65 years of natural colonisation and natural woodland expansion at Monks Wood. Entirely self-sown by Jays, thrushes & wind; zero management: no planting, thinning or fencing. Oak-Ash canopy and Hawthorn-Blackthorn understorey dominate. Roe deer, Muntjac, Grey Squirrels haven't inhibited it.

From sleeping lions to spitting snakes: a year in the life of London zoo vets As the zoo celebrates its 200th birthday, photographer David Levene captures the people keeping their (sometimes very dangerous) patients healthy and happy. Introduction: Patrick Barkham

Another treat from the weekend's Guardian is photographer David Levene's year following the vets at London Zoo. Some superb, eye-opening images and operations here. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

‘How much have we missed?’: book tunes in to overlooked world of female birdsong Authors set out to correct under-representation of female sounds – and found some surprising revelations

In case anyone missed it, female birdsong made it onto page 3 of the weekend's Guardian. I loved learning from Lucy, Jasmine and Mark about such a fascinating subject. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Oh Barbara...😍

This is brilliant and very exciting - thank you for sharing!

Wow, well done on this painstaking work confirming overwinter success of Clouded Yellow. Can we claim this as our 61st resident butterfly species ? @richardfoxbc.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social @patrickbarkham.bsky.social

Not yet - there is some helpful nest info on the live chat by people regularly watching this!

Live from NWT Ranworth Broad YouTube video by Norfolk Wildlife Trust

Watch this! Superb Norfolk Wildlife Trust nestcam showing ospreys nesting at Ranworth. Last summer they were the first osprey to fledge chicks in East Anglia for hundreds of years. There's some fabulous action right now, male eating fish, female asking for some! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bevw...

More than half of Britain’s butterfly species in decline, monitoring scheme shows Warmer weather has benefited some species in Britain, but others that rely on specific plants or habitats have struggled

Really interesting data from an amazing 50 years of the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme 👏 It's a genuinely mixed picture but it doesn't look as catastrophic as various scientific studies from 5 years ago or so suggested... www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Thanks Nick!!!

The wonderful Patrick Barkham @patrickbarkham.bsky.social is running the 2026 London Marathon dressed as a 🦡 in aid of Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s land acquisitions for nature. Please watch his message and consider sponsoring him ☺️

This is all fascinating, thanks Crispin - what you're saying very much fits with various other naturalists I've canvassed. "Blackthorn winter" currently holding up migratory birds. And maybe we will have some fruit again this year too? (I hope!)

Not sure I remember a year when there's been so many Hawthorn berries on the trees as leaf buds are opening!
One with flower buds and a lot of them! Not what I expected after the dry summer and autumn.

This is brilliant - I've seen the finished results but never found them actually building a nest. Great fieldcraft by you to find it and document it.

Love this Alick!

March bluebells just being a routine thing is pretty amazing! Interesting about the snowdrops as well, that's incredibly early. Thank you for sharing.

2/3 Once the outer shell is finished they line the nest with a 1000+ feathers. Imagine the time & effort that task takes.
See how many feathers you spot next time you're out for a long walk - 10/20 if you keep your eyes peeled.
The birds will come again & again for the right type of downy feather.

This is fascinating, thank you for sharing. Are there concerns over phenological mismatches or does this show the Great Tits are adapting to earlier leaf/caterpillar emergence?

Wow, that is early! Hopefully more broods to come from the successful parents...

And at Monks Wood we've got one of the oldest surviving Marsh Tits on record: lived through 6 Prime Ministers, hatched when Obama was in White House. If he survives till Christmas he'll be the oldest on record in Britain: bsky.app/profile/rich...

Oh Richard, this is wonderful - thank you for sharing. I hope he finds a partner and breaks that record!

I’m writing about UK spring for the Guardian. Does anyone have any observations about this year’s spring they would like to share? Early things? Late things? Good/bad/beautiful? This is my spring - a huge mammal perched in the magnolia.

#Swifts will be back in a month so you have that much time to get some boxes up. Read about my experience with these cracking birds below and spread the word.
@patrickbarkham.bsky.social @chrisgpackham.bsky.social @hannahbournetaylor.bsky.social @environment.theguardian.com

Country diary: These ‘mystery’ geese and I have a fond history | Nick Acheson Holkham, Norfolk: They’re noisy and boisterous and should by rights should be breeding in Siberia, not eastern England. But I’m delighted they’re here

Always a pleasure to read @themarshtit.bsky.social in the world's longest-running newspaper column, the Guardian country diary. Especially when he's writing about geese! www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Four wives, two passports and a very elusive butterfly: one woman’s search for her lepidopterist father Rena Effendi’s film Searching for Satyrus began with a quest for the endangered insect that bears her family name. Before long, she was reckoning with secrets, lies and the mysterious life of her wayw...

This is such a beautiful film - a must for butterfly lovers but everyone else as well. Screenings from April 19 - go and see it in a cinema! www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ma...

‘A toad is a perfect tenner’: experts recommend wild candidates for new banknotes Animals will feature on £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes, the Bank of England says, but which creatures should make the cut?

Fox, toad, beaver, swift (ok, we should be representing plants and fungi too but these are damn fine bank notes!) www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Hooray for spring! Apricot blossom and Forsythia. Bluetits and jackdaws with their beaks full of nesting material. Blackbird singing.

‘A real dark situation to be in’: thousands of starving seabirds stranded in biggest ‘wreck’ in a decade Puffins, guillemots, razorbills and terns are washing up on shores across Europe, after a string of storms affected their ability to find food

Story here www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Why are @environment.theguardian.com @patrickbarkham.bsky.social and other environmental correspondents not covering this disaster?

My neighbourhood of old suburban gardens is brilliant for blackbirds. By March, there are usually uncountable duelling males singing their hearts out every evening. This year: almost no song. Is anyone else noticing drastic declines in blackbirds? (I'm wondering about the Usutu virus...)