UK Nature and Environment

Bury Council has become the first authority in Greater Manchester to adopt the integrating of 'swift bricks' into new housing.

Local campaigners, who have long pushed for the move, described their inclusion as an "easy win for builders, birds and biodiversity".

It comes after the latest Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) reported a decline in the populations of Common Swift due to a loss of nesting sites. In 2022, another study identified the reasons behind the long-term slump in numbers.

Despite their bad reputation and tendency to disrupt picnics, wasps are an important part of our ecosystem.

During this time of year, it can seem like most outdoor activities are plagued by the flying insects... but they appear to have lacked their usual numbers in 2024.

Colder and wetter weather and climate change have had a global impact on the invertebrates.

Efforts to save Wales' most threatened bird species, the curlew, saw electric fencing go up around nests to protect their chicks from foxes and off-lead dogs.

Trail camera footage from a wetland reserve near Wrexham shows chicks surviving behind the fencing.

It is giving hope for the bird after an expert assessment warned the upland wader could be gone as a "viable breeding species" by 2033.

As few as 400 curlew still breed in Wales and their nests are so hard to find that thermal imaging drones were trialled as a way to find and help more birds through the breeding season.

A local non-profit is crowdfunding to create 3000sqm of habitat for wildlife.

Wilba Conservation is a non-profit based in Llandrindod Wells, with the aim of creating areas of habitat to help nature.

It has now launched a crowdfunding campaign for one of its projects, which will create 3000sqm of habitat near Llanbister.

The organisation is aiming to crowdfund £4000 to turn an area of unproductive farmland into a highly beneficial riparian habitat.

THE next time you take a walk along the river in Kidderminster, keep your eyes peeled because you might just spot an otter.

Lee Bollington says he was "astonished" to see one in the River Stour when he was walking near to St Mary's Church in the town centre on Friday morning (August 2).

He said: "It was such a shock. I could not believe what I saw.

The song of the skylark has filled poets’ hearts for centuries, from Shelley’s “blithe spirit” to Wordsworth’s “ethereal minstrel”. But there is little that is poetic about a row over the birds that has blown up in Colchester.

Campaigners seeking to save Middlewick Ranges, a former Ministry of Defence firing range in Essex, are furious that some of the 76 hectares of rare grassland were mowed last month, an act that they believe has killed skylarks and their chicks, which nest on the ground.

When Martin Pugh, an ecologist at Essex Wildlife Trust and a member of the Save the Wick campaign group, challenged a tractor driver mowing the grassland last month, he was chased away by a member of security staff and video footage appeared to show him being assaulted.

I did some of early ecological survey training at the Wick. It really would be a tremendous loss if given over to housing.

The first wild red-billed chough chick to be born in Kent for more than 200 years has not been seen for a month after going missing in strong winds.

Wild red-billed choughs had not been spotted in the county for two centuries, which Kent Wildlife Trust says is because of habitat loss and historic persecution.

A 40-year project by the trust to restore chalk grassland and create a suitable habitat around Dover Castle allowed several of the birds to be introduced into the area last year.

Dragons' Den star Deborah Meaden has warned that peatlands - one of Britain’s “most prized national treasures”- are being destroyed.

The entrepreneur, who described how “nature has always been close to my heart”, spoke out against the threats facing the wetland ecosystems.

She said: “Wet and boggy is no longer the best description for the majority of UK peatlands, with around 80% now damaged and deteriorating.

“The burning of peatland, draining of bogs and planting of commercial forestry have all taken a toll on what should be one of our most prized national treasures.”

Solar farms in the UK could bring benefits for nature as well as provide low carbon energy - but unless policies change, potential benefits for nature could be squandered, scientists argue.

As well as providing low carbon energy, solar farms could offer vital space for nature to thrive if the solar industry is incentivised to locate, construct and manage sites appropriately, a team of researchers and industry experts say in a new paper published in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology.

The UK’s solar farms currently generate approximately 8.6 GW – enough to meet around one sixth of the country’s peak electricity demand. To meet its international climate commitments, some estimates show that the UK will need to install in the order of 70,000 hectares of solar farms by the mid 2030s.

“If located in the right places and managed correctly, solar farms have great potential to restore degraded habitats and help meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, although not every species may benefit,” said Professor Alona Armstrong of Lancaster University and co-author of the paper. “Some in the solar industry embed nature benefits into the design of solar farms and their management, but this approach is not universal.”

Purple Emperor has been seen in Derbyshire for the first time, delighting lepidopterists.

Ken Orpe, who runs the East Midlands branch of charity Butterfly Conservation, said the arrival of Purple Emperor in the county was a "big deal".

The butterfly, a male, was first seen and photographed on 8 July on a driveway in Bretby, in the south of the county near Burton upon Trent. It marked a Derbyshire first, with no previous records spanning back to 1829.

WORK has been taking place to support the development of wildflower meadow sites across Denbighshire.

Denbighshire County Council’s Wildflower Meadows project currently looks after about 120 meadows (more than 70 acres) across the county, maintained by Denbighshire’s Streetscene Teams, from Prestatyn to Corwen, Rhyl to Llangollen, and Denbigh to Llandegla.

The project is part of the council’s climate and nature strategy ambition to be net carbon zero by 2030 and to help nature’s recovery.

Water provider United Utilities has been told by a senior East Lancashire politician to 'sort it out' after data revealed thousands of raw sewage spills in the region last year.

Lancashire experienced more than 250,000 hours of raw sewage spills in 2023 according to data from the Rivers Trust.

The data per local authority mirrors a trend seen nationally, where sewage spills doubled from 2022 to 2023, and Lancashire witnessed more than 8,000 more incidents compared to the previous year. almost 22 a day.

A dolphin has been spotted swimming in the River Thames in west London, a marine life charity has said.

