With their soft golden coat, furry tail and big black eyes, hazel dormice are one of Britain’s most endearing but critically endangered mammals.
Our State of Britain’s Dormice report in 2016 confirmed that hazel dormice have become extinct from 17 English counties since the end of the 19th century, with populations thought to have fallen by a third since 2000 – a rate of decline equivalent to 55% over 25 years.
Click here to read the rest of the article.: BBC Blogs – Springwatch – How connecting landscapes can help hazel dormice
Judging on behaviour alone it could be argued that the Duke of Burgundy doesn’t really deserve its aristocratic title.
Due to a combination of a cold, wet spring (the beast from the east), followed by the long, hot, dry summer last year was very disappointing for the owls and kestrels across Buckinghamshire. Many of the birds did not even try to breed and those that did deserted eggs and chicks because they could not find enough voles and other small mammals to feed either themselves or their offspring.
This issue delves into the deep, dark depths of the soil – the foundation for much of life on Earth.
Are subsidies that are designed to protect the biodiversity of Britain’s saltmarshes, delivering the planned, conservation benefits? In particular, is this investment supporting populations of amber-listed Redshank?
It is such a delight to be in the garden this month – so many plants have burst into bloom that there is a mass of colour and a buzz of pollinators. The Springwatch programmes have also brought brightness to BBC2 and they have launched a big citizen science project called 
The UK’s moths are in trouble, two-thirds of common and widespread species have declined in the last 40 years. In a bid to make the UK mad about moths Butterfly Conservation is launching Moths Matter, a campaign to overturn their unfair reputation.
Our “carbon in nature rich areas” 
Mammals are often elusive night-time visitors to our gardens. We need your help to find out how much these often under-recorded animals use gardens and to understand which resources are most important for their survival.
Spring has never truly arrived until you catch sight of your first bee, but do you know what species it is?
According to a study carried out in 2016, there are approximately 369,000 species of flowering plant across the globe, and each and every one has the capacity to inspire and dazzle.
The proliferation of single-use plastic around the world is accelerating climate change and should be urgently halted, a report warns.
Adders are reportedly going extinct in the UK because they’ve had a lot of negative press. Campaigners are worried that unless our attitudes towards them change, they’ll completely disappear from our country.
In order to understand why nightingales have declined by a staggering 90% in the UK over the last 40 years, we’re working with the British Trust for Ornithology and the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.
By utilising data from an existing study, David Douglas and James Pearce-Higgins have discovered that Golden Plover chicks that carry more sheep-ticks Ixodes ricinus have a lower chance of survival. Their findings are written up as a paper in Bird Study. The work is only based on a small sample and the data don’t identify the mechanism that leads to increased mortality but, given the current interest in the biological effects of ticks, the findings are interesting.
The Painted Lady butterfly and Humming-bird Hawk-moth are arriving from Africa and becoming increasingly common in the UK. To find out just how common, we need your help.
Only a third of the world’s great rivers remain free flowing, due to the impact of dams that are drastically reducing the benefits healthy rivers provide people and nature, according to a global analysis.
Click here to see the shortlisted images: 
There are lots of ways in which you can explore Garden BirdWatch results. Choose from the images below to access dynamic graphs, maps, tables and infographics.
The recording scheme guide to bee-flies in genus Bombylius has been updated to provide some more information on how to distinguish the two clear-winged summer bee-flies: Western Bee-fly Bombylius canescens, and Heath Bee-fly Bombylius minor. (The section on the two pattern-winged spring bee-flies remains unchanged.)
What did insects ever do for us? Tom Heap asks leading entomologists how we can stop their decline.
A rare butterfly has been reintroduced to a site in Derbyshire where it’s not been seen for 52 years, thanks to an ambitious project by the National Trust and wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation (BC).
Adding just one nectar plant to your garden can help save wildlife. Find out which butterfly-friendly flowers to pick for your patch.
Is your outdoor space providing the resources birds need to breed (including food, shelter, water and nesting sites)? Watching what birds are doing, their behaviour, can provide the answers. We need your help to find evidence of how common garden birds benefit from our outdoor spaces at this critical time of year. Don’t forget to report back – your observations can help us understand how we can better support the birds and other wildlife on our doorsteps.
BTO research has used information collected by bird ringers to investigate large-scale differences and flexibility in the timing of feather moult across 15 passerine species that breed in the UK. Different moult strategies were found between migrant and resident species, alongside within-species regional variation in moulting schedules.
There are over 250 species of larger wasp in the UK, but about 6000 species in total, including tiny parasites and gall-wasps right up to the magnificent brown and yellow hornet, one of our largest insects, with quite a reputation. The wasps most of us know are the nine social species, the paper wasps, named from their nests, including the common wasp, the German wasp and the hornet.
A regular question we get asked at the Bumblebee Conservation Trust is “How are the UK’s bumblebees doing?” It seems such a simple question that you’d think demands a simple answer, but like most things in life, it’s actually a lot more complicated!
Males blue with dark border. Females brown with row of red spots. Undersides brown-grey with black spots, a row of orange spots, and small greenish flecks on outer margin. Males similar to Common Blue, which lacks greenish spots.
Creating a garden that’s fantastic for wildlife may be easier than you think. Here are 10 simple ideas to get you started
Plastic pollution represents a pervasive and increasing threat to marine ecosystems worldwide and there is a need to better understand the extent to which microplastics (<5 mm) are ingested by high trophic-level taxa, such as marine mammals. Here, we perform a comprehensive assessment by examining whole digestive tracts of 50 individuals from 10 species whilst operating strict contamination controls…
We are working hard to protect our native species from invasive non-native species including Himalayan balsam and American mink
Environment Secretary Michael Gove has today created 41 new Marine Conservation Zones, marking the most significant expansion of England’s ‘Blue Belt’ of protected areas to date.
