Plumage is incredibly important for birds. It’s not just about the effectiveness of feathers to keep them warm and dry; it’s also about attracting partners, fitting in (camouflage) or standing out.

A peacock strutting its stuff is little different to the teddy boys, the Mods, rockers, punks and new romantics. It’s all image and attitude. Two fashion designers who not only feed this need but also set…

I’ve often said I see more wildlife in London than I ever did growing-up in the wilds of Herefordshire. And while I miss the culture, bustle and energy of the city when I return to the land of my childhood, I also embrace the rejuvenating landscape of those Welsh borders.

This urban/rural contrast is the theme for today’s showcase of two of the UK’s biggest names in fashion to have contributed to our …

In the birdworld, New Guinea's bowerbird wins the medal for artful nest-making:

Here in the UK, the medal winners of the fashion world are giving nature's nestmakers a run for their money with one-off masterpieces to raise money giving nature a home in the UK.

To celebrate National nestbox week and London Fashion Week, the UK's top designers have created some amazing nestboxes reflecting their unique styles…

Piers Atkinson is an artist, illustrator, milliner, costume designer, party organiser, fashion editor and DJ with an "insatiable curiosity". Piers’s creations regularly appear in the pages of Vogue, Italian Vogue, V Magazine, Tatler and the London broadsheets and now you can own one of his fantastic original creations and help fund conservation work in the UK by bidding in our #NestboxAuction run in partnership…

The auction is OPEN!

I am just SO excited. The waiting is over. The auction is open for the most creative, most fun nestboxes I have ever seen.

What’s that? Fun, creative nestboxes? But don’t birds usually prefer muted colours that fit in with their natural habitat rather than choose a home that says ‘look at me, I’m different – and quite possibly a tad risque but awfully covetable ... BUY ME and GIVE NATURE…

Two thirds of London is made up not of buildings and roads, but green spaces.

There are the big parks, heaths, marshes and commons, but a lot is private gardens, allotments, squares, and of course the rail, road and waterway embankments. Despite a desperate need for housing and supportive infrastructure, support for, and protection of, these valuable green spaces remains a priority.

Green space is vital for our physical…

Nature is a marvellous thing. We wouldn’t exist without it, which is why we should make sure it’s working properly.

Our Big Garden Birdwatch at the end of this month is one way to keep an eye on nature’s health. Those inclined to cynicism may well point to the flooded fields, homes and businesses and shout: “Nature’s sick, what more proof do you want”?

Any Doctor will tell you there…

It's traditional to reflect over the year as December limps towards its conclusion,, and who am I to defy tradition?

January started with a focus on farming and it remained one of 2013's big themes. The others being aviation and wildflowers.

The thread that ran ... and continues to run ... throughout is the scary decline of our wildlife. Nature is vanishing and if Dr Who existed, he'd be alarmed for all humanity…

The Thames is haunted.

An evil spectre has hung over its powerful currents for the past six decades, and now it's time to exorcise the river to let it fulfil its promise.

Sir Howard Davies was tasked by the Government with sifting through some four dozen proposals on the future of aviation in the south east, and he's now delivered a gift wrapped chalice for ministers to sup from over Christmas. Of all the plans…

Just like King Canute, we cannot hold back the tide. Especially when the tide was bigger in some places than the worst on record.

Eastern England was lashed by the sea. "I ain't seen the like since '53," muttered old salts dressed in oilskins standing on the shingle by the shoreline in my imagination. There was nothing imaginary about the destructive power of the storms. Thousands of pounds worth of property…

Say Mexico and the mind conjures up spaghetti westerns, sombreros and tequila. In my case, it also brings fond memories of my first ever car, a bright orange Ford Escort Mexico; a rather battered and rusty carriage, but my first opportunity to really explore worlds previously beyond reach from my isolated rural family home.

So my surprising fact of the day is that CEMEX, the company supplying most of the concrete and many…

Comfort food is what’s required as the temperatures drop and the days shorten. My body craves warm, saucy foods or soups with root veg’ rather than flame-seared barbecue bites and salad.

