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What is everyone talking about this week: Why Britain's county shows are thrivingAs Labour continues to sideline those in the countryside, seven million people are flocking to county shows this summer to sample rural life at its most tangible.
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These iridescently beautiful birds can slow time, reproduce the human voice and sing like angels — so why have we nicknamed them ‘stinker’ and ‘scootie’?A surprising members of the Unloved Birds Club is the starling. Mark Cocker explains why.
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A snob's guide to the village fêteSophia Money-Coutts waxes lyrical about the most English of summer countryside traditions. Illustration by John Holder.
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From Worzel Gummidge to the kakashi of Shikoku: The scarecrow is iconic the world overThey might be questionably effective at frightening away birds, but scarecrows remain a quirkily enduring feature of our physical and cultural landscape.
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What is everyone talking about this week: How Gen Z fell in love with fly-fishingThey may look closer to Brad Pitt's Paul Maclean than to the grandfathers who taught them how to cast. But they are flocking to the sport in their hundreds, lured by Nature's bounty.
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The marine animals that look suspiciously like dogsFrom Staffie-shaped seals and smiling Samoyed belugas to borzoi swordfish, World Ocean Day seemed the perfect opportunity to tackle one of life's most important questions: which marine animals look most like dogs?
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We rudely refer to them as 'sky rats', but pigeons add a touch of the natural world to our busiest metropolisesMark Cocker defends the ungainly pigeon in this weeks column, where he defends Britain's least likable birds.
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Small-scale cut flower growers have now been formally recognised by the governmentThe UK trade body that represents more than 1,000 small-scale cut flower growers, has been awarded dedicated Standard Industrial Classification codes.
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You've got to have a lot of bottle to be an independent wine merchantIndependent wine merchants are going from strength to strength in rural communities. Gabriel Stone raises a glass to some of the best. Photographs by Millie Pilkington and Mark Williamson.
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‘The food system is where the big fight will happen for climate change in this country — and the time to start fixing that system is right now’: Meet the new generation joining the good fight at trailblazing KneppFor the last quarter of a century, the Knepp estate in Sussex has become a pioneer of the rewilding revolution, and now a new generation is joining the cause. Oliver Berry meets Ned Burrell and Lia Brazier to talk wild charcuterie, climate change — and making their own Marmite.
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Great black-backed gulls: Hitchcock's villain remains a formidable predator on the big screen and on our coastlines'The Birds' vilified this species of bird on the big screen. They remain instinctively wary and you can almost never get close to one — with good reason, writes Mark Cocker.
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Will AI be the saving grace of Britain's beloved hedgehogs?A group of scientists at the University of Cambridge has managed to identify specific sites that might offer habitat for hedgehogs, writes Will Hosie.
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Why is this British bird sometimes dubbed 'the black death'?In the second instalment of our series on Britain’s most misunderstood birds, the voracious cormorant is in the spotlight.
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What not to miss at the Chelsea Flower Show: Clive Nichols and Kathryn Bradley-Hole on the Country Life PodcastClive Nichols and Kathryn Bradley-Hole join the Country Life Podcast live from the Chelsea Flower Show.
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What is everyone talking about this week: The secret life of planktonPlankton generates at least five times more oxygen than tropical rainforests. Yet its various subspecies remain opaque and poorly understood. That could soon be changing.
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Alex Hassell and Bella MacLean can’t compete with the raw sex appeal of Rivals’ real star — The CotswoldsBella MacLean and Alex Hassell speak to Meg Walters about season two of Rivals and the sex appeal of the Cotswolds.
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The much unloved, many talented, quick-witted bird that inspired the Cold-War poetry of Poet Laureate Ted HughesIn the first of our new series on ‘unloved birds’, we take a beady-eyed look at the charred black carrion crow, the clever corvid with the coarse voice.
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'Simply sustaining is not enough — we must rebuild, improve and enhance if we are going to save the planet': Meet the forward-thinking farmers of the CotswoldsThey might struggle with stony, dry Cotswolds-brash soil, but the region's food producers explain why working the land sustainably and regeneratively is the best way to balance food production with wildlife recovery.
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Bertie Gregory: 'You know the cliché line people say “never meet your hero”? Those people haven’t met David Attenborough’Wildlife cameraman Bertie Gregory has travelled all over the world in pursuit of the perfect shot. He talks to Rosie Paterson about a few of his favourite moments.
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'He doesn’t hold back on the fact that that life in the animal kingdom is a brutal survival of the fittest': Happy birthday Sir David AttenboroughThe beloved broadcaster, natural historian and writer turns 100 today — and we have a lot to thank him for.
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What is everyone talking about this week: Why we need more female treesFor too long, urban planners and landscape designers have favoured male trees for easier maintenance — but it's made hay fever a whole lot worse. Fortunately, a solution exists.
