New findings from the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership (MCCIP) highlight how 25 years of annual monitoring, backed by the long-running MarClim project are providing unprecedented insight into the impacts of climate change on the UK’s coastal and intertidal habitats.

Long-term observations of rocky shore species are revealing clear, biological responses to a warming marine climate. Warm-water species are expanding their leading range limits to higher latitudes around the UK coastline, whilst the population abundances of cold-water species are declining in parts of their historic range, and retractions of the trailing range limits being recorded for some species in southwest England.

At the heart of this evidence is the Marine Biodiversity & Climate Change Project (MarClim) programme, one of the UK’s longest-running marine climate change monitoring initiatives. Although continuous annual surveys have been conducted at 100 sites around the UK since 2002, the dataset stretches back to the 1950s, providing an exceptionally rare record of ecological change over more than eight decades.

Some of Wales' most endangered species are "at risk of vanishing" from an area of the country's largest national park, experts have warned.

The National Trust said Nant Ffrancon, a valley in Eryri National Park, was facing "serious ecological decline" with some species in danger of disappearing altogether, including the mountain blackbird and the mountain finch.

Now, a new £1m scheme is aiming to restore and conserve more than 4,000 acres of habitats at Eryri, also known as Snowdonia.

A bird reserve, where a devastating wildfire started, said visitor numbers have fallen by 20% since it reopened.

The fire, which started on 29 July, caused huge damage to Dunwich Heath but is believed to have started at neighbouring RSPB Minsmere.

Minsmere reopened over a week later and figures from the RSPB show over a thousand fewer visitors came to the site between 11-31 August than during the same period the year before.

62% of Britons believe the UK Government should invest more in nature restoration to address future extreme weather, while 74% believe the government is not preparing the country well for such events

Almost two-thirds (62%) of the public want the UK Government to invest more in nature restoration as a way to address future extreme weather events, according to a new opinion poll.

The YouGov polling, commissioned for Rewilding Britain, also shows that 74% of people believe the UK Government is not preparing well for events such as flooding, droughts and heatwaves.

Supporters of a plan to reintroduce beavers to a county say they could help landscapes become more resilient to drought and climate change.

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust and Forestry England are surveying different parts of the county to assess their suitability for a new reintroduction programme.

"Beavers are a keystone species" said Emily Bowen of the Beaver Trust. "They are ecosystem engineers, which means that they can have a massive impact on the landscape around them."

Following widespread public outcry over the revelation that sea eagles in Britain were being poisoned by toxic rat poisons, a Wales-based research group has called on the Senedd’s Environment Committee to push for tighter restrictions on the use of poisons which go on to enter the food chain.

Wildlife Poisoning Research UK (WPRUK) investigates the illegal and secondary poisoning of wild birds and animals in England and Wales.

WPRUK argue that currently anyone can go into a shop or use the internet to buy amateur use poisons with no questions asked, no training required and no need to follow any safety codes. There is also a complete lack of any meaningful investigation scheme when these poisons kill wildlife.

The Wildlife Trusts are leading the largest coordinated recovery effort ever undertaken for the species. The programme unites around 40 partner organisations. It brings together conservation organisations, researchers and environmental agencies. The aim is simple - to reverse the dramatic loss of the UK's only native freshwater crayfish.

Threats to the species include the deterioration of habitat and increased pollution. The spread of invasive non-native American signal crayfish has also destroyed native crayfish populations. The signal crayfish carry and spread crayfish plague, which is fatal to white-claws. White-claws are key river ecosystem engineers, recycling dead matter and improving water quality. They also play an important role in river ecosystems as a food source for otter, heron and eel, while young crayfish provide food for brown trout and salmon.

Dedicated conservation efforts are helping to safeguard populations in Staffordshire and neighbouring areas. However, a coordinated national response is needed to recover their population at scale. This programme is supported by funding from Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme and matched by substantial contributions from project partners. The initiative will scale up nature recovery efforts for the benefit of white-clawed crayfish and river systems alike.

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Full URL - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgrv9wynl5go

A wildlife group has found 43 dead ring-necked parakeets in Priory Gardens

Groups of youths using catapults are "lamping" and killing sleeping parakeets in a south-east London park, an animal rescue worker has warned.

Rae Gellel, director of the Greenwich Wildlife Network, said 43 ring-necked parakeets have been recovered dead from Priory Gardens in Orpington over a three-week period, including five found on Monday.

She said the birds roost together in trees at night, making them easy targets for the culprits who shine bright lights at them to stun them before shooting them with catapults.

Bromley Council said the killing of the birds "continues to be a concern" that it is assisting the police in its investigation.

Warning: This story contains images that readers may find distressing.

Gellel said catapult attacks at the park date back to 2020, with target species ranging from squirrels, pigeons, coots and ducks to the recent wave of parakeet killings.

