UK Nature and Environment

Microplastic pollution in the world's oceans is often illustrated through evocative images of wildlife caught within large items floating on the surface, or microplastics blending in among the sand on otherwise pristine beaches.

The mass of plastics supplied to the ocean each year is vast, potentially up to 12.7 million tons through riverine input in addition to marine-based sources from fishing, aquaculture and shipping industries; yet, that which is observed on the surface does not match accordingly. Consequently, there are missing microplastic sinks in the marine realm.

New research, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, has identified the North Sea as home to some of these plastic sinks.

Western Cattle Egret has bred at two new sites in West Sussex this summer as the species' colonisation of southern England goes from strength to strength.

At least three nests were found at Arundel WWT in early September, all with hatched chicks. They were discovered after adults were seen carrying nest material in late August.

Reserve Manager Suzi Lanaway said: "We were hopeful they were building nests and we are so excited to have seen the chicks!"

An emergency plan to save the UK's capercaillie population could lead to birds being introduced from continental Europe to help boost numbers.

There are thought to be 532 of the large grouse remaining, with all of them found in Scotland. Experts say they could be extinct within 30 years.

Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) and NatureScot have launched the five-year plan.

Five suppliers have been selected in the first phase of an initiative to tackle blue-green algae in Lough Neagh.

They have each been awarded a share of £450,000 to develop proof of concepts to treat, reduce and suppress algal growth.

Up to three will proceed into a second pilot solution phase next year.

Any proposed solutions must not have a negative impact on the natural environment of Lough Neagh or its associated waterways.

The De Biesbosch National Park is alive with wildlife.

White tailed eagles, great egrets, ospreys and kingfishers can be spotted among the vast network of rivers and creeks that comprise the 9,000 hectare site in the Netherlands. Hundreds of beavers live in burrows across the park, ready to come out at night.

This landscape was created as part of the Dutch Government’s “Room for the Rivers” project, the purpose of which was to create spaces for waterways to flood to avoid ruining communities. In the process, it created areas for nature to flourish.

Wild Things columnist Eric Brown learns of anti-mink measures introduced at a Bexley nature reserve and recounts his own worrying encounter with the dangerous species.

Nothing could be seen of it except for a pair of large, dark, staring eyes and the top of a black head above water disturbed by its v-shaped bow wave. It moved quickly past my wife and I as we swam in the lake, scrambled from the water and revealed itself as a mink. Then it headed towards a tree where our toddler son was playing with toys. Cue pandemonium. My wife reached our son first and scooped him up away from danger as the startled mink disappeared down a hole in tree roots. Mink, with their razor-sharp teeth and claws, are among the most fearless and devastating small predators around. Larger than a grey squirrel but smaller than an otter, they have voracious appetites and will eat almost anything. One has been photographed killing a grey heron. My sighting occurred in southern Finland around 1980. Within a few years of mink being discovered there the enormous lake had been almost cleared of fish, a local delicacy that sustained generations of people. Next morning I found smoke spiralling up from the tree roots where it vanished and my father-in-law watching over a controlled fire. He later filled in the hole.

A species of fish known as a lumpsucker was among "amazing" rare sightings made by volunteers taking part in a survey of the Cornish coastline.

Run by the Cornwall Wildlife Trust (CWT), the Shoresearch project is a five-day marine wildlife monitoring survey carried out over the autumn equinox spring tides.

This year the lumpsucker - so-called because of its lumpy skin and a sucker it uses to attach to rocks and kelp - was spotted at Polzeath, while other Cornish finds were a conger eel, a squat lobster and a corrugated crab.

A ONCE solitary rowan tree in the Scottish Borders is playing a key role in supporting conservation efforts.

The tree has a rich history, having clung on to a riverbank despite the attention of grazing sheep and its ­hardiness earned it the moniker of The Survivor Tree Of Carrifran. It went on to be named Scotland’s Tree Of The Year 2020 and was selected as a finalist for Europe’s Tree Of The Year 2021.

Now the secrets of its genetic code are being unlocked to bring a ­greater understanding of biodiversity across the UK and Ireland, ­providing data that will be important for ­conservation and ecology.

A lost gannet found more than 70 miles away from the nearest colony has been rescued.

The seabird was discovered in a garden in Killinghall, near Harrogate, on 21 September before being driven to RPSB Bempton Cliffs to be released.

Jean Thorpe, who helped rescue the bird, said she feared that had she not stepped in to help it would have died.

Danielle Jackson, visitor experience manager at RSPB Bempton Cliffs, said to find a gannet one mile from the coast was "unusual" but to find one near Harrogate was "very bizarre".

