Blogs

When you twin evidence-based research with the skills and passion of an individual or group of people on the ground, the results can be staggering. Through our Working Conservationist initiative, we have seen first-hand what that combination can achieve. 

The UK supports five species of owl and last week, as I heard the distinctive ‘hooo, hu, huhuhuhooo’ of a male tawny owl (Stix aluco) on the site of the GWCT’s headquarters, I wanted to learn more.

The recent People’s Trust for Endangered Species/British Hedgehog Preservation Society report on the State of the British Hedgehogs 2022 makes mixed reading. 

With the shooting season now over, the first signs of breeding are already upon us. So, those who hope for a significant contribution from wild bred game should be making a start on the spring predation control programme.

The announcement of the Landscape Recovery element of the Environmental Land Management Scheme was greeted with enthusiasm by those who advocate rewilding approaches.  

The Owl Box Initiative is supporting National Nest Box Week by highlighting the importance of providing nest boxes for a range of bird species across our landscapes. 

The capercaillie is a truly magnificent species, one that almost seems too significant and primeval to occur in the small remaining pockets of Caledonian pine forests in the 21st century. The small, declining population of this species is now centred in Strathspey, with fewer individuals occurring in Deeside and Easter Ross. This, sadly, makes observing capercaillie particularly rare in Scotland.

During the 2021 breeding season, the Owl Box Initiative’s monitoring team began box checks in May and continued, at occupied boxes, until the last chicks were ringed in October. The longer breeding season was, in part, due to a number of barn owl pairs across our study areas producing a second brood.

If you read the headlines around the recent Birds of Conservation Concern report, you’d have been rightly worried about the fate of many of our much-loved bird species.