for input from all sectors, including environmental and landowner groups and industries, as well as proposals from individuals.

The online consultation will run until 8 December.

The sores were unlike anything veteran anglers had seen before. Black, swollen and blister-like, they started appearing on fish being caught in the River Severn in early summer.

For anglers who spend many hours on the banks of the Severn around Shrewsbury, the blistering skin was yet another warning that the river, and its wildlife and habitats, are suffering.

35 UK and EU conservation organisations1 including the RSPB, BirdLife Europe and Central Asia, Oceana UK, Wildlife and Countryside Link, and The Wildlife Trusts, have today issued a joint statement urging the Commission to reconsider its position and instead support this key ecosystem recovery measure in the interest of turning around the health of our beleaguered seas.

Sandeels are a key part of the UK ocean food chain, supporting vulnerable seabird species including Puffins, Kittiwakes, and Razorbills. They are also a vital food source for seals, porpoises and whales, and important fish species like Haddock and Whiting.

In January 2024, after decades of campaigning, the UK and Scottish governments announced an end to industrial sandeel fishing in English waters of the North Sea and all Scottish waters. The closure came into effect on 26th March and is regarded by conservationists as an essential step towards protecting globally important seabird populations, wider marine biodiversity and the future of sandeel-reliant UK fishing stocks.

Robins are commonly associated with the festive season, and simply spotting one can be enough to make us feel festive. But attracting robins doesn’t have to be left to chance. According to wildlife experts, there are ways to increase your chances of seeing more of these charming birds in your garden this year.

Maria Kincaid, the head ornithologist at FeatherSnap, shares her tips for transforming your garden into a Robin Redbreast hotspot.

The first beavers to be born in Hampshire for 400 years have been officially named by the former PM's father Stanley Johnson.

Local children entered a competition to name the two baby beavers, but 'Boris' wasn't in the running, with Bobby and Barry chosen as the winning names.

The pair were born this summer in an enclosure at the 925-acre Ewhurst Park estate near Basingstoke.

Parents Chompy and Hazel were released into the enclosure in January 2023 as the first beavers in Hampshire since the 1600s.

Recent footage of the two baby beavers, called kits, shows them exploring their enclosure, eating plants and starting to learn how to gnaw and fell trees.

New drone technology was a “game-changer” for teams gathering data about seals on the Calf of Man this year, conservationists have said.

A total of 98 seal pups were recorded and monitored during the 10-week survey, which was the highest number since the recordings began in 2009.

Manx Wildlife Trust marine officer Lara Howe said the seals were “very well camouflaged against the rocks”, but thermal imaging made them “super easy to spot”.

A project to increase biodiversity in a 'boring' Somerset woodland has enjoyed a promising start.

Work is being under taken at Goblin Combe, a former plantation woodland in the north of the county, by the Avon Wildlife Trust in a bid to boost the populations of three species of bat and Hazel Dormouse.

The site was previously a timber plantation, meaning the trees "are quite young and quite dull" for wildlife, reserve manager Andy Jones said.

A short stroll from Beatrix Potter’s former farmhouse in the Lake District are the waters of Cunsey Beck, nestling in the breathtaking landscape that inspired the tales of childhood favourites Jeremy Fisher and Jemima Puddle-Duck.

Campaigners say the once clear waters are regularly blighted by raw sewage from a nearby works. New figures obtained by the Observer reveal the Near Sawrey plant is alleged to have illegally discharged untreated sewage on 56 days from 2021 to 2023.

Matt Staniek, from the campaign group Save Windermere, said: “Beatrix Potter was in awe of this natural landscape. If she was alive today she would be campaigning to stop what has become a national disgrace.”

Red squirrels ‘to vanish from England’ unless vaccine against squirrelpox funded

Conservation group warns species threatened by exploding populations of grey squirrels who carry lethal virus Donna Ferguson Sat 16 Nov 2024 21.29 GMT

Red squirrels will soon disappear from England unless the government funds a vaccine against squirrelpox, one of the biggest groups set up to protect the species has warned.

Conservationists say the English population of non-native grey squirrels has exploded this year, triggered by warmer winters which enable mating pairs to feed and breed all year round, and estimate that 70% are carrying squirrelpox, a virus which is lethal only to red squirrels.

