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Don't blame it on the sunshine, don't blame it on the moonlight, don't blame it on the good times, blame it on the bats
Bats and newts are an easy target, but can they actually be blamed for not building enough houses?
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'A phenomenon that has shaped Britain’s landscapes and wildlife for millennia': A five minute guide to mast years
The ground is already littered with acorns and beech nuts, notes Florence Allen, thanks to a phenomenon called mast years, or mast seeding.
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The curious world of the penny bun mushroom
Blessed with a vastly superior taste, penny buns are the champions of champignons and the perfect accompaniment to maggots
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White-tailed eagles: From 'the greatest wildlife crime imaginable' to Nature's most wonderful comeback story
Dave Sexton and Alice Boyd join the Country Life Podcast.
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Sir Francis Beaufort: The man who measured the wind and set the foundations for the Shipping Forecast
Neptune’s realm may never be tamed by Man, but Sir Francis Beaufort ensured seafarers have a way to measure the winds
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Galls: Nature's most beautiful, horrifying and intriguing parasites
A playground for aphids, wasp eggs, and funghi — galls come in all shapes and sizes
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The ring ouzel: The mystery behind the common blackbird's feral twin
A master of disguise, inexplicably shy and unpredictably wild, the increasingly rare ring ouzel warrants giving any blackbird a second glance.
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The winners and losers of summer 2025, from foragers to fishermen, and turtles to trout
Blue skies and rising mercury have been a theme of this summer, but there are always those who thrive and those who struggle in unusual times.
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Storm overflow plan 'needs flushing down the lavatory once and for all' say angling groups as perilous state of English rivers revealed
The recently published Cunliffe Report shows that 'waterways are suffering from chronic neglect, corporate greed and useless regulation'.
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‘Though she be but little, she is fierce’: Everything you didn't know about sparrowhawks
Scourge of the bird feeder and a master of ‘shock and awe’ assassinations, the sparrowhawk pursues its quarry with such tenacity and unpredictability that it often blindsides its prey.
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An ode to Britain's wildflowers, from the London bloom which grew in the craters of the Blitz, to the weather-predicting scarlet pimpernel
Decorating the land with their brilliant and varied hues, our native flora which operate as clocks, calendars and Nature’s medicine cabinet are blooming brilliant, says John Lewis-Stempel.
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Is there enough beauty and hope left in the natural world to counter the current state of global despair?
Trees are dying, our food is covered in chemicals and we are stuck in a deteriorating international security situation.
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Roger Morgan-Grenville: We need to reset our children's connection to nature — and it starts at school
Our schools can — and must — lead the way in teaching the next generation the incalculable value of the natural world.
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The white-tailed eagle is crafty, controversial and has wings the size of a barn door
A penchant for spring lamb saw the raptor species ruthlessly exterminated, but the beguiling white-tailed eagle — also known as the sea eagle — is now back on our shores.
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Insectageddon delayed for another year at least, as warm and wet spring leads to bumper crop of bugs
A warm and wet spring has provided the perfect conditions for our insects, which is even better news for the bats and birds.
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No job too big: Britain's native breeds can save our countryside
Britain’s native breeds and their grazing talents are an integral part of the drive to balance food production with biodiversity recovery. We should look closer to home in the quest to re-create the natural habitats of the past
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A wing and a prayer: saving our farmland bird populations
By bridging ‘the hungry gap’ with supplementary feeding, we can breathe life into our declining farmland bird populations, but farming practices must be changed to secure their future.
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'He unleashed a series of war cries, then intercepted the vole mid-air': There's nothing remotely common about the common kestrel
Known in Orkney as ‘moosie-haak’, kestrels are fierce hunters but have seriously declined and are now an amber-listed species.
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Don't judge a plant by its smell: Why 'the little stinkers of the natural world' are just doing their job
Reminiscent of love and with an unmistakable odour of death, the little stinkers of the natural world might incite repulsion, but they are only doing their job, pleads Ian Morton
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Puffins and shearwaters, skuas and terns, gannets and gulls and guillemots and wings, these are a few of our favourite things (seabirds)
From a heroic long-distance swimmer to a producer of spectacularly eerie sound effects, the seabirds seen swooping and diving over British waters have all manner of singular skills.
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The red kite is a soaraway success story, having escaped extinction to become a familiar sight in our skies again
Unhurried in flight and with a sideline in stolen goods, the handsome red kite is the gentleman thief of the raptor world, writes Mark Cocker.