A water treatment company boss has accused the Welsh government of failing to do enough to tackle river pollution.

Wayne Preece, chief executive of Carmarthenshire-based Hydro Industries, said it was "incredibly frustrating" it had not engaged with the firm or others tackling river and sea pollution.

The Welsh government did not respond to Mr Preece's comments but has said previously it was working with the UK government to clean rivers, lakes and seas.

Adders, Britain’s sole venomous snakes, are rare but widespread throughout the country, from Cornwall to Scotland.

The habitats formed by railways provide ideal conditions for them and other reptiles.

Shap Fell, situated between Penrith and Oxenholme on the West Coast Main Line, is a prominent example, as highlighted in the film.

Volunteers have repaired damage caused by years of thefts of water filtering equipment along the Lea River.

They have restored the historic Middlesex filter beds as a wetland habitat in a two-year project to return the nature reserve to its former glory.

The volunteers worked with a team from Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and conservation experts and civil engineers to reclaim this lost wetland next to Lea Bridge Road.

“These dynamic ecosystems are some of the most threatened habitats in the world,” Lee Valley Regional Park’s Paul Roper explained. “There was a real need to restore the wetland habitat, with global warming, pollution and urbanisation having an impact on the number of wetlands in Britain.

Northumberland National Park Authority and the National Trust reveal further details of the Sycamore Gap tree’s legacy, one year on.

• The National Trust and Northumberland National Park Authority reveal further details of the Sycamore Gap tree’s legacy, one year on from it being illegally felled

• Inspiring plans respond to people’s outpouring of emotion to the loss of the much-loved tree last autumn

• Northumberland National Park Authority unveil new exhibition at The Sill entitled, Sycamore Gap: One Year On. Developed by artist Charlie Whinney, it features a large section of the original tree’s wood and invites public participation

• Opening the exhibition, 240 children from 13 schools local to The Sill, will take part in a celebration of the tree’s life to mark the anniversary

• The National Trust launches ‘Trees of Hope’, an opportunity for people to request one of 49 Sycamore Gap saplings to be gifted to their communities around the UK

• As part of the Trees of Hope initiative, all 15 UK National Parks will also receive a sapling that will find new homes in some of the most beautiful landscapes in the UK

The Hawk and Owl Trust has announced it will conclude its involvement in the controversial Hen Harrier 'brood-management' trial as the current licence comes to an end.

The Hen Harrier Action Plan and Trial, initiated by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in 2016, included the brood-management trial to raise Hen Harrier chicks in captivity and release them back into the wild.

The Hawk and Owl Trust has been involved in the initiative since 2016, supporting efforts to balance wildlife conservation with land management needs in upland England. The decision to withdraw follows a review of the project's outcomes and the latest available scientific evidence.

A pair of white-tailed eagles in County Fermanagh have become the first to breed in Northern Ireland in more than 150 years.

The birds are four years old and were released on the shores of Lough Derg, County Tipperary in 2020.

White-tailed eagles were reintroduced to Ireland by the Golden Eagle Trust (GET) and National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) between 2007 and 2011.

Northern Ireland’s first Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) has been approved , externalby the Northern Ireland Executive.

The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) had been reprimanded by the UK’s environmental watchdog for failing to meet a deadline to have the plan in place by July 2023.

The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) had urged ministers to approve an environmental strategy that could be adopted as an EIP.

A coalition of nature groups (including Wildlife and Countryside Link, Rivers Trust, The Wildlife Trusts and Angling Trust) has today released analysis of water company business plans for the next five years, recently given draft approval by Ofwat.

The scorecard recognises much needed commitments and funding increases in many vital areas, but also shows gaps in water protections and spending that need to be filled. Campaigners are calling for much stricter fines for companies for serious pollution incidents over the next 5 years, with all fine funds paid into a Water Restoration Fund, a new ‘green duty’ for Ofwat, and for more prioritisation of sustainable ‘green infrastructure instead of grey infrastructure’.

Ofwat has told water companies that over the next 5 years they can spend £35billion on ‘enhancements’ relating to pollution, water quality, climate change resilience and customer service. [1] This is triple the level of investment in the previous 5 years and includes £10 billion to reduce harm from storm overflows and £545 million on reducing leakage through smart technologies and better data. This is backed up by commitments from almost all companies to achieve zero serious pollution incidents by 2030.

