• Boosting the budget for wildlife-friendly farming

    Jim Densham, Senior Land Use Policy Officer at RSPB Scotland, blogs about the Scotland Rural Development Programme. 

    Boosting the budget for wildlife-friendly farming


    ‘More money’ is a demand that politicians hear all the time and must get pretty fed up with. But money does matter and some investments have the potential to bear fruit for many years to come. The next Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP) is one…

  • An even better home for nature at RSPB Lochwinnoch

    Jenny Tweedie, RSPB Media & Communications Officer, tells us about a FREE open day to celebrate improvements at our Lochwinnoch reserve. 

    An even better home for nature at RSPB Lochwinnoch

    Photo by Zul Bhatia.

    There’s a bit of a do happening at RSPB Lochwinnoch this weekend. It’s to celebrate the work that’s been happening over the last few years, to make the reserve a better home for nature, and a better place…

  • A guide to being a lapwing

    Senior Land Use Policy Officer, Jim Densham, is asking everyone to imagine being a lapwing.

    A guide to being a lapwing


    Photo by Steve Round (rspb-images.com).

    Imagine you are a lapwing. What do you enjoy as a lapwing? What do you eat, where do you nest, how do you find your food? Here’s the simple guide to being a lapwing. Each spring you look for an open field and you make a nest on the ground, no more than a scrape…

  • Hotspots and Notspots

    Jim Densham, Senior Land Use Policy Officer, is back with a new blog on the SRDP.

    Hotspots and Notspots


    There are management options for a range of species including corn bunting. Photo by Andy Hay (rspb-images.com).

    In my previous blog post I discussed how Open grazed and wet grassland for wildlife is a management option in the Scottish Rural Development Programme (SDRP) which is good for lapwings. There are many…

  • Buzzing with activity

    James Silvey, Species Recovery Officer at RSPB Scotland, tells us about a new bee box design being tested on our reserves.

    Buzzing with activity: New homes for nature going up on reserves

    Mining bee. Photo by Nick Upton (rspb-images.com)

    There are over 250 species of bee native to the UK.

    Apart from the honeybee and 24 species of bumble bee there are over 200 species of solitary bee. The idea that some bees can…

  • £1.3bn for the countryside – how would you spend it?

    Jim Densham, Senior Land Use Policy Officer (Climate) at RSPB Scotland,  is blogging about the Scotland Rural Development Programme and what it means for farmers, wildlife and nature conservation.

    £1.3bn for the countryside – how would you spend it? 


    £1.3 billion - that’s a lot of cash. It’s the amount that the Scottish Government has to spend on Scotland’s rural areas over the next 7 years in its Scotland…