The fastest birds in the world, peregrine falcons are sought after for racing and can sell for up to £250,000 in the Middle East. Poaching is a constant threat, with eggs and chicks stolen to supply the hidden market. Now, there are nationwide efforts under way to ring and take DNA from wild chicks – but just reaching their nests can be perilous

Gwent Wildlife Trust has officially opened a new reserve on the Gwent Levels.

Bridewell Common NR was officially opened by Craig Bennett, Chief Executive of the Wildlife Trusts, at a special event on 20 June.

At the event, Gwent Wildlife Trust thanked guests, including local community representatives, supporters, volunteers and staff, who had contributed to the acquisition and restoration of this beautiful 33-ha site.

Footage captured from a boat off the Isle of Mull shows a "miracle" white-tailed eagle chick in flight, after it was nursed back to health by two unusually caring parents.

In an unprecedented display of extended eagle parenting, the two white-tailed parents skipped this year's breeding season to continue to tend to their year-old offspring.

The youngster's wing was broken when the nest fell to the ground during unseasonably wild weather last year.

The footage shows a bulge in the bird's wing - apparently a healed broken bone.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust directly manages over 100 nature reserves, and is at the forefront of conservation work across Yorkshire, from groundbreaking partnership programmes such as Wild Ingleborough and Wilder Humber to their recent release of the first-ever State of Yorkshire’s Nature report.

We are managed by a Board of Trustees, who support and guide the charity to achieve a wilder Yorkshire that more people feel encouraged to enjoy. Each trustee brings their own experience to advise the Trust, and represents the Trust’s 45,000 members.

Trustees join for a limited time, which creates vacancies and ensures the Trust benefits from different experiences and fresh perspectives. No prior experience of being a trustee is required, and the Trust encourages everyone who feels they have skills and time to offer to apply.

Rare bumblebee numbers are rising in Shropshire following a successful project to restore old hay meadows.

The National Trust is leading Stepping Stones, an initiative which aims to reconnect isolated patches of wildlife habitat across the Long Mynd and Stiperstones.

Jinlye Meadows, on the Long Mynd, is now thriving with wildflowers and insects and as a result, the population of bilberry bumblebees has increased.

Small wild birds have demonstrated an ability to recall what they have eaten in the past, where they found it and when, a new study has shown.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge and the University of East Anglia in Norwich (UEA) studied the feeding habits of blue tits and great tits.

In the "first experiment of its kind to involve wild animals", the birds exhibited an "episodic-like" memory to cope with changes in food availability when foraging.

That memory system - a "conscious recollection of personally experienced events" was previously thought to be "uniquely human", researchers said.

A robotic drone is being used to clean up the waterways in Leeds.

The cutting-edge technology has been developed in the Netherlands and is the first of its kind to be used in the UK, according to the Leeds Waterfront group.

The robot swims along waterways and can scoop up to 500kg of waste from the surface through a wide mouth, hence it being named the Waste Shark.

An otter has been spotted for the first time at a "wilded" site on the Somerset Levels that used to be intensively grazed farmland.

The animal was captured by a night-time camera at Honeygar in the Avalon Marshes.

In a post on Facebook, Somerset Wildlife Trust said it was "excellent news" for the 81-acre site, which used to be a dairy farm.

The trust wrote: "We've now been managing the site for over two years, and vital monitoring work has been undertaken to help us build up a better picture of some of the different species in the area.

Vast swathes of the British countryside are being sprayed in pesticides containing “forever chemicals” that pollute our air, soil and waterways, and pose a threat to public health.

An analysis by the environmental group Fidra, shared exclusively with i, found that pesticides containing potentially dangerous chemicals were sprayed on the equivalent of 10.7m hectares of arable farmland in 2022 – an area roughly the size of Iceland.

The pesticides contained PFAS, or per- and poly-fluorinated alkyl substances, a group of more than 10,000 industrial chemicals that studies have linked to health problems, including cancer, infertility and developmental issues.

A pair of reed buntings has successfully bred in Jersey for the first time in almost 30 years.

The National Trust for Jersey said it was "very excited" about the first confirmed breeding in the island since 1997.

The trust said the species normally migrated to breeding grounds in eastern Europe and Scandinavia.

Last, week the Scottish Parliament passed the Circular Economy Bill.

The Circular Economy Bill was introduced by the Scottish Government in June 2023. Now that it has passed, it means the country will be getting a new law to bring us another step closer to reducing beach litter in Scotland.

Our economy is still based on what is called a linear model where we take resources from the planet, make something, use it for a short time and then throw it away. When it is thrown away it is sometimes recycled and sometimes landfilled or incinerated. Unfortunately, some of it also leaks into our natural environment and impacts our incredible Scottish wildlife and habitats as well as the stunning coastline Scotland is world renowned for.

It’s late at night on the South Downs as a group of ardent wildlife spotters gather round a pair of glow-worms appearing to copulate.

While the insect is declining in many parts of the UK, the healthy population of glow-worms at the Sussex beauty spot is drawing in spectators.

Watched by a small crowd, the insects don’t seem to be put off by the lack of privacy.