Nestled within the Peak District national park, the stream known as Brook Head Beck meanders between undulating green hills. It is mossy and dank by the river, surrounded by the gentle trickling sound of water, the smell of leaves starting to rot underfoot, and a weave of branches overhead with leaves turning golden in the autumn chill. This place is renowned for its quaint English beauty, and the government has designated it an ecological site of special scientific interest, meaning it holds some of the country’s most precious wildlife.

Yet within this pristine-looking stream flows a concoction of chemicals that could pose a threat to the freshwater organisms and humans who come into contact with it. Recent testing found it had the second highest levels of chemical pollution in the UK – after a site in Glasgow – with concentrations of pharmaceuticals higher than inner-city rivers in London, Belfast, Leeds and York.

New research, published in August in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, revealed that England’s most protected rivers – those that run through its national parks – were also heavily contaminated by pharmaceuticals. The findings demonstrated how drug pollution now flows into even the most apparently untouched waterways, with transformative, potentially dangerous results for ecosystems and people.

Over the past three weeks, I’ve been watching one of the greatest natural spectacles on Earth, here in south Devon. At a certain station of the tide, within a few metres of the coast, the sea erupts with monsters. They can travel at 45mph. They grow to 2.5 metres (8ft 2in) in length and 600kg in weight. They herd smaller fish – saury and garfish in this case – against the surface, then accelerate into the shoal so fast that they overshoot sometimes 2 or 3 metres into the air. Bluefin tuna. They are here, on our southern coasts, right now.

When I’ve mentioned this on social media, some people refuse to believe me: you must be seeing dolphins, they say. Yes, I often see dolphins too, and it’s not hard to spot the difference. They don’t believe it because we have forgotten that our coastal waters were once among the richest on Earth. Bluefin and longfin tuna were common here. So were several species of whale, including sperm, fin, humpback and Atlantic grey, and a wide range of large sharks. Halibut the size of barn doors hunted the coastal shallows. Cod reached almost 2 metres in length, haddock nearly a metre, turbot were the size of tabletops, oysters as big as dinner plates, shoals of herring and mackerel were miles long.

Conservation charities have successfully completed the second round of rewilding of a long-lost bird breed in Dover.

The red-billed chough disappeared from the Kent countryside more than 200 years ago due to habitat loss and persecution.

In 2023, the first cohort of eight birds were returned to the area by conservation charities Wildwood Trust, Kent Wildlife Trust and Cornwall's Paradise Park.

Now a further 11 birds have been raised in captivity and released near Dover.

The migration routes and wintering grounds of Scottish Arctic Skuas have been revealed in a new study led by BTO Scotland.

Scientists fitted tracking devices to Arctic Skuas nesting on Fair Isle, Shetland, and Rousay, Orkney.

They found that the birds had surprisingly varied destinations outside the breeding season. Although Fair Isle and Rousay are only 90 km apart, birds from these islands wintered thousands of kilometres away from one another.

Almost 3,600 seals have been counted in the Thames Estuary showing the habitat is still healthy, conservationists said.

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) teamed up with military helicopter pilots based at RAF Shawbury this year for its annual grey and harbour seal survey across the Greater Thames Estuary.

The team counted the number of mammals laying out on sandbanks and estimated how many may be in the water, concluding a total of 599 harbour seals and 2,988 grey seals living in the Thames Estuary.

Welsh Government supports the managed re-introduction of European beaver in Wales.

Today the Welsh government has announced that it supports moving towards the managed reintroduction of beavers in Wales.

Tim Birch, Senior Policy & Advocacy Manager for Wildlife Trusts Wales, says:

“This is great news from the Welsh Government – it can't happen fast enough. It's vital that we bring back beavers to Wales as a matter of urgency. The nature and climate crises grow more acute by the day with flood warnings regularly occurring across Wales. Beavers can help provide a natural solution to water pollution and to the flooding which is devastating homes and businesses. They are an amazing species that create wetlands, through their beaver dams, which store rainfall in the landscape and slowly release water when the rain has subsided. These wetlands are incredible places for a whole range of wildlife.

With its impressive size, striking plumage and rowdy displays, sighting a capercaillie is many birders’ dream. Only about 530 of the large woodland grouse survive in the wild, most in Scotland’s Cairngorms national park.

But in recent years, those tasked with saving the species from extinction have had to walk a line between calling attention to the birds’ plight and discouraging people from seeking them out.

Although it is illegal to disturb capercaillie during the breeding season from March to August, that hasn’t deterred birders and nature photographers, motivated by the possibility of a prestigious spot – or shot. Over the 2022 season, 17 people were found on or around the “lek”, where male birds gather to compete for the attention of females in spring, says Carolyn Robertson, the project manager of the Cairngorms Capercaillie Project.