UK Nature and Environment

The swift (Apus apus) is an acrobatic aerial bird, a remarkable sprinter and endurance flyer that rarely touches the ground. When these sickle-winged birds do come down – after several years in perpetual flight, even sleeping midair – it is to nest in the eaves of roofs across Europe after spending winters in sub-Saharan Africa, migrating 7,000 miles (11,000km) every year. They are celebrated by nature lovers, artists and poets as they race through city skies on long summer evenings, filling the air with their screaming calls.

The fastest bird in level flight (top speed: 69mph/111kph), they feed on airborne insects. Swifts are in trouble because of steep declines in insects, but also because they are losing traditional nesting sites. Swifts once nested in caves and hollow trees but moved into buildings hundreds of years ago. Modern insulation, particularly in roofs, removes the crevices and cavities where they have nested for centuries.

Dangerous modern pesticides used in agriculture and pet flea treatment have been detected for the first time in English rivers, research has found.

Scientists have called for stricter regulation around high-risk farming pesticides and flea treatments for pets because of the deadly effects they have on fish and other aquatic life when they make their way into rivers.

The research, by the British Geological Survey, evaluated the pollution by such pesticides in the waters and sediments of two English rivers: the Tone in Somerset, which runs through Taunton; and the Wensum in Norfolk, which runs through Norwich.

Scotland's west coast harbour seal numbers have dropped significantly  for the first time in decades.

The population fell by 20% between 2018 and 2023, in a region long considered the last stronghold for the marine mammal in the UK.

Conservation experts said the findings - carried out by the University of St Andrews - should serve as "a real wake-up call".

People are being encouraged to take part in a survey which aims to provide a snapshot of the state of Somerset's wildlife.

Somerset Wildlife Trust has said The Big Count 2025 needs as many volunteers as possible to record animals in gardens, parks and community green spaces.

The environmental charity said the survey provided "vital" information about 150 species and monitored changes in wildlife throughout the county.

Cuckoos are a widespread and familiar bird across much of the UK, and many people can recognise the famously onomatopoeic song, but sadly we have lost more than a third of our breeding Cuckoos since 1995.

Researchers from BTO have been delving into every aspect of these characterful birds’ lives, trying to better understand the causes behind these continuing, and concerning declines.

Since 2011, more than 130 Cuckoos from around the UK and Ireland have been fitted with state-of-the-art tags which can be located by satellites passing overhead. Based on the frequency of the signals that the tags transmit, scientists can follow the birds’ routes in real time, allowing them to potentially identify significant obstacles and challenges that these remarkable travellers face as they make their epic cross-continental journeys. This spring an additional six birds have been fitted with these tags.

Following a successful reintroduction to the River Thaw last summer, conservationists have released a further 140 Water Voles to help bring back the UK’s fastest declining mammal to South Wales.

The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales (WTSWW), South East Wales Rivers Trust (SEWRT), Initiative for Nature Conservation Cymru (INCC), Natural Resources Wales (NRW), and Vale of Glamorgan Council’s Restore the Thaw Landscape project, with local landowners, are working together to bring Water Voles back to the Vale of Glamorgan.

This survey follows a release of 200 captive bred Water Voles in August last year, marking their return to River Thaw after a 20-year absence. Although elusive animals, there are plenty of signs that they are doing well and have spread out from their original release site along the Thaw.

A chemical that scientists worry might have an impact on human reproduction has been found in rivers across the UK.

Researchers from York University analysed samples from 32 rivers in all the UK's 4 nations and found traces of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) at 98% of the test locations.

TFA is what's known as a "forever chemical" which means that it breaks down extremely slowly in nature, and so accumulates over time.

Campaigners against the pollution in the River Severn have staged a peaceful protest in a town in Worcestershire.

About 100 people went to the banks of the river in Bewdley on Sunday, including rock legend Robert Plant, who is supporting local efforts to protect it.

People marched through the town and sailed coffins on the water to raise awareness of what they said was a dying eco-system because of sewage overflow and fertiliser run off.

One of the world's rarest plants - with just four known examples left in the wild - has flowered at a nursery set up to try to prevent the decline of Wales' Arctic alpine species.

