My opening night
In the drama of the open spaces around her, Emily can play the role of a lifetime. She knows the wildlife of the nature reserve as intimately as Yorick knew Hamlet, and with an audience of birds,…
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Chwilio
Green Sandpiper
The green sandpiper is a very rare breeding bird in the UK, and is mainly seen on migration in autumn. Look out for it feeding around marshes, flooded gravel pits and rivers. It even likes sewage…
Mammal mysteries
Have you spotted any mysterious tracks or unexplained droppings? Solve the case with some tips from Darren Tansley, the Mammal Detective.
Fake News about Nature's Recovery
The Wildlife Trusts are getting a lot of media enquiries wanting evidence of nature returning while everyone has to stay at home during the coronavirus lockdown. While it’s clear that those goats…
Blossoming encounters of spring
There are many fantastic sights and sounds that herald spring: birds singing, insects buzzing about, wildlife migrants arriving. One of the finest of these are trees and shrubs coming in to…
Great mullein
Great mullein is an impressive, tall plant of waste ground, roadside verges and gardens. Its candle-like flower spikes rise from rosettes of furry, silver-green leaves.
My social network
Jen doesn't need her phone to get connected - she can hear the tweeting of birds, see the flicker of sunlight in the reeds and share her interest in wildlife with like-minded people. All…
My soul food
For Dave, the mosslands are not only a place to watch and record birds, but evoke childhood memories of watching wildlife with his father. Only ten miles away from Greater Manchester, he’s always…
Japanese knotweed
Introduced from Japan in the 19th century, Japanese knotweed is now an invasive non-native plant of many riverbanks, waste grounds and roadside verges, where it prevents native species from…
Birdpedia - A Brief Compendium of Avian Lore - reviewed by GWT supporter and member Neville Davies
Well, this book was fascinating from start to finish, and just when I thought I knew pretty much everything about the life of birds, I soon realised I have much to learn, and this 260-page book…
My daytime drama
Carol loves watching the rituals of the birds at Rutland Water, especially at the feeding station that she helps to maintain as a volunteer. She loves to lose herself in her own personal episode…
Corncrake
This secretive bird is a member of the rail family, related to coots and moorhens. The breeding call, a rasping rattle, is given mostly at night, sometimes for hours on end.