Stinging Nettles
What’s living below ground? Earthworms and other ground-dwelling invertebrates are an essential part of the diet of many birds and mammals. We need you to take part in an experiment to tell us what’s living beneath the soil in your garden so we know how much of this vital food is available to other wildlife. Some of the birds and mammals that rely on soil invertebrates to form the bulk of their diet are under threat. In particular, both song thrush and hedgehog numbers have halved in the last few decades. We hope to find out how the quantity of invertebrates varies from garden to garden around the UK, so we understand out how abundant this vital food source is in different garden habitats.
Moths are declining in the UK. Studies have found the overall number of moths has decreased by 28% since 1968. The situation is particularly bad in southern Britain, where moth numbers are down by 40%. Many individual species have declined dramatically in recent decades and over 60 became extinct in the 20th century.
For many people, their garden birds are the wildlife they interact with most regularly, whether it is by watching the daily visitors on the feeders, the trials and tribulations of a nest box, or simply seeing which species have popped into the garden. This regular contact provides a window into the lives of wild birds and with that comes a sense of caring for these animals and wanting to provide for them.
An average of three harbour porpoises are killed each day in the UK with fishing nets being the biggest cause of death.
A newly discovered species of snakehead fish has been named Aenigmachanna gollum after J.R.R. Tolkien’s Gollum.
Take part in citizen science in the UK’s biggest nature reserve – our gardens. Help us understand how gardens can help our wildlife thrive.
Humans are threatening one million species across the world with extinction, according to a stark report by the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Often described as ‘the IPCC for biodiversity’, IPBES was set up by the United Nations to provide the best-available evidence to inform better decisions about nature. Professor Helen Roy of the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, who worked on one of the regional assessments that the global report built on, explains its significance.
New research reveals the fatal spread of Ranavirus will increase if carbon emissions are not reduced.
Report finds popular parks such as Yosemite and Joshua Tree have pollution at levels that threaten visitors and wildlife
May is upon us, and the dragonfly sightings have been coming in by the bucket load. We hope that you have also seen your first dragonfly of the year, if not then we have our fingers crossed that they will emerge near you soon. Please keep your records and photos coming in. We love seeing them and the data is crucial in establishing how well our favourite insects are doing.
Pollinators such as bees and butterflies are highly dependent on flowers to provide nectar as food; at the same time, those plants are reliant on the pollinators for reproduction. Over the past few decades, declines in both flower and pollinator diversity and abundance have prompted ecologists to wonder about the consequences of flower loss for pollinator communities and for plant pollination.
There are, sadly, probably more misguided perceptions about insects than there are accurate ‘takes’. But there are plenty of preconceived ideas about those who take an interest in them, too.
Puffins are one of our favourite seabirds, instantly recognisable with their brightly-coloured bills. Sadly, their numbers have plummeted and they’re now threatened with global extinction. We think this may be down to lack of food, so we need to find out how the food puffins carry in their bills has changed over time.
The ongoing global appetite for meat is having a devastating impact on the environment driven by the production of crop-based feed for animals, a new report has warned.
In Chile the beloved native bee is venerated as carrying the spirit of the dead, but its numbers are dwindling as farmers use imported species infected with parasites to pollinate crops
This is the same sperm whale pod Blue Planet filmed off Sri Lanka – but flocking tourists are making it less of a safe place for these stunning animals
The Rutland Osprey Project celebrated a major milestone and welcomed its 150th chick into the world.
The Trump administration on Thursday moved to ease safety regulations adopted after the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon blowout, the worst offshore oil disaster in US history that killed nearly a dozen people and caused massive pollution.
Unhindered by regulation, driven by greed, the fishing industry is the greatest threat to our oceans. We must take action
The Republic of Ireland has declared a climate and biodiversity emergency.
Then they mate and their babies eat the barnacle. Seriously.
Steve Portugal explains why and how birds undertake long and perilous migratory journeys
Swifts have declined by 53% between 1995 and 2016. We think loss of nest sites could be contributing. If you’ve seen a nesting swift or screaming parties of swifts, tell us. You’ll help build a picture of where swifts are nesting and where they need help.
Researchers at the University of Aberdeen studied the blue-tailed damselfly, which uses its colour to communicate and to signal their social and reproductive strategies to other members of their species.
Britain’s hunting estates were once beautiful. Walking through the New Forest, we can all appreciate how the purchase of land for hunting can radically protect our countryside. Almost a thousand years after William the Conqueror set aside this wooded wonderland, we can still enjoy its aged oak pastures, Britain’s largest herds of free-roaming grazing animals, and a chorus of birdsong that has been lost in most other corners of our land.
With continuing advances in tracking technology, our capacity to track birds keeps breaking new barriers. One species that has benefited from smaller tags and almost real-time satellite transmission is the globally-threatened European Turtle-dove (Streptopelia turtur), a widespread summer visitor that is now a global conservation priority with a decline above 30% since 2000 across Europe. In the UK, for every 100 turtle doves that there were in 1995 just six remain. Knowing more about their movements and ecology is a fundamental step in conserving this bird.
Small and orange and brown, like a tiny fritillary. Undersides of hind wings have rows of white spots. Lives in small colonies on grassland or woodland clearings.
A corner of England that has more species of plants and wildlife than anywhere in the UK is celebrating its 120th anniversary – with the arrival of never seen before animals.
Tell us about sick and diseased wildlife found in your garden. Garden BirdWatch participants can also add observations when entering their usual GBW counts.
T
The Elms for Adur Hairstreaksproject is being led by BC’s Sussex Branch, with support from the South Downs Volunteer Ranger Service, and will see at least 550 disease-resistant elm trees planted at Lancing College near Shoreham airport, to help the White-letter Hairstreak butterfly.