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By Sarah Blyth, North Wessex Downs Farmland Bird Project Officer In my second year at college I did an ornithology module. My teacher was this bird mad FWAG advisor and he instilled in me a deep seated enthusiasm for the countryside and the birds that dwell there that’s never gone away. I was...

We are now well into the second year of the Great Crane Project – and have spent the spring and summer hatching and rearing another batch of cranes to joint the eighteen birds that were released last year. This brings the number out on the Somerset Levels and Moors to 34. After three weeks of ‘anchoring’...

Back in the Wilkinson years, before Batty turned England Captain, before Kamara turned Sky pundit, and before Eric turned Red, I was a Leeds fan. Me and Dad had season tickets in the East Stand and never missed a home game. Eventually the endless 0-0 draws under George Graham put me off football altogether...

RSPB Scotland warns the countryside will suffer after yesterday's announcement that the Scottish Government's Spending Review will cut a further £10m from agri-environment budgets. Read what Stuart Housden, RSPB Scotland Director had to say here ...

It’s been a busy few weeks for us here in Wales. The Royal Welsh Show kicked things off back in mid July, the biggest and best attended event of its kind in the UK, with four days of good weather and a huge number of visitors to the stand, so many in fact, we ran out of our increasingly popular...

When was the last time you had a cirl bunting on your farm? My guess is unless you live in Devon or parts of Cornwall you’ve probably never heard of them. These relatives of yellowhammers, until the turn of the 19 th century, had a stronghold throughout southern England and into parts of...

Welcome to my office. I reckon it’s one of the biggest in the UK. Vaguely speaking, the ‘walls’ are the A14 to the south, the Cambridgeshire border to the west, the start of the sandy Brecks to the east, and to the North... Well I haven’t quite decided but it’s somewhere...

This weekend we will be at BirdFair (Marquee 4, Friday 19 - Sunday 21 August, Egleton Nature Reserve, Rutland Water), the annual jamboree for birdwatchers and their flocks. As we are in the final 2 weeks of the public vote for the RSPB Telegraph Nature of Farming Award , its a great opportunity to remind...

Over the summer months, the RSPB has met with many MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) to discuss topics as varied as seabird by-catch from fishing fleets to biodiversity in the UK’s overseas territories. For two MEPs in July, the focus of our meetings was to demonstrate how farming and...