“We’re facing a huge surge of grey squirrels,” said Robert Benson, founder of Penrith and District Red Squirrel Group, which covers 600 square miles of Cumbria.

“We think they are breeding three or four times a year, and having four or five kits each time, leading to a massive expansion in grey squirrel numbers: 15 or 20 young grey squirrels are moving through the countryside [each year], from each breeding pair.”

People are being asked for their views on the reintroduction of wild beavers in Gloucestershire as a population has been spotted close to the county's borders.

Currently, there are three enclosed beaver colonies in Gloucestershire and no beavers living in the wild.

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust (GWT) said there is a "real possibility" wild beavers could establish in the area as they have been seen close by, including on the River Avon.

Conditions in a Manx marshland wallabies escaped to in the 1960s proved "almost perfect" for an expansion in the population to 1,000, a conservation charity has said.

Only a small number managed to break out of a nearby wildlife park, but recent surveys of the Ballaugh Curragh and its surrounding areas show numbers have swelled.

Manx Wildlife Trust chief executive Leigh Morris said the habitat was similar to Tasmania, which was one of the places the species is native to.

That allowed the wild population to grow in the north-west of the island, before migrating to other glens and forests over the past six decades, he said.

About 91,000 new trees will be planted in new woodland areas after a council agreed to sell land to the National Trust.

Sefton Council said about 193 acres (78 hectares) of disused farmland around Lunt Village, near Maghull, could now be used to create "more diverse, nature rich" habitats.

The project, partly funded by The Mersey Forest’s Trees for Climate programme, is also intended to increase flood defences and could even provide a home for red squirrels.

Trees will be planted between January and March, the council said.

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The council hopes the project will connect existing pockets of wetland and woodland and provide homes to a variety of wildlife.

See also:

• Mersey Forest marks 30 years and nine million new trees

The UK's largest bird of prey could soon be flying through the skies over Exmoor National Park, after an absence of more than two centuries.

Exmoor National Park Authority has proposed to reintroduce white-tailed eagles to the area, in a collaboration with the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation and Forestry England.

It's part of a wider initiative to restore the species to the skies of southern England.

New Forest residents have been treated to a flyover from the United Kingdom’s biggest bird of prey.

Daily Echo Camera Club member Jordan Callaghan managed to capture a white-tailed eagle soaring over Holbury, carrying what appears to be a rabbit through the air.

One photo managed to snap the bird’s huge wing span, which can reach up to 2.5 metres, in all its glory.

A “rescue mission” for native crayfish is under way in Northumberland after a population were found dead with mysterious patches on their shells.

The Environment Agency is working to save the internationally important species of native white-clawed crayfish in the River Wansbeck by searching for females with eggs to be taken and reared in a hatchery.

At least 100 individuals of the endangered species, which is the UK’s only native freshwater crayfish, have been found dead since the end of September and environment experts are perplexed as to what is causing the “concerning” mass die-off.

A forest is marking its 30th anniversary after the first plan to "bring forests nearer to people" was developed for parts of Merseyside and Cheshire.

Millions of trees have been planted as part of the Mersey Forest project, bringing a host of benefits for people and wildlife in urban areas.

In the last 18 months alone about 260 hectares of new woodland have been established on plots of land throughout the Liverpool City region and Cheshire - the equivalent of about 400 football pitches.

I just thought it worth noting that as far as the UK goes, tonight's full moon - a supermoon - which, at this time of year is known as the beaver moon according to some traditions, will be the most beavery beaver moon for 4 centuries, given the number of reintroductions and kits born around the UK over the last 12 months (building on decades of previous work towards these reintroductions, of course).

A project to restore 213 hectares of rare coastal habitat in County Durham has been launched with nearly £1m of funding.

Durham County Council has partnered with the National Trust and Durham Wildlife Trust to deliver the Coastal Grasslands Reconnected Project.

The project, which has received £975,000 from the Government’s Species Survival Fund, will create and restore the wildflower-rich Magnesian Limestone grasslands along the county’s coastline from Noses Point, near Seaham, to Horden.