Snowdonia hawkweed - nicknamed "the Welsh dodo" - was thought to be extinct until a plant was found in 2002 in Eryri National Park.

Ecologist Robbie Blackhall-Miles scaled a cliff face somewhere in the Ogwen Valley above Bethesda in 2023 to document the remaining plants and take a cutting to replant.

A Kent nature reserve is playing a crucial role in efforts to restore southern England's Eurasian Curlew population, which faces the threat of local extinction within two decades.

Elmley NNR, located on the Isle of Sheppey, is currently raising 39 curlew chicks hatched from eggs collected in northern England. The birds will be released into the wild later this summer as part of the South of England Curlew Project, led by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT).

The first headstarted birds were released at the site in 2023.

Eurasian Curlew numbers in southern England have declined sharply in recent decades, with as few as 200 breeding pairs remaining to the south of Birmingham. The collapse has been linked to habitat loss and high levels of predation.

A species of musical insect extinct in the UK has been reintroduced to the country from France, conservationists have said.

The Species Recovery Trust released 11 New Forest cicadas this week into a habitat at Paultons Park, near the Hampshire woods where they previously lived.

The New Forest cicada, or Cicadetta montana, used to be found across the New Forest, but the last confirmed sightings were in the 1990s.

There’s a tiger burning brightly in front of me – not in the forests of the night, but on a Derbyshire moor, among the heather and bilberry, and in warm sunshine. It isn’t orange and black, but an iridescent green, and I need to hunker down to reach its level.

The green tiger beetle is widespread in Britain, and at least to the ants and caterpillars that it predates, it is every bit as threatening as the big cat immortalised by William Blake. Magnified, its fearful symmetry becomes more apparent, its mouth parts ferocious, the dandyish purple of its elegant legs more richly obvious.

One other thing I appreciate about the green tiger beetle is how easily it’s identified. There are thousands of beetle species in Britain, and they’re not always this easy to tease apart. It makes the green tiger especially exciting to kids, a secure toehold in the shifting complexity of nature. And it’s that question, of inspiring the next generation to explore the marvels around them, that’s on my mind.

A wetland habitat which was "almost exclusively a birder reserve" until the Covid-19 pandemic is marking its 30th anniversary.

Kingfishers Bridge, a 300-acre (121-hectare) reserve between Wicken and Stretham, Cambridgeshire, went from having 2,000 visitors a year to 21,000 in 2023.

The dog-friendly reserve now has a car park, cafe, visitor centre and shop, as well as offering regular visitor tours of its rare habitats.

Badger TB vaccinations increased to a record high by 24% across the country last year, as part of a major drive to increase badger vaccination and end the badger cull. It’s part of significant progress made in a range of areas to deliver on its manifesto pledge to end badger culling by the end of the Parliament.

A total of 4,110 badgers were vaccinated against the devastating animal disease in England last year, an increase of over 1,000 from 2023.

The government is also accelerating the rollout of the badger vaccination further with the launch of a new Badger Vaccinator Field Force coming into force next year which will increase badger vaccination at pace to drive down TB rates and protect badgers. 

The new study, launched at the International Seascape Symposium II at ZSL (Zoological Society of London), and published to align with UN Ocean Decade Conference represents two years of work by an international team led by the University of Portsmouth, with support from ZSL and University of Edinburgh.

It delivers the most comprehensive report to date of how coastal habitats in temperate regions function not in isolation, but as interconnected systems - a concept known as ecological connectivity.

“Coastal habitats like oyster reefs, saltmarshes, kelp forests and seagrass meadows are often treated as separate entities in policy and restoration, but in reality, they are tightly bound together by the flows of water, life, and energy,” said lead author Professor Joanne Preston, Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of Portsmouth. “To meet our global climate and biodiversity targets, we need to restore the entire seascape.”

Restoring nature and tackling global warming are key to keeping Dartmoor “special”, the Prince of Wales has said.

The Duchy of Cornwall and Central Dartmoor Landscape Recovery Project (CDLR) launched a new project to “create a resilient environment” and meet the changing needs of Dartmoor’s communities.

