GWCT News Blog

Unlike some of our more celebrated raptors, kestrels often slip under the radar, which makes understanding their needs, and finding practical ways to support them, all the more important.

One important way of supporting these birds has been through the installation of nest boxes, providing them with suitable and safe roosting and nesting sites. Protecting and monitoring these birds therefore relies heavily on the support of farmers, landowners, and dedicated volunteers.

Thanks to Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme, we have helped create a safer haven for beach-nesting birds on the North Solent National Nature Reserve in Hampshire. With our partners, we’ve transformed a 1.7ha area of scrub-grassland into an open expanse of coastal vegetated shingle and this tailor-made ‘hotel for birds’ opened for business in March this year.

Thank you to everyone who entered the competition and congratulations to our fantastic winners and runners-up! We wanted to see your unique interpretation of ‘Nature’s Gift,’ and you certainly delivered! From majestic birds to cheeky mammals, and stunning scenery, we were blown away by the range and variety of entries.

It has been a whirlwind of a placement year and I am grateful to have taken part in such fun research. The Uplands Team is fantastic, and I would recommend this placement, or job role, to anyone who has the opportunity to do it.

There has been much written in scientific journals about how conservation is influenced by changing values and beliefs, and the increasingly held view that animals and humans are equal sentient beings resulting in compassionate conservation approaches and ultimately calls for animal personhood. This results in concerns about the management of some species, such as when controlling predators or pests. But are these values and attitudes applied to all animals equally?

On 30th May GWCT Newsround reported on a think piece by Hong Jiang a PhD student at York University which asked how we achieve the expansion of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECM) in line with the ambitions of COP15 and the new post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). The GBF commits to 23 action-orientated targets by 2030.

Many parts of the English rolling landscape are criss-crossed by hedgerows, which if one stops and looks provide an interesting perspective on the history of the landscape being observed.

The British Beekeepers’ Association (BBKA) is calling on the public to help fight a major threat to honey bees and other pollinators - Asian hornets.

Countryfile viewers were treated to a captivating glimpse into the world of nest monitoring during Sunday's episode.