A coalition of environmental and heritage bodies has launched a billion-pound mission to bring nature into the heart of urban areas in the UK.

The first phase of the Nature Towns and Cities initiative will involve £15.5m being invested in 40 towns and cities across the four nations.

Schemes that will be funded range from the launch of a large regional park to improving micro green spaces on the banks of canals and rivers.

People are being urged to help measure the scale of Britain’s butterfly bounceback after last summer’s dramatic decline with this year’s launch of the world’s biggest insect survey.

The Big Butterfly Count asks volunteers to spend 15 minutes in a local green space counting the butterflies and day-flying moths they see. Results of the survey, which takes place from 18 July to 10 August, can be logged on the Butterfly Conservation charity’s website or via its free app.

Naturalists say it has been an “outstanding” summer for butterflies and other flying insects but the Big Butterfly Count will determine whether it has been better than average or simply a return to normal after the dismal, butterfly-less summer of 2024.

Simply create a wild patch, record its location online and encourage much-needed natural insect prey and nesting materials for native hedgehogs

This July, gardeners, families and individuals are being urged to create wild patches as part of a new campaign to make more spaces with natural insect food and nesting materials for native hedgehogs.

The new ‘Go WILD for Hedgehogs’ campaign from Hedgehog Street – run by wildlife charities People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and The British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) – simply involves leaving a wild, undisturbed patch in a garden and recording its location online. Not only does this create much-needed food and shelter for hedgehogs, but also tells conservationists at PTES and BHPS where hedgehog havens are, and where more are needed.

A pair of peregrine falcon chicks have fledged their nest at a newly constructed box on a water tower.

Cameras at BT's Adastral Park in Martlesham near Ipswich captured an unorthodox take-off by the first to leave, a male bird.

Raptor expert Peter Merchant said the chicks had survived "against the odds" and were the offspring of birds that had been regularly seen fighting.

Their eggs took 44 days to hatch - far longer than the expected 33 days.

Ecologist Sally-Ann Hurry from Mountfield Ecology was commissioned by Tarmac to carry out a bat assessment of a property near Rochester in Kent. The results of this assessment would inform how bats needed to be considered in the proposed maintenance and repair work.

During the building inspection, a small number of bat droppings were found within the roof void. Sally-Ann collected a sample of the most recent droppings and submitted them to Ecotype Genetics for DNA sequencing, which would confirm to which bat species they belonged to.

The results came in and, to everyone’s surprise, they were identified as belonging to the rare grey long-eared bat! To be absolutely certain of this result, the sample was re-tested and the results came back the same. The bat droppings in this Rochester property were definitely from a grey long-eared bat. This species is currently listed as Endangered in the IUCN Red List for British Mammals,

The government is putting pressure on wildlife organisations to drop their opposition to its planning bill, the Guardian has learned.

Some of Britain’s biggest nature charities including the RSPB, Wildlife Trusts and the National Trust say the legislation risks widespread destruction of nature. The charities want a key section of the legislation, part 3, scrapped entirely because they say it is a “licence to kill nature”.

Leading figures from the organisations were summoned by the government to a meeting last Friday where officials put forward nine amendments to the language of the bill, which they say offer greater environmental protections. In return for accepting these, ministers want the nature groups to stop their campaign, the Guardian has established from several sources.

Pine martens have been seen thriving in the New Forest after being absent from the national park for decades.

Once widespread across the UK, pine marten populations were left devastated due to habitat loss and persecution which left only a small amount, mostly in northern England, Scotland, and parts of Wales.

In 2024, a three-year study of the weasel-like species revealed that populations had return to the New Forest after decades and Daily Echo camera club member, Trev Stadd, manged to capture some amazing pine marten pictures in Ashurst near Totton.

Two beaver kits have been born on Northumberland's Wallington Estate. The new arrivals mark the second consecutive year of successful breeding since four Eurasian beavers were reintroduced to the estate in July 2023.

Rangers recently observed signs of lactation in the adult female on wildlife cameras in early June. This week, camera trap footage captured the first sightings of the young kits with their mother.

