Author: Rachael Murray, Communications Officer, Eastern England Regional Office (EERO)

I don't know about you but I love this time of year, when the grey skies give way to a more confident blue and I get the growing feeling that spring has settled in, and summer truly could be a possibility! It’s around about now that we welcome well known summer migrants back to our shores, including screaming tangles of soot black swifts…

Author: Rupert Masefield, Communications Officer, Eastern England Regional Office (EERO)

Last month in this column I wrote about the urban dawn chorus I enjoyed one morning as I made my way through the city to work. This month I find myself irresistibly drawn back to the subject of feathered songsters, this time to shed some light on nature’s sopranos, tenors and baritones.

The dawn chorus may sound like a…

Author: Rachael Murray, Communications Officer, Eastern England Regional Office (EERO)

Everyone is taken by a different aspect of nature. Some quest to see as much of it as they can, ticking off myriad species as they go. Others are wedded to particular creatures, developing a strong allegiance in the form of sponsorships, cuddly toys, perhaps even taking a once in a lifetime adventure to spot them. I know people enraptured…

Author: Gemma Wells, RSPB Community Engagement Officer

The song of the skylark has inspired artists for generations. In 1881, English writer George Meredith penned The Lark Ascending, a soaring, lilting poem that imitates the rising flight and continuous trilling of a male skylark’s song.

He rises and begins to round,

He drops the silver chain of sound

Of many links without a break,

In chirrup, whistle, slur…

Author: Lizzie Bruce, Warden, The Lodge nature reserve

On a warm spring evening whilst out on the heath here at The Lodge Nature Reserve you may be lucky enough to hear the strange rasping croak of the natterjack toad.

Today they are Britain’s rarest amphibian but this has not always been the case as highlighted in Janet Browne’s biography of well known English naturalist, Charles Darwin.

‘We had a very…

Author: David White, Visitor Experience Officer, Lakenham Fen

Here in Cambridgeshire and the surrounding Fens we are lucky enough to provide a home to a wide variety of rare nesting birds. Thanks to fantastic conservation work across the county, our reedbeds are famed for their bitterns, marsh harriers and bearded tits; the UK’s fast disappearing turtle dove population continues to hang on thanks to wildlife friendly…

Author: Sarah Osborn

Sunday the 8th May was World Migratory Bird Day, an annual celebration highlighting the beauty and wonder of migratory species, as well as the unique challenges we face in protecting them.

As the old saying goes, ‘one swallow does not make a summer’, however for me, the first sighting of summer migrants in our skies is always exciting. I draw hope from the birds’ regular annual arrival…