Rae Gellel, centre, network volunteers have worked to help injured wildlife

Local residents and park visitors have witnessed attacks in broad daylight, according to Gellel, with some attackers filming the incidents and uploading clips to social media platform TikTok.

She added that ammunition such as heavy ball bearings, nuts and bolts are frequently found scattered across the grass, causing deep circular wounds and severe fractures on the animals.

The Greenwich Wildlife Network is calling for stricter regulation on the sale of catapults to under-18s, alongside greater prioritization of wildlife crime by law enforcement.

Reports of birds being targeted go back to 2020

Acknowledging that ring-necked parakeets are an invasive, non-native species subject to different legal controls than native birds, the network emphasized that legal welfare standards still apply.

Gellel said: "Being classed as an invasive or non-native species does not remove an animal's capacity to suffer, nor does it make deliberate cruelty acceptable.

"Where wildlife control is lawful, it is still subject to legal conditions and welfare requirements. A catapult attack leaving a bird grievously wounded is not something that should be brushed aside simply because of the species involved."

BBC London reported on calls for a catapult sales ban in April following attacks on wildlife in the same park.

This bird was found alive but died shortly despite attempts by volunteers to save it

Bromley Council condemned the killings and has confirmed it is assisting police with an ongoing investigation.

"There continues to be concern, which is shared by all, at what appears to be the distressing maiming or killing of birds, including most recently parakeets, which we are aware of, with thanks to the vigilance of local residents and the Friends of Parks group," a council spokesperson said.

United Utilities has been fined nearly £1m after illegally discharging raw sewage along the Lancashire coastline and polluting seaside holiday locations including Blackpool.

The water company pleaded guilty to five environmental permit offences relating to a pollution incident along the Fylde coast in June 2023, and was ordered by Preston magistrates court on Tuesday to pay £964,225 in fines and costs.

Sewage was released from pumping stations at Manchester Square, Anchorsholme and Chatsworth Avenue for more than 35 hours over several days in June 2023, affecting coastal communities in Blackpool, Lytham St Annes, Fleetwood and Cleveleys.

A moth blown across the North Sea has turned up at a nature reserve in the Borders in what is believed to be the first recorded sighting of the species in Scotland.

The white-point moth was discovered during a community survey at St Abb's Head, after being caught overnight in a moth trap in the reserve's Mire Loch reed beds.

The migrant species is normally found in continental Europe, but has been recorded several times in southern England after being carried across the North Sea by strong winds.

New citizen science project will help track how autumn unfolds across the nation’s forests

Forestry England is inviting the public to help create the most detailed picture yet of autumn colour across England with a new nationwide citizen science project launching this year.

Autumn leaf watch, running from September to November, will encourage people to record and share their observations of changing leaves in the nation’s forests using Forestry England’s new online autumn colour tracker. The data will help to build a picture of how autumn colour develops across different regions, habitats and tree species.

We celebrated when the government pledged to ban bee-harming neonicotinoids. But this year, another neonic was authorised for use on sugar beet. The public deserves greater transparency, and we need stronger protection for wildlife. We'll keep fighting for both.

The Wildlife Trusts and many others have campaigned for years to stop the use of an insecticide group – neonicotinoids - which is hugely harmful to wildlife, and bees in particular. Over the course of several years 140,000 of you joined our call to government to ban neonics. Thanks to your perseverance, we were relieved that a ban on their use was finally announced by the government last year.

Today marks this year's Wild Summit – bringing people together to turn ambition for nature's recovery into action. At last year's Wild Summit Mary Creagh, then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said: “Without healthy nature our communities and our economies cannot thrive. Emergency authorisations for pesticides must now fully take into account the risks pesticides pose to pollinators including bees. Every action we take brings us closer to a country where nature thrives in harmony with communities.”

Naturalist Steve Backshall and Lost Gardens of Heligan co-founder Sir Tim Smit have called for more "greenlightenment" to put nature education at the heart of school curriculums.

It comes as the government has been consulting on a new natural history GCSE, which Sir Tim said was a "seismic moment for British education", adding "a deep understanding of the natural world is fundamental to humanity's future".

Backshall, who hosted the Wild Heligan experience to excite young people about wildlife, said: "I see every day how nature revitalises, restores and fills people with joy."

The bioluminescent beams of “fairy folk” are shining again from a nature reserve in North Yorkshire for the first time in a century after the successful reintroduction of endangered glowworms.

Female glowworms were spotted over multiple weeks at Nosterfield nature reserve this summer following a no-frills, almost zero-budget reintroduction of the much-loved invertebrates, which have vanished from the British countryside in recent decades and are notoriously difficult to re-establish.

The reintroduction by volunteer “glow-getters” and the independent ecologist Pete Cooper involved the authorised collecting of a small number of glowworms from a local donor site, breeding them in captivity and rearing hundreds of snail-eating glowworm larvae in a garden shed in Bristol.