The news of the two new arrivals come just one year and two days after the first kit to be born in Northumberland in over 400 years was announced last July.

Dartmoor is a place where the wild things are. Rivers thread through open moorland past towering rocky outcrops. Radioactive-coloured lichens cling to 300m-year-old boulders. Bronze age burial mounds and standing stones are reminders that humans have been drawn here for thousands of years. It is considered one of the UK’s most beautiful and precious landscapes.

Much of this moorland is officially protected as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) because it is considered home to the country’s most valued wildlife. Its blanket bogs, heathlands and high altitude oak woodlands are treasure troves of nature.

But the wildlife that once depended on these habitats is vanishing. Dartmoor is known for its diverse birdlife, but breeding populations of golden plover, red grouse and ring ouzel have disappeared, or are on the verge of local extinction.

And Chris Packham's view here.

The River Lugg in Herefordshire has been named as one of the worst waterways for containing hazardous chemicals known as biocides, it has been revealed.

Environmental groups Wildlife and Countryside Link (WCL) and the Rivers Trust examined official water quality data from English rivers for seven key biocides including fungicides, a herbicide and insecticides.

Seven were widespread in rivers, the study found, but the River Lugg, along with the River Teme at Powick in Worcestershire, was among the 12 showing the highest numbers of individual biocides.

It could take thousands of years for a cross-border peatland destroyed by fire to return to ecological health, a conservation group has warned.

The fire on Slieve Beagh raged for three days in May.

The bog is an important site for biodiversity and is home to the endangered hen harrier.

Roy Spence, from the River Blackwater Catchment Trust (RBCT), said it was "a battle" to get the ecosystem back to where it should be.

Ten thousand years in the making and launched today (Monday 14 July), the new Risley, Holcroft and Chat Moss National Nature Reserve will provide a destination for the people of Warrington and Greater Manchester to access nature-rich landscapes.

The newest addition under the King’s Series, this network of 11 sites from lowland raised bogs and fen, through to lowland heath, wet woodland and drier woodland habitats will be restored to provide homes for rare species, such as lapwings, curlew, sundew and adders.

After being at the centre of the industrial revolution, this area is becoming a leading example of nature recovery, through the restoration of some of our most important and precious habitats.

Almost 300 Olympic-sized swimming pools of inert materials will be bought in to turn an old quarry in Surrey into a nature conservation - although it could take at least 14 years to complete. Surrey County Council officers granted utility company Suez planning permission to restore the site in Capel near Dorking in June.

It will bring an end to the industrialisation of the land that has stretched back almost 80 years after originally being given the right to dig up the site in 1947, predating the modern planning system.

The first decade of the project will see huge swathes of the site refilled before a potential two-year pause to allow habitats to establish. This would be followed by another two years work ensuring water can drain freely from the restored land. The company described it as an “exciting project” that “will breathe new life into the worked-out clay quarry, transforming it into a beautiful landscape rich in biodiversity – with special benefits for protected species like the great crested newt.”

Ladybirds are among the cutest creepy crawlies: you find handbags in the shape of them, and some people think they bring you luck if you wish on one.

But even the loveliest things can get a bit much, and you might have noticed there being rather a lot of the cute red bugs around this year.

Either we’re all about to see something extremely fortune happen (Keir Starmer would be happy about this), or there’s something else going on.

A precious stone set in a silver sea. The British have long considered their isles a sort of Eden and seabirds would certainly concur: with 19,491 miles of coastline and fish-rich seas to plunder, our avian neighbours unsurprisingly find the place an absolute des res.

For statistical starters, 80% of the world’s Manx shearwater breed here, 60% of great skua and 34% of European shag. It’s not only the quantity of our coastline that draws them in, it’s the quality: the wave-girded inaccessible islets and the towering sea cliffs with ledges that provide near impregnable nesting refuges for seabirds. Skomer was once the haunt of men — Vikings — now, it is the home of Manx shearwaters and puffins.