Beloved by Shakespeare and the Beatles, the blackbird and its sweet song have captured the imagination of Britons for centuries.

But now the songbird is facing decline, and the British public has been asked to contribute to a survey by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) to find out why.

Their numbers have plummeted in Greater London and southern England at rates not seen in the rest of the UK.

An RSPB warden has admitted he is "startled" by how rapidly wildlife has started colonising a reserve's newest piece of wetland.

It is a year since the charity began work transforming arable fields into a watery habitat as part of an expansion of its Lakenheath Fen reserve on the Suffolk/Norfolk border.

Site manager Dave Rogers said: "We've seen some immediate reaction from some species - and marsh harriers in particular."

The birds, which are of conservation concern, are breeding elsewhere on the reserve and have found the new habitat a rich source of prey.

The Jersey tiger, Euplagia quadripunctaria, is one of the more spectacular British moths. Rather than trying to blend in with its surroundings, its dramatic black and white wings, with additional orange flashes when flying, seem to be saying “eat me if you dare” and get a stomachache. Most potential predators appear to heed the warning.

Unlike some other moths, the caterpillars eat a variety of roadside weeds including nettles, and those hatched in September shelter through the winter on rough patches of ground with plenty of food plants.

The farthest north this species used to be seen was Jersey (as the name suggests) but global heating has transformed its fortunes.

Highlands and Islands Airports Limited staff have teamed up with conservation programme Species on the Edge to create safe nesting habitat for the rare Little Tern at Islay Airport.

Little Terns fly to Scotland in spring to breed, looking for beaches on the coast and islands where they can nest in colonies. Unfortunately, this chosen habitat of Little Terns is often prone to disturbance by humans, dogs, and flooding. Little Terns are very sensitive to disturbance and can abandon nests, eggs and chicks if disturbed.

The latest breeding seabird census (Seabirds Count: 2015-2021) shows that Little Tern have declined by 29% in the last 20 years in Scotland, with the Argyll and Bute region seeing a much larger decline of 46% in the same time period. Creating disturbance-free areas with suitable nesting material is one of the most important actions that can be taken to help protect Little Terns.

Striking images have been captured of a huge field of poppies stretching almost as far as the eye can see.

The field has been rewilded by the landowner in Great Massingham, Norfolk.

The soil was ploughed and harrowed before being left for nature to run its course, with the result being a huge sea of red poppies.

Everyone loves bees and butterflies, but now moths are coming into the spotlight (as long as they don’t fly around it).

The moth expert Charles Waters has seen a surprisingly rapid increase in interest in moths from the younger generation as, he believes, people become more aware of their beauty and diversity, as well as their importance as pollinators.

“Moths are more significant pollinators because there’s so many of them. In the UK, there are 59 butterfly species, but there are 2,500 moth species,” he said.

A charity seeking to restore and preserve the historical legacy of Boleskine House and its estate has seen the efforts to establish the largest wildflower meadow in the region bloom this summer.

Two years after securing funding for the initiative, The Boleskine House Foundation saw the five-acre meadow showing significant color in its first year of bloom.

The meadow at Boleskine – formerly owned by occultist Aleister Crowley and later Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page – is one of the charity’s biodiversity initiatives that aims to support an increase in bee populations.

Dorset Council, supported by Natural England, is pressing ahead with plans to buy a dairy farm for a rewilding project.

In a statement, the council said part of Middle Farm, in Higher Kingcombe, is being used as a dairy farm which is “not ideal” as it suffers from run-off and erosion as it is managed “intensively”.

With the support of Natural England, the council wants to buy the farm and change its use of land for woodland or rewilding.

A forest plantation planned for a national scenic area is set for a court battle over claims it could cause “landscape-scale destruction”.

A 700-hectare conifer forest is being planted around a countryside walkway named after one of Scotland’s most celebrated writers: John Buchan, author of The Thirty Nine Steps.

The plantation, which will predominantly be non-native Sitka spruce, is already being put in the ground at Stobo Hope, near Peebles.

One of the rarest species of butterfly in the UK has been spotted at a new location in Exmoor National Park.

A couple on holiday in the area discovered two heath fritillaries at Ashton Cleave.

Ashton Cleave is close to Hawkcombe Woods where the Exmoor National Park Authority (ENPA) has been carrying out a long-term project to help the species.

The rare butterfly, also traditionally known as the "woodman's follower", has been breeding successfully in Hawkcombe for a few years.

A species of bird has been born at a nature reserve in Lincolnshire for the first time in its history.

The Mediterranean gull chick was spotted by volunteers at Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust's Whisby Nature Park on 27 June.

The park said its the first time the species has hatched at the site, as nesting Mediterranean gulls have always failed at the incubation stage on prior occasions.

A range of actions to tackle the problems of Lough Neagh are set to be approved by Stormont's agriculture and environment minister, BBC News NI understands.

The Lough Neagh Report and Action Plan has been with the Northern Ireland Executive since mid-June, but ministers have not yet agreed to it.

Some elements of the plan are cross-cutting and require executive approval to be implemented.

The actions Agriculture and Environment Minister Andrew Muir is set to give the go-ahead for are those that fall within his department.