‘We have really cool sharks,” says Dr Lucy Hawkes. She is not referring to animals in the rich coastal waters of South Africa or Mexico, but instead talking about the species that live around Britain. Hawkes, an associate professor at the University of Exeter, is co-leading a new three-year project to investigate the lives of three of England’s most vulnerable shark species.

“I like the porbeagle, which looks like a baby great white shark,” she says. “Surfers could see one and absolutely poop their pants, but they’re not dangerous. It’s amazing that we share the water with some pretty exciting animals.”

More sharks swim in British waters than you might expect. From small catsharks and deepwater dogfish to migratory blue sharks and huge filter-feeding basking sharks, there are more than 40 different types in these waters. Yet scientists know surprisingly little about most of them.

A tunnel has been built beneath a new dual carriageway to provide a safe route for bats and other local wildlife.

The 45m-long (148ft) crossing runs under the new 10-mile (16km) A421 road, between Black Cat roundabout, in Chawston on the outskirts of Bedford, and Caxton Gibbet roundabout, in Caxton, near Cambridge.

National Highways said ecological surveys helped it to understand how wildlife used the area, including identifying bat flight paths.

Conservationists have released more than two dozen turtle doves in the South Downs National Park in a bid to help the species, which is on the brink of extinction in the UK, to recover.

The dove, famous for its place in the Twelve Days of Christmas song, is the country's fastest declining bird species according to the RSPB.

In an attempt to boost population numbers, the national park authority released 30 birds in the Selborne area of Hampshire this spring.

Conservationists are celebrating the fledging of eight wild-born red-billed chough chicks in Kent.

The birds were born a year after the first wild chick to fledge since the species was reintroduced to the county in 2023.

Eight captive-reared choughs were released in Dover that year, with the county's population now thought to be 35 and sightings reported in Thanet and Folkestone.

Conservationists are hopeful that two bonding beavers who were released into the wild earlier in 2026 could help to strengthen the population of the creatures.

The beavers, which live on the Holnicote Estate, Exmoor, Somerset, were captured on trail cameras grooming each other.

The semi-aquatic rodents were released in February as part of the National Trust's work to restore rivers, wetlands and floodplains on the 5,000-hectare site.

The increasing chances of more severe storms could put the South's seagrass meadows at risk.

Work to recover the precious habitat at sites such as Studland Bay in Dorset has seen encouraging signs of species, including seahorses, returning.

But potential damage to the seagrass due to shifting weather patterns could put that recovery under threat.

It is difficult to find the most remote place in England. There is no public transport, no roads and no sign of any human habitation. Online route finders mistakenly direct cars up a grassy track. But miles along gravel forest roads in the far north of Northumberland is the largest contiguous rewilding site under single ownership in the country.

The vast glacial bowl of 7,500-acre Emblehope Moor has been bought for £8.5m by Restore, a nature restoration company that works with landowners across Britain.

The aim is to bring golden eagles, curlews, black grouse and beavers back to the moor which in former guises was a traditional grouse shooting and sheep farming estate and a dog-training ground.

A nature reserve tucked away on the Broads and home to some of Norfolk's most threatened wildlife is celebrating 50 years.

Strumpshaw Fen covers 450 hectares (1,112 acres) of diverse wetland — the equivalent of 630 football pitches.

Reserves manager Helen Deavin said the site supported "rare and unusual species", including nesting bitterns, the swallowtail butterfly and a pair of cranes that successfully raised a chick this summer.

Puffin numbers in one of the UK's largest colonies have suffered after a drop in food supplies and extreme weather conditions, conservationists have warned.

NatureScot said the number of burrows occupied by the seabirds on the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth had fallen by 30% in the last two years.

A joint survey also involving the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) suggested violent storms had killed a number of the birds, while rising ocean temperatures had seriously harmed populations of sand eels - their main source of food.

Global biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse pose risks to UK national security, food security and prosperity, according to a government assessment discussed by MPs in Westminster Hall this week.

The assessment, published by Defra in January, examines how degradation and potential collapse of critical ecosystems could affect the UK. It concludes that global ecosystem degradation and collapse threaten UK national security and prosperity, with impacts including disruption to food and water supplies, intensified natural disasters and wider geopolitical instability.

The assessment identifies six globally important ecosystem regions as being critical to UK national security: the Amazon rainforest, Congo Basin, South-east Asian coral reefs and mangroves, the Himalayas and the boreal forests of Russia and Canada. It concludes that all of these ecosystems are on a pathway to collapse if current rates of biodiversity loss continue.

A herd of Exmoor ponies have been helping to improve biodiversity at a nature reserve in the National Park.

Earlier this summer, 800 metres of fencing was installed at Mill Hill Local Nature Reserve, near Shoreham, to create a dedicated grazing area to help restore the special chalk grassland landscape.

Conservation grazing is a slower, gentler approach to land management, using livestock rather than heavy machinery.