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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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'Two months to the Moon, three for rest and refreshment and two more for the return': The English stork success story
Long unseen on British shores, white stork chicks are hatching once again in the UK and a colony is now flourishing in West Sussex thanks to a pioneering restoration project.
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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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From Queen bees to Queen Camilla, how one woman built a multi-million pound beauty empire out of bee venom
Deborah Mitchell's skincare range has generated quite a buzz among celebrities including HRH and Victoria Beckham.
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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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Levison Wood: Trekking the Nile, near-death experiences and why nothing beats a cup of tea and a piece of toast
The adventurer, explorer, writer and film-maker Levison Wood joins James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast.
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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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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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Bruce Hodgson: Artichoke's founder on catflaps, carpentry and the future of crafts
Bruce Hodgson, one of Britain's best furniture makers and carpenters, joins the Country Life Podcast.
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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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The 'greatest battle for 300 years': England's great estates face up to a green future
The climate crisis will affect us all. All over Britain, major landowners are stepping up to tackle a warming world and biodiversity loss.
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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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The truth about P.G. Wodehouse: Robert Daws on playing England's greatest comic writer
The actor Robert Daws starred alongside Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie in Jeeves and Wooster back in the 1990s, and the work of P.G. Wodehouse has been part of his decades-long career ever since. He joined the Country Life Podcast.
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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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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.
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‘This isn't just silver — it's a story of a man who fell in love with a woman who society deemed unworthy': The large silver sculpture of rutting stags that scandalised Victorian society
George Harry Grey, the 7th Earl of Stamford, was shunned when he married a circus performer. This sculpture was his way of showing the world that he was a fighter — and it's now been acquired by the National Trust.
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What it's like to come face-to-face with a great white shark, with Dan Abbott of Netflix's All The Sharks
The wildlife cinematographer Dan Abbott joined James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast.
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The life that thrives among the dead: How wildlife finds a home in the graveyards and churchyards of Britain
Home to a veritable ‘Noah’s Ark of species’, thanks to never being ploughed, sprayed or fertilised, our churchyards offer a sacred haven for flora and fauna, says Laura Parker.
