• Dusk til Dawn with BBC's Springwatch

    On Wednesday 1st May, the BBC Springwatch crew arrived at RSPB Pulborough Brooks, West Sussex for an extra special visit.

     

    We were in search for nightingales; one of RSPB Pulborough Brooks most famous breeding species, which attracts thousands of people to the reserve during the National Nightingale Festival.

     

    As with any wildlife filming, it’s impossible to guarantee that you will find what you are looking for…

  • Why we love heaths and what we're doing to reverse their decline

    Centuries ago, visitors to our region’s heaths would have encountered open spaces brimming with life and human activity.

    Vast heathland habitat once sprawled across the south east. This common land was the heart of the peasant economy and was alive with people herding livestock, cutting gorse for bread ovens, collecting birch for tools and besom (twig brooms like those associated with witches), gathering bracken…

  • They're known as the Devil's darning needle, the Stinger or the Praying Murmur, but we're sticking with Dragonfly

    Colloquial names apart, the big question is.... Who designed the dragonfly?

    I ask you, what sort of mind could conceive of a cross on a stick that flies, then make the stick-body metallic or furry; colouring it bright red, electric-blue or brown and adding a couple of balls for eyes! It’s the stuff of sci-fi spaceships or flying robots.

    Four spot chaser at Pulborough Brooks (c) Graham Osbourne

    Dragon and damsel flies are mesmerising in their fragile beauty. One of nature…

  • Booming bittern signals success for RSPB Brading Marshes

    Britain’s loudest bird, the bittern, has been heard booming across RSPB Brading Marshes for the first time this spring, and its call is believed to be the first ever record of booming bittern on the Isle of Wight.

     

    The UK bittern population had fallen to just 11 booming males in 1997, but thanks to conservation efforts the population is slowly recovering. Attracting breeding bitterns is widely considered…