RSPB statement re Climate Change Committee’s annual report on the UK’s progress in cutting emissions Katie-jo Luxton, the RSPB’s director of conservation, said: “Nature is our greatest ally in tackling climate change and this week’s extreme heat is yet another reminder of why we need to go further and faster. From renewable energy in the right places helping to reduce…
Category: THE WILDLIFE NGOs – RSPB, Wildlife Trusts Wild Justice, BSBI etc
Swift Awareness Week starts 27 June
Swifts return in time for a week of awareness and celebration! Just in time for UK Swift Awareness Week 2026 (starts 27th June), Swifts have returned in numbers to their colonies, and started their amazing screaming parties again following the cold wet spell, much to the joy of the many Swift watchers throughout the UK. More than 150 local…
Stuart Butchart FRS
BirdLife International’s Chief Scientist, Dr Stuart Butchart, has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. This appears to be the first time a scientist working in a wildlife NGO has had this honour and it reflects well on both Dr Butchart himself and the overall science of the BirdLife family. The…
Garden bird feeding – new RSPB advice
Today the RSPB has issued new advice to its million members and the public at large on feeding birds in gardens. The new advice represents a big change to current practice (amongst many), won’t be universally popular and will cost the RSPB a lot of money. This advice is based on the perceived dangers of…
RSPB – UK’s tallest bird, the Crane, has record high year
UK’s tallest bird, the Crane, has record high year A record number of Cranes bred in the UK last year, with 87 pairs raising 37 young, bringing the total to around 250 individuals Cranes went extinct in the UK around four hundred years ago due to overhunting and the loss of wetlands, but thanks to…
BSBI – Plant of ancient woodlands confirmed in northern Scotland
Plant of ancient woodlands confirmed in northern Scotland Herb-paris, a plant typical of ancient woodlands, has been confirmed growing in upland birch woodland on a ravine ledge in East Sutherland, in northern Scotland. The plant was originally spotted by James Rainey, a botanist and ecological consultant, seven years ago but wasn’t reported to the Botanical…
Wild Justice Dartmoor victory
I was pleased to see that Wild Justice has won a judicial review of the Dartmoor Commoners’ Council’s failure to manage the Dartmoor heaths properly – click here. This case started back in 2024 and I remember writing the witness statements which set out how Wild Justice saw the issues of overgrazing and lack of…
BSBI – Vulnerable aquatic plant found in Hampshire
Vulnerable aquatic plant found in Hampshire Opposite-leaved Pondweed has been discovered at a site in the lower reaches of the River Ems in Hampshire. This is the first record for the Ems catchment area since 1887: the year of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. Tristan Norton, a local Government ecologist who is also the Botanical Society of…
BSBI – Ancient clubmosses rediscovered in Dunbartonshire
Ancient clubmosses rediscovered in Dunbartonshire A botanist has rediscovered four species of clubmoss – ancient plants whose ancestors fossilised millions of years ago to form Scotland’s coal forests – in Dunbartonshire. One of them, the Marsh Clubmoss, is a real rarity which hasn’t been seen in the area since 1854. Matt Harding, Scotland Officer for…
RSPB slams Labour government and supports OEP (Mark Avery wonders what the Greens would do)
Following the UK Government’s response – click here – to the OEP’s report on Protected Sites in England – click here, Gemma Cantelo, head of policy and advocacy for RSPB England, said: “Despite countless wake-up calls the UK Government still believes a business-as-usual approach will stop nature disappearing over a cliff edge. The OEP could…