BSBI press release: Thousands of citizen scientists find hundreds of wildflowers blooming at New Year

The results are in for BSBI’s thirteenth New Year Plant Hunt, when plant-lovers across Britain and Ireland head out to see what is flowering in their local patch. More than 3,000 people – a record number! – took part in the Hunt, after the hottest summer on record was followed by an unusually wet December….

Guest blog – Short-eared Owls need your help by Jimmi Hill

Based on the Cheshire/Flintshire border. Founding trustee and Chair of Raptor Aid CIO a UK based charity with a focus on birds of prey and their conservation. A licensed ringer and field worker covering birds of prey as an active member of several raptor study groups across the UK. Twitter: @raptor_jimmi “You’re Joking – Not…

Bird flu through the years

The lists below tell you something of the progression of bird flu in wild birds in the UK since the winter of 2016/17.  The data come from Defra – click here. You are able, and very welcome, to re-do this little analysis and see for yourself.  I expect my version has a few errors in…

Guest blog – Creating Shrike Shrublands by Steve Jones

Steve Jones (stevecjones.uk) has worked in UK and international conservation for nearing three decades. He’s unusually fond of shrikes. In fact, he’s written a short book about how to create ’Shrike Shrublands’ in the UK (click here). Here, he summarises how we might go about creating species-rich grassland-shrubland mosaics. Twitter: @SteveCJJones     ‘Scrub’ has…