That question, of course, is: what is a seabird? Peregrines and choughs live on cliffs, but they are not seabirds. A true example is an avian that relies on the ocean to survive and whose body has evolved for the marine world, often developing what amounts to superpowers in the process.

Multi-million pound funding secured to put community at the heart of new town conservation initiative

A five-year wildlife restoration project that will see thousands of trees planted and tens of thousands of wildflowers sown across Cumbernauld has been given the green light, with almost £3million of funding announced.

Nurturing Natural Connections will be delivered through the Cumbernauld Living Landscape initiative, a partnership led by the Scottish Wildlife Trust, and builds upon the success of the programme’s previous project, Creating Natural Connections.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund has now confirmed £2.6million support for the project.

The UK is breaking heat and rainfall records increasingly frequently as its climate continues to warm, the Met Office has warned.

The country's changing weather patterns mean the UK now experiences a "notably different" climate to what it was just a few decades ago, its State of the UK Climate report says.

We now have many more very hot days and many fewer extremely cold nights, according to this latest assessment.

Osprey has bred successfully in Norfolk for the first time in more than 250 years.

Nestlings were first seen on 20 June at Ranworth Broad near Wroxham, where a pair of Ospreys had returned for the third year in a row. Norfolk Wildlife Trust (NWT), which manages the site, confirmed that at least two chicks have been seen in the nest.

Teala Leeder, senior visitor centre manager, said: "Getting my first glimpse of the chicks and confirming our greatest hope was just incredible. It also gives visitors the chance to catch a glimpse of these impressive birds of prey and their young."

A countryside charity has said it wants to create a "pollinator paradise" for bees, butterflies and other insects as part of a project to transform overgrown land at a Surrey farm.

The Countryside Regeneration Trust (CRT) said it wanted to use Pierrepont Farm, in Frensham, as a site to grow wildflowers and build insect nesting areas.

The project is aiming to protect pollinators in the local ecosystem, with many species in decline nationally.

The health of rivers across south-east England is under growing threat as hot and dry weather has caused water levels to plummet and pollution to spike, according to the Angling Trust.

The charity warns that the UK's hottest spring on record coupled with pollution has pushed some rivers -including the River Medway in Kent and River Wandle in Surrey - to the brink.

Conservationists say low flows and concentrated pollutants such as ammonia and nitrates - that come from the likes of farming and sewage - have caused fish to die.

Watch: Red kite glides over fields in drone video

A videographer has used a drone to capture footage of a red kite in mid-flight over the Norfolk countryside.

Paul Jones said he first became interested in the birds five years ago and had been trying to get the perfect shot ever since.

"This is hands down the best thing I've ever filmed," he said.

Mr Jones, 41, from King's Lynn, first started flying drones nine years ago and said he always filmed from a safe distance and did not disturb the birds.

Two baby beavers have been born in Cornwall as part of a wildlife reintroduction project.

The parent beavers, Twiggy and Byrti, were introduced to a purpose-built enclosure on the Lost Gardens of Heligan estate in 2023 and 2024 respectively.

It was part of a national programme of reintroducing the species more than 400 years after their extinction in Britain, said The Lost Gardens of Heligan.

In 2022, Butterfly Conservation reported that numbers had dropped by 80%, external since the 1970s.

David Finkle, chief executive of Markshall, in Coggeshall, said: "This year we have seen a butterfly bomb... It's almost like a cannon of butterflies has exploded, and they're absolutely everywhere."

Of the 59 butterfly species present in the UK, the charity has spotted 28 on its 2,200 acres so far this year.

Temperatures are set to reach highs of 34C on Friday and possibly Saturday with the sweltering temperatures continuing into early next week.

Dr Kevin Collins, a senior lecturer of environment and systems at the Milton Keynes-based Open University, said wildlife felt "stressed by heat that changed their behaviour on a daily basis - they need to seek shade.. and better access to water and food.

"Birds, in really hot weather, will fly less, which means they're not accessing food, not hydrating properly, which weakens them and causes disease and mortality."