FIRECREST TOURS : Guided Birdwatching & Wildlife Days

A second consecutive wet, cool and unsettled summer across Britain has wiped out large populations of bees, moths and butterflies, according to a new National Trust report. Common Blue Butterflies (Earthweek) - Butterflies have been very scarce across the United Kingdom this year, according to a National Trust report. It warns that the drop in the number of winged insects could cause birds and bats go to hungry for the remainder of this year. “Insect populations have been really very low. Then when they have got going, they’ve been hit by a spell of cool, windy weather... so our environment is just not bouncing with butterflies or anything else,”said Matthew Oates, a National Trust naturalist who worked on the report. It says that the dearth of airborne insects could cause martins, swifts, swallows and warblers to struggle to survive in the coming months. A delayed spring that started with the coldest March in 50 years across the U.K. caused frogs and toads to struggl...

Skylark by   Andy Hay Cuts to the environment budget announced today prove the need for a radical rethink on how we protect our threatened wildlife. That's the message from the RSPB following today's announcement that Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), alongside several other Government departments, is set to be hit with a 10 per cent cut.  Added to the cuts that have already been announced, this leaves Defra's budget at almost half where it was in 2010 in real terms. Today's cut is likely to fall disproportionately on conservation as spending on flooding issues and the badger cull is likely to be protected. The news comes a month after the groundbreaking State of Nature report was launched by Sir David Attenborough and 25 leading conservation organisations which revealed that our wildlife is in serious trouble with 60 per cent of UK species in decline. 'We need a radical rethink of how we can protect our plants, anima...