In a foreword to the Landscape Vision project, the Prince of Wales said: “Dartmoor is a magnificent and complex ecosystem – the balance between nature and people has evolved for thousands of years to shape the landscape we recognise today.

Environment Secretary Steve Reed champions private investment in nature recovery as the government launches a new call for evidence (12 June).

Speaking to leading figures from financial institutions, property, retail and sustainability sectors at a roundtable event in London, the Environment Secretary emphasised the importance of fostering partnerships between the public and private sectors to support economic growth while powering nature recovery.

Businesses across the UK, whether in food and agriculture, construction, finance, or retail, rely on a healthy natural environment to operate, grow and innovate.

This week, wildlife lovers were overjoyed to see two fluffy peregrine chicks hatch at St Albans Cathedral, marking a terrific comeback for the birds following the shocking destruction of their nest caught on camera just a few months prior.

One of only five breeding pairs in Hertfordshire, the webcam follows the lives of the peregrine pair each spring, attracting over half a million views last year alone. All eyes are now on the third egg nestled atop the cathedral in the hope it will complete the trio of these impressive birds of prey.

The Wildlife Trusts offer over 25 live, and much-loved, webcams seasonally. Right now is peak viewing season as the cameras allow an unrivalled view of courtship, nesting and hatching as well as a peep into the first few weeks of a chick's life. Webcams also follow the lives of mammals such as bats, badgers and red squirrels, as well as dolphins and scenic coastal views.

Regarding George Monbiot’s article (There’s an invader turning huge swathes of Britain into deserts – and these dead zones are spreading, 9 June), yes, molinia (purple moor-grass) is a serious scourge of many of the UK’s acidic upland landscapes. In 1999, while still residing in my home county of East Sussex, I began a conservation grazing initiative using Exmoor ponies to combat the growing threat to the South Downs’ chalk grasslands from a very similar grass, Brachypodium (tor grass), which back then I estimated was affecting well in excess of 200 hectares. This grass is of little use to farmers and also seriously depletes biodiversity.

Part of the seabed off the Jurassic Coast is "still recovering" from the effects of bottom trawling 17 years after it was banned there, marine researchers have said.

A consultation is being held on government proposals to extend the ban on the practice of dragging large nets along the seafloor.

Some fishing organisations have criticised the plans and questioned the environmental impact of bottom trawling.

Green groups have welcomed the Government’s decision to protect the nature-friendly farming budget, but concerns remain about the overall squeeze on environmental spending.

Ahead of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ spending review on Wednesday, environmentalists warned that cutting the budget for payments that support farmers and landowners to deliver public goods, such as healthy soil, clean water and hedgerows, would threaten the Government’s efforts on food security and tackling nature’s declines.

It comes as farmers face increasingly challenging climate conditions, while being hit by changes to inheritance tax and the abrupt closure of this year’s sustainable farming incentive (SFI), the biggest strand of the environmental land management scheme (Elms).

A minke whale has apparently been spotted feeding off the shore by fishing crews in Cornwall.

Company Mermaid Pleasure Trips said the mammal was spotted where hoards of jellyfish had also been seen.

A local fisherman said he saw three or four in a pod recently, which indicated that bait fish stocks in the area were healthy.

Conservationists have released 20 rare hazel dormice into a secret woodland location in Leicestershire to create the county’s only known population.

The tiny mammals were reintroduced this week to an undisclosed area of the Bradgate Park Trust estate by wildlife charity People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and its partners.

It comes as part of national efforts to help the endangered species come back from the brink of extinction.

Grants to support the establishment of thousands of trees, orchards and hedgerows on streets, in parks, and in community and educational spaces across the UK, are now available through The Tree Council – including the introduction of a new £1m grant pot, funded by Defra.

The Tree Council, the national charity working together for the love of trees, offers a range of funding and free tree options to support planting projects; helping to bring greater biodiversity, improved air quality, reduced risk of flooding, and deliver significant environmental enhancement to grant recipients and their communities, from the north of Scotland to the tip of England, in Wales, and Northern Ireland.

And now, a new £1m Trees Outside Woodland Fund is available in England, offering grants of up to £40,000 for local authorities and larger charities to grow trees on land that is publicly accessible, or of benefit to the public.