Most of my food comes from local stores. The little supermarkets that stay open late into the night every day of the week. They have colourful, raked displays of fruit & veg piled-high outside. Inside they’re like an Aladdin…

Six bodies lie in the gloom in a darkened one-way mews behind a busy north London street .

This sort of gruesome find is usually the opening scene of a brutal murder mystery that only a maverick detective can solve. There is no maverick detective. There are six bodies.

This dark mews is typical of the narrow lanes behind High Street shops and flats. It's all steel security grills and garage doors. Air conditioning…

One of my earliest memories is of sucking-in mouthfuls of cold, crystal clear, fresh water as it bubbled from a natural spring in the stony bank of the country lane near where we lived. On a hot day no drink has ever tasted so sweet and refreshing.

A second happy memory is of the summer after O-Levels, camping in a field alongside the River Wye with various friends. No responsibilities, endless freedom, good company and the…

The biggest threat to our UK wildlife is mostly believed to be climate change, but of equal danger is a growing disconnect from nature.

The RSPB is aware of the issues and is fighting multiple battles. We're challenging bad development, trying to make coping with climate change easier, attempting to fill gaps in environmental delivery and protection where budgets have been cut and we're inspiring people to get…

The summer sun is fading as the year grows old. And darker days are drawing near... Yes it's War of the Worlds time as we slip away from the summer sun, and the climate turns colder. This is just a seasonal thing, but imagine if it was part of trend. Global experts say we're already overdrawn at the climate bank and other experts say they've calculated our worlds end.

No doubt the experts will continue to debate…

Poor old Father Thames. His beard is full of  stained scraps of tissue paper and other unmentionable solids.

The Thames is a national treasure. A symbol of patriotic majesty and pride. That's the perception we'd all like to think was true. In reality, it's an open sewer, increasingly channeled by new housing and expanding infrastructure. A river can only take so much before it is compromised beyond repair. It…

It's my birthday and it recently struck me as odd that we celebrate our birthdays in a rather selfish way. Why do I get the cards, friendly messages and yes, still some presents? Why isn't my Mum getting all this attention as the person who worked hardest this day all those years ago? Thanks Mum.

We do often make the mistake of ignoring the person, things or actions that gave birth to the events we celebrate…

When I came home from my Big Wild Sleepout expedition, I found there was something missing.

I felt it intuitively as I approached the front door. Something in the street felt wrong. It wasn’t anything I saw, just the reverse, it was something I didn’t see. Something I didn’t hear.

It took me at least 24 hours to realise that the hole in my life was the absence of swifts. They’d departed for Africa…

London is officially the greenest Capital in Europe, with 40% of its area being public green space .. in fact worldwide, only Singapore (47%) and Sydney (46%) beat it.

But there's space for more trees, grass, hedges and wildflowers as well as more homes. We can build living walls and roofs. One architect recently unveiled plans for a hi-rise garden in the soon to be completed Walkie Talkie tower on Fenchurch Street…

Staff at our Rainham Marsh nature reserve know when it's Wimbledon, even if they've stayed away from any newspapers, radio, TV, Magazines or the internet, because they suddenly get a rise in the number of tennis balls washing up along the Thames foreshore down the one side of the reserve.

It's not Serena William's whacking balls from Wimbledon into the river, it is more likely to be inspired fans dusting…

It seems you can hardly turn on a radio or listen to some popular beat combo performing live without the unique sound of a banjo or ukelele insinuating itself into your mind and causing your fingers to twitch and shoulders sway.

Now. Thanks to Flatfoot Johnny of south London, you too can get to grips with a four string and save Asia's vultures from extinction. They're currently vanishing faster than the dodo ever did…

There was a time when I'd mumble "I work for the RSPB", in that awkward moment after someone's asked, "what do you do...?"

I was self consciously worried I'd be labelled a bird nerd and immediately deemed boring, as that's the common conception, or should I say, mis-conception.

These days, I gush out that I work for the most fantastic conservation charity in Europe. We give freedom…

A recent and challenging article by food writer Jay Rayner says buying global is better for the environment and after reading his evidence, the man once famous for waxing off his body hair, has a point.

But, let's remember he's a food writer and this article, promoting his new book, is a narrow view of a complex world.

Our recent State of Nature report clearly shows nature's in trouble and you can watch none…