Every spring a few purple herons turn up in the UK.  These gorgeous birds are summer migrants, returning to wetlands in Europe to nest.  The birds that arrive in the UK are the ones that have been a bit too enthusiastic and overshot their usual destinations.   Their spring arrivals could also be seen as a way of a few individuals pushing the boundaries of the bird’s usual distribution, looking for opportunities to establish…

Strumpshaw Fen RSPB reserve is a magical place in spring.  My colleague, Ian Robinson, who is our Area Officer for the Broads – just sent through this description of a walk around the reserve – enjoy!

Picture this morning’s scene:
5.15am, dead calm, mist hanging over Strumpshaw Broad, sun just coming over the trees, sedge and reed warblers singing away, cuckoos calling, bittern booming; fantastic moody…

The Danube meets the Black Sea in one of the world’s largest deltas (over half a million hectares) and is home to thousands of wetland birds, including Dalmatian pelicans and pygmy cormorants and each year is a vital staging post for tens of thousands of migrating birds of prey, and storks on their way too and from Africa.

Back in November, I told you about the lack of protection that the Romanian government is…

There is a depressing familiarity in the reports coming from the Gulf of Mexico as the slick of oil escaping from fractured pipes on the seabed teases the coast of the Southern states.  Before long it will hit the beaches – but in the days and hours of frantic burning, spraying, scooping and planning that come ahead of landfall there is a feeling that, even now, the worst can be avoided.  Of course the toxic layer…

For months we’ve known that the target to halt the loss of the world’s biodiversity by 2010 wouldn’t be met.  This was confirmed last week in a paper in the journal Science – so now it’s official and the losses will continue unless we start to tackle the problem in a different way.  This is International Year of Biodiversity – it’s lasting legacy should not be a simple recognition that the…

Until recently the only impression cranes have left on the landscape of South West England are their fossilised footprints in the muds of the Severn estuary.  That’s all set to change.

In a pioneering partnership between the RSPB, the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, Pensthorpe Conservation Trust and funders Viridor Credits, eggs of common cranes are currently hatching at Slimbridge (and here’s one of the chicks photographed…

This year’s Goldman Environmental Prize (for Europe) has been awarded to Malgorzata Gorska (pictured with the award). This recognises her enormous role in securing the protection of the Rospuda valley and is richly deserved.

The threat of the Via Baltica (an international road corridor) to several sites in North East Poland put at risk some of Europe’s most important wildlife sites including the Rospuda Valley…

News has just come in of a serious threat to Son Bosc which is an area of very high conservation interest just ouside The Albufera Natural Park in Majorca.  As well as its Park status it is both a Ramsar and Natura 2000 site.

One of Son Bosc’s greatest claims to fame is its population of robust orchids.  I’ve not encountered them, but I’d like to think that they live up to their name, the sort of plant that you could…

As spring’s green succulence at last starts to transform our countryside – one of the great delights at this time of year is to spend time with waders.  The huddled grey flocks of winter are transformed into noisy show-offs.  Lapwings tumble, ecstatically wheeling and wheezing over brown earth while curlew bubble and trill and snipe drop through the air, using the wind to make their tail feathers thrum like…

I’ll be in York at the RSPB’s Members Weekend from tomorrow, and I’ll be giving a talk on Friday afternoon.  If you are going and are a reader of this blog – do come along to the talk or find me during the weekend for a chat.  I hope to be going on one of the trips on Saturday afternoon – and I’ll write something about the special place I end up at next week.

The decision on whether or not to call in the planning applications to expand Lydd airport has been deferred until 11 June 2010.  The airport’s expansion plans and the unique environment of the Dungeness peninsula are attracting wider attention; the Guardian explored the issues in an article by Owen Bowcott.  I spoke to him at length last week and one point I made, that is worth repeating, is that the best way to…

Our world is linked by the tracery of migration highways that vast numbers of birds follow between their breeding areas and their winter quarters.  Some of their journeys are staggering feats of endurance and stamina.  Like links in a chain, the vital stop-over sites are critically important to migrant birds; places where they can feed and build up their resources to complete their journeys.

Here, in the UK, many of our…

The Government Office for the South East (GOSE) has reported that they have been receiving many letters requesting that the applications for the expansion of Lydd Airport are called in for the Secretary of State to determine.

It’s good news that the letters are flowing – and if you are one that’s put pen to paper, thank you, thank you, thank you – your efforts are being noticed and we understand will be individually…

You join us at a tense stage in the long-running campaign to protect the unique and distinctive natural environment of the Dungeness peninsula from the threat of airport expansion.

Welcome to the Saving Special Places blog – do have a rummage through the posts of the last six months.  You will find several stories about our work to ensure that the best and most important wildlife sites in the UK and overseas are…