The mammal, believed to be a common dolphin, has been nicknamed Jo Jo and was spotted swimming between the Hammersmith and Putney bridges on Thursday evening.

Mary Tester, Thames area coordinator with the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), said it was the fourth time a dolphin had been spotted swimming into the London stretch of the Thames this year.

The chough, a charismatic cliff-dwelling corvid, has bred in Kent for the first time in two centuries.

A young pair among eight birds released last year defied expectations to successfully breed this summer, making a nest on Dover Castle and rearing one chick, which fledged in June.

The milestone is an unexpectedly early success for the long-term project to bring the red-billed birds back to the Kent coastline.

As a barrister at Garden Court Chambers in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, I see people swearing the usual oaths all the time. “I swear by Almighty God” if you are religious, “I solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm” if you’re not.

But when it came to my own time to finally do jury service, I realised this usual courtroom practice – representing a powerful promise to do something – didn’t mean that much to me. So I asked the judge if I could do something a little different – swear an oath on the river Roding, the third biggest river in London, where I live on my houseboat.

It wasn’t a rejection of the religious oath or the secular affirmation. Or, because I find it objectionable to swear on the Bible. It was more about finding an oath that was genuinely meaningful for me.

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A shoal of Tuna in a feeding frenzy has been caught on video off the Cornwall coast by one of of the owners of the Healey’s Cyder.

Joe Healey, whose company owns the Gylly Beach Café and Fives Cyder House in Falmouth, was en-route from Falmouth to Salcombe in his boat on Monday when they saw a lot of splashing ahead of them five miles off Fowey.

“As we got closer, it was hard to tell what was happening, we thought initially dolphins, circling and feeding, but it became apparent they weren’t dolphins,” he told the Packet.

A species of owl which usually breeds in Scotland and Russia has produced a brood in an area of Kent for the first time in five years.

Short-eared owls have reared two broods at Elmley Nature Reserve, on the Isle of Sheppey.

The birds often stay at the site for winter before heading north during summer, but weather conditions and food abundance has seen them stay put on Sheppey.

The moth, often labelled the ugly butterfly, might not surprise anyone by its presence in Durham. We’ve all encountered these seemingly annoying creatures, escaping the long, dark winters to flutter around our accommodation lights. However, upon deeper inspection there is so much more to moths than what first meets the eye (which is admittedly not a lot).

Recently, it seems these nocturnal insects have come out of hiding, revealing their true beauty. The RSPB Saltholme nature reserve in County Durham has identified its 500th species of moth, the Reed Minor Moth, which had not been sighted in 50 years.

In a statement obtained by the BBC, Chris Francis, senior site manager at RSPB Saltholme, argues that moths are being unfairly overlooked, asserting that they are “just as impressive and beautiful as butterflies.”

Hmm - "AI assisted reporter".

A new collaboration aims to enhance wildlife habitats and manage flood risks in Norfolk.

The Environment Agency and the Norfolk Rivers Trust have partnered to launch a project concentrated on the River Glaven, a rare chalk stream home to endangered wildlife.

The two-year project, costing £130k, was funded by the Environment Agency and other partners.

One of the 200 globally identified chalk streams, this location in North Norfolk is among 58 such habitats found in East Anglia.

PLANS have been lodged to restore a natural habitat in south Cumbria.

Cumbria Wildlife Trust has submitted a planning application to Westmorland and Furness Council to restore the peat bog and river habitat at Burns Beck Moss Nature Reserve in Killington.

According to planning documents, the proposed works involve the replacement and improvement of boardwalk access to routes across the nature reserve.

The design and access statement says: “The existing narrow dilapidated boardwalk will be replaced with wheelchair accessible boardwalks and wheelchair accessible raised viewing platforms/bird hides.”

Plans add the restoration of the peat bog will act as a ‘natural flood management service’ for communities downstream in the Lune catchment area.

A rare species of plant has been found growing in a quarry after work to transform it into a nature reserve.

Sandy Heath Quarry in Bedfordshire is still being mined, but the RSPB, external is working with land owners Tarmac, external to create 80 hectares (200 acres) of wildlife-friendly land once mineral extraction ends.

Weedy frillwort, external, which is 5mm tall, was found at the sand quarry, the first time it has been found in the county.

A species of butterfly which is thought to have died out in England more than 60 years ago is showing signs of breeding in Kent.

The large tortoiseshell butterfly was common in the UK but disappeared in the 1960s, possibly because of Dutch elm disease, although scientists have been unable to confirm this.

Now they are making a comeback, with more than 30 spotted in a Kent woodland this year.

A Cornish conservation charity has launched an ambitious rewilding project intended to benefit creatures from marsh fritillary butterflies living high on the moor to long-snouted seahorses in seagrass in a bay five miles away.

The Tor to Shore project will stretch from Helman Tor, a reserve topped with a granite boulder summit near Bodmin, to St Austell Bay via the tumbling River Par, its idea to improve a landscape at scale.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded the Cornwall Wildlife Trust a £265,000 development grant for the project, and if it goes to plan another £3m should follow.

After repeated warnings of continued failures from official watchdogs and nature charities, the new UK Government will undertake a rapid review of targets to cut waste and improve air quality, water and biodiversity.

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Steve Reed ordered the rapid review earlier this week and stated that it will be complete before the end of the year.

The review will assess whether the targets set out in the Environment Act and plans for their delivery detailed in the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) are sufficient to meet the scale of the nation’s environmental challenges in line with science.

Granted Royal Assent in 2021 after a process delayed by Covid-19, the Environment Act includes an array of legally binding targets created to reduce waste, halt species decline, restore nature and waterways and enhance woodland cover. Marine conservation and air pollution are